Porpoising

[dadboarder]

I have a 2003 VLX when fully loaded with ballasts and manual wedge down and extra 500 in the front I still get some serious porpoising. Will changing the prop help? This is my third wedge. So it hasn't been banged up but I wonder if there is something I did wrong in installation.

[SmoothWaterMan]

At what speed does it porpoise?

[dadboarder]

At what speed does it porpoise?

[Killer]

and they wonder why wakeboarders have such a bad reputation?

[99response]

Wedge installed backwards?

[dadboarder]

I never put one on backwards yet. And I was a water skiier way before I wakeboarded. We are riding around 22/23 mph.

[SacRiverRat]

Does it porpoise with the wedge up? How about with the bow weight out? I've never heard of this happening, just trying to figure out what might be causing it

[jetskipro550]

I regularly ride the same boat and even with 1500lbs in the rear, 500 mid-ship, and 0 up front it doesn't porpoise at wakeboarding speeds. Something is not right!

[bretski75]

What is porpoise? Like cavitate??

[Bill_AirJunky]

Where the bow goes up & down a lot. MC used to have a big problem with mid/late 90s Maristars doing this a lot. I never saw any official word from the company. But I had a buddy with a 96 that they reshaped the hull & added a lip to the transom to force the bow down..... under warranty. There have been a few guys on WW fix it by adding a trim tab too.

Never heard of the problem on any Malibu though. Definitely play with the weight & Wedge settings & see what you can figure out with it. Maybe some pics &/or video too.

[wakeboard_omega]

my 96 sunsetter vlx does that too, with 2 440 in the back, and 500 in the ski locker with wedge down, even tried putting lots of people in the bow, and it doesnt help, even with just the wedge it still does it a bit. iv just stoped using the wedge and bought 750's

[dadboarder]

Its the worst with with the wedge down and the ballasts full. Obviously the more weight the better in the front but we ride sometimes with only three or four passengers.

[Slