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Poorman's Gate


martinarcher

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Im heading to Shasta Lake this weekend and wish I had more time to play around in the shop. I have 1/4" aluminum laying around I can cut...may just rig up something to mount to the platform and see what happens (if by some miracle I get some free time this week). Im just sad that:

WinterIsComing-tn1-289x289-custom.jpg and I've not much time left to play.

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It was just a matter of time...Seams like Malibu will always be a trend setter, 622578_492585914103242_1592377744_o.jpg

Thanks for the reminder. I just put teak oil on tonight. Had to go wipe it off. Want to borrow some ;)

How'd you attach the wood in that pic?

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I kinda like leaning the boat, filling the tanks, and have everyone get real Cozy on one side of the boat, It builds up Comradery, Not so big on Surfgate,Yet I will have to demo it first, i love my VLX and My Payment..LOL

Edited by Wakesetter67
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Oh, didn't look that close, just trying to figure out attachments :lol: And that strap doesn't look like it'll hold up to the pressure.

I'm already drawing stuff and will take some measurements in the morning before work and see if I can't throw something together last minute to play with this weekend.

  • Like 1
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OK, so this thing has me intertested in making one this off season and here is my idea. The swim platform i have on my boat now I made and made it 2" wider on both sides and 2" wider off the boat. I have been looking at my boat and realize I need to take off the 2" extra that I added when I built my platform, but I am going to build a new one anyways. So my idea. I want to use some plywood, some shelf brackets and some pins to hold the surf gate in place. My goal is to build a plate with brackets so it will be usable on both sides, you just pull the pins that go thru the swim platform and put it in storage in your boat when not in use. The gate would look like a shelf on a wall but have the brackets in the middle of the shelf back to back exactly as far apart as the platform is thick. You just slide it on your platform put in the front pin and the rear pin could have a couple differt adjustment holes to find the best angle. In the platform I would put some metal insert sleaves, then the pin would go thru one bracket, thru the platform with the sleave in it and thru the bracket on the underside of the platform. The front bracket would be alot littler than the back bracket because the front of the surf gate would almost be touching the platform near the boat. Do you think this would work. I think it would and it would be very simple to make, adjust, move from side to side and take off to store when not in use.

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martinarcher

Sounds like the idea certainly could work. I like the simplicity of it. I would just be sure not to make your get out of plywood unless it is just a prototype like mine. Wood simply won't hold up to the marine environment for the long run without being sealed or coated in fiberglass.

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It would be coated in Rhino liner for sure. My swim platform has the cheaper dupli color truck bed liner and it has held up ok for 3 years but is starting to wear on the edges. I wanted to make another platform because I did an under frame on the old one and it is starting to fall apart. My new platform will be two peices of 1" plywood, with only the cut outs for grabbing it, glued and screwed togather for a heavy solid platform.

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Well I tried my own surf gate tonight and after a little tweeking all I can say is "this thing is awesome" I tried to make it so it would work on both sides of the boat but quickly figured it would not work. I used a 2 x 12 and had to cut a notch in it to get closer to the bottom of the boat where the fiberglass dips in. At first there was a lot of spray coming onto the sun pad but then I added a 2 x 6 at an angle on the top of my surf gate and it deflected the water very nice. When weighted my back rub rail is touching the water when under way so my next version will come up straight alot taller. I screwed my surf gate right to my platform because I plan to build a new one this winter.

P8302108.jpgP8302106.jpgP8302080.jpg

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When under way the wake looked awesome. Not as big as loaded up sacs all on one side but the wave was another 3 feet longer. This pic in 2 people in boat 750 on surf side, 500 none surf side, and 400 in the ski locker.P8302101.jpgP8302104.jpgP8302105.jpgP8302081.jpg

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martinarcher

Nice work! I was thinking about a little deflector for the top of mine today. I think this weekend I'm going to cut mine down and settle the debate on if the gate has to be tall enough to be visible at the top of the gate while underway to get the most out of the gate. I'm going to try to get mine about even with the top of the platform. If that works well it's time to order hinges and actuators. :) The bad new is I think the teak deck mounts are going to have to move in so I can mount an actuator. More gel coat work coming my way. :lol:

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First pic is 400 in both rear lockers and 400 in ski locker.

