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Is it possible to drive your boat too hard?


Malibusteve

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07 VTX here with 320 LCR

normal utilization is as follows:

15% of hours 15-25mph cruising with my family of four

5% pulling my 3 year old on the tube (I know I'll catch some heat for the tube, but if you could just see the smile on her face)

30% wakeboarding with wedge, all ballasts full, crossing double up wakes and all that stuff

35% wakesurfing with wedge, port and center ballasts full +400lb. fat sac

10% idle speed daydreaming about living in one of the many waterfront mansions on my lake

4.5% idling while the tanks fill/drain

.5% wide open with an occasional power turn to show my buddies why my boat payment is so much more than their i/o pmt.

I'd be interested in how everyone else's utilization compares to mine, but the real purpose of the thread is this........

is the .5% wide open with an occasional power turn a problem?

I know that some will say that the boat was designed for that and that it can stand up to that kind of stress and I agree to an extent, but the reality is that the boat was designed to pull a rider at a constant speed with a good wake. Thoughts?

SO! How many of you guys let go and do the occasional power slide?.....wide open power slide?....other hard driving?

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I always run wide open at the end of the day for about 5 to 10 mins. raises oil temp enough to cook unburnt fuel out of oil , blow out carbon, ect.

If a chevy engine blows up at 5600 or 5800 , it would blow up a little later at 3400.

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I doubt the problem will be engine RPMs. The ECM rev limiter should eliminate that problem.

What might be it's demise is the engine/trans/v-drive/prop shaft alignment causing some kind of problem. It depends on how quick & brutal your power turns are as to how much it knocks things out of alignment.

We do Around the Boats behind mine pretty frequently. When learning to ski/drive them or teaching others how to ski/drive the trick, they can be pretty ugly, especially if you come to the point where your running over your own rope. But once you have them down, they go pretty smoothly...... as long as everything & everyone is secured inside the boat.

I've only had this boat for a few months & it hasn't really seen many ATBs yet. But my last boat saw hundreds, maybe thousands of them over the course of like 7 yrs. I checked the shaft alignment a number of times to be sure things were OK & never had a problem.

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I doubt the problem will be engine RPMs. The ECM rev limiter should eliminate that problem.

What might be it's demise is the engine/trans/v-drive/prop shaft alignment causing some kind of problem. It depends on how quick & brutal your power turns are as to how much it knocks things out of alignment.

We do Around the Boats behind mine pretty frequently. When learning to ski/drive them or teaching others how to ski/drive the trick, they can be pretty ugly, especially if you come to the point where your running over your own rope. But once you have them down, they go pretty smoothly...... as long as everything & everyone is secured inside the boat.

I've only had this boat for a few months & it hasn't really seen many ATBs yet. But my last boat saw hundreds, maybe thousands of them over the course of like 7 yrs. I checked the shaft alignment a number of times to be sure things were OK & never had a problem.

How do you check alignment? I did a power turn yesterday at wot....all seemed to go well, but after I got home I started thinking about how hard that might be on the running gear. That's what prompted me to start this thread

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I've done a power turn once but not at WOT, I just wanted to see what it could do. I wouldn't want to do it as a standard practice after hearing how hard the drive train was howling, but it pulled out of the turn and on plain really quick and smooth Thumbup.gif

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How would it knock the DS out of alignment? It probably isn't great for the boat, side stresses loosening things over time.. probably not just the drive train..

But I can't see what it'd hurt doing it every now and then.

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Running it wide-open is fine- not going to hurt a thing on a small-block chevy at 5500 RPM. Heck, my old 265 carbie only turns 4600, and that's with a 11.5 pitch prop on it. 4600 is just starting to get wound up for a SBC.

As for power turns, just be careful how you do them in such a big boat. If you were talking about a Sporty or a Closed-bow Response- spin away! Since we're talking about a v-drive wakeboard monster, you need to respect your rudder, and I'll tell you a little story of why... When we got our SSLX, I was 18 and my brother was 15. We were enamored with this newfound move called the "POWER TURN". Well, we broke a rudder. Our dealer fixed the rudder (actually, they were busy and he gave me the parts and tools to swap it out, along with a little help) then the owner came by and gave me some guidelines for doing power turns in a "Bigger Boat". He never asked if I was doing them, never threatened to deny warranty for abuse, just implied that he knew what was up and gave a little guidance: 1) don't turn so hard that the rudder comes out of the water, 2) don't straighten the rudder until the boat stops rotating, and 3) don't go back to power while the rudder is cranked hard-over. All three suggestions had to do with shock-loading the flat side of the rudder, which makes sense.