Second pic is 750 surf side 500 non surf side and 400 ski locker.

Third pic is an older one with out surf gate. For reference and rope is the same in all pics and I could almost go all the way to the end of the rope with the surfgate. Without surfgate I always had a 4 foot loop I held in my hand and could only go the end of that.

P8302074.jpgP8302084.jpgP9110266.jpg

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Neat idea with the rhino liner.

For the rest of your fabbing your own surfgates....10$ Walmart plastic white cutting boards for countertop use in the kitchen bare a striking resemblance to the surfgates...may need to trim them some with a fine tooth jigsaw or rotary tool.

Edited by nyryan2001
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So I did get to try a giant gate the other night. Honestly I had mixed results and I wish I could have spent more time trying it. I think we needed to play around with the weight distribution and speed more, because the same setup with a bigger gate didn't automatically produce better results on our boat. At first the wave felt bigger and stronger, but at the end we switched back and my buddy said he couldn't tell much difference. We had minimal people this time too, and I think were too heavy in the rear because even the normal gate wave we were used to seemed more washed out (softer) with more spray. MA -- let us know how cutting yours down works for you- and I'd encourage you to surf behind it as is, then swap and surf some more and see how it feels right after. Maybe you'll get different results.

1) I would like to change my previous answer about turning. I simply could not turn the boat with any speed when the BIG gate was deployed on the opposite side. Now I know what MA was talking about with his. It's a little difficult with the regular size gate (when open, since mine is manual open-close not automated with actuators), but with a big gate it was ridiculous.

2) My opinion after a real quick trial, a big gate that diverts more water could be better but you still have to play with weight and speed more to know for sure. I personally don't think you'll ever see a 30% improvement or anything crazy. I think it'd be more like 10-15% better at most... which could still be a lot but like I said it also made our boat handle a lot different. I think weighting your boat properly with whatever you have is the best fix anyway.

I've put about 12 hours or more with our standard sized gates. I think I'm sticking with them for now, especially for the drivability. If someone comes up with a better shape or solution --- I'll say thanks and swap gates! Curious to see what's in store in the coming years :)

Edited by rugger
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About bigger gates, I'm thinking it may not improve the wake at all...

Last day while staring at the surf wake on my X2 with the gate, It really looks like the surfwake roll "over" the delayed wake, but if that delayed wake is pushed even further back by a bigger gate, I wonder if the surfwake would acutally be smaller in height...I mean it's like the surfwake is adding with the delayed wake to have the final height of the wake...

Am I clear or my english doesn't make any sense to you ?! :-D

  • Like 1
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I don't think folks are advocating making the gates longer.....just taller so you can full sac out the boat and the gates not be so far sunk under that wayter spray over the top ruins it.

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Throw away the 2X4's and bite the bullet. Pick your size below, replace the metal tabs with HDPE, get a set of switches on the same page or order Carling type switches and be done with it. :biggrin:

http://www.wholesale... Trim Tabs.html

Ok, so I'm not the only one thinking most of the work has been done. Thinking of taking the trim tabs, and adding a surface on to it for the gate.

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I'm a baller on a budget. Whatever I come up with on my research in going to be less than $100 for sure. My method will eventually work but I have to find a solution that is going to work for me. All of you seem to have a opinion on how this should be done, so do it and post some pics. To me Malibu hasn't done enough research on this and put it on there boats to get them pushed out the door to be on the track of releasing something big like the G23, new Xstar, and even the Mojo. To be a little more fair to Malibu they are limited to what they can make for insurance and saftey reasons. I think Malibu needed to have it smaller for saftey and for convinience, because who would want to have 2 big sides on there platform getting in the way of swimming etc.... Me, I'm not worried about that because they will be removable. I am usually function over form but nothing I have or do looks like Sh!t. My removable surfgates will work in the end but who knows maybe I will splurge and get some trim tab style surfgate deal on my boat. Probly not though. And I will be checking out every homemade surf gate on a number of forums and if I see something else that works better than what I have I will be changing my ideas. It's going to be a long winter.

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