"power" turns are still done in our boat, but there's more "turn" and less "power". From full-throttle, as I turn in, I start to roll the throttle back. Crank it hard-over, everyone in the boat squeals. As the boat settles down after having done an about-face, I'm cranking the rudder back to straight, and rolling the power back on, while the person who is seated in the back seat on the starboard side is screaming something about getting all wet... Whistling.gifWhistling.gif perfect.

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How do you check alignment? I did a power turn yesterday at wot....all seemed to go well, but after I got home I started thinking about how hard that might be on the running gear. That's what prompted me to start this thread

There is a coupler at the top of the prop shaft where it bolts to the shaft on the transmission. It's done with a feeler gauge & adjusted at the motor/tranny mounts.

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They are called "bat turns", my boat will never see these just a waste of gas. Indmar recommends running our engines at WOT for 15 to blow out carbon build-up due to the low temps these engines run at.

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I would be more worried about the extended idling than by the WOT runs. Low cylinder pressures at idle causes the rings not to seal well which increases blow-by which contaminates the oil.

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Power turns are hardest on the strut. They're really not too hard on the rest of the boat. I wouldn't worry about the occasional power-turn.

Power turns are also hard on the passengers that do not have a good grip. I've seen pictures of missing teeth and read of passengers actually thrown from the boat. If you want a machine for power turns get a jet ski. Fingerwag.gif

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Power turns suck. We get the occasional jack@ss that decides to powerturn where everyone is wakeboarding, skiing etc. Those waves that they create just seem to be stationary ... they don't dissipate. And then they don't just do one. They do them over and over again. argh!

The only time I ever do one is if there is another boat that looks like it is heading straight for my down rider, and I need to get back there ASAP. Any other time it's slow and easy turns.

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As someone said earlier, make sure all of your gear is secured. Stuff slidding around in the trunk then coming to an abrupt stop along side of the outside wall of the trunk can cause spider cracks to appear on the outside gel. Yes, I know the hard way...

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I am always good for at least one power turn with a new boat rider that doesnt understand why I invested so much money into a boat. But I do have to agree with EZSnow in the way that I do them. Although last year after I did one I noticed a bunch of pieces of teak wood were floating away from the back of my boat! Whistling.gif

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Power turns are never ok. That is all.

Really, I remember two Crewmembers whom did synchronized bat turns… Whistling.gif

Thanks, Justin. Saved me from calling BS on that one.

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I've done some, but fortunately, I've grown up and realized that 20 seconds of fun/rush isn't worth the possibility of destroying a $20K+ investment of on-going fun. Of course, it also helped my decision to discontinue them when I saw a '94 Brendella (exactly like one of my previous boats at the time) sitting upside-down in Folsom Lake. I found out later that the guy was doing a power slide when things went wrong. "Here Endeth the Lesson".

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Do any of you have a link to a video of a bat / power turn? This is my 3rd boat, but I don't have any idea what you guys are talking about.

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Heres a shot of a double Around the Boat....... which is just a hair more in control than a full on Bat Turn. But notice the path the boat has taken, the sharp turn at probably 25 mph.

A Bat Turn is typically done at that speed or more, and sharper. Those old Prostars used to practically jump out of the water, turn on a dime, damn near swamp the rear, then jump out of the hole going the opposite way.

Notice the old Targa bar too...... sorry different thread.

post-821-1213827533_thumb.jpg

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Gernby, should you try it, I take no responsibility for your actions. . .

Reasonable speed, begin turning right, chop throttle to idle indent while spinning wheel full right.

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Thanks for the pics and videos. I'm not planning to try it, but I just don't see how I could do a turn like that in my Sunsetter. The steering ratio without power steering is pretty slow.

That submarine was just awesome!

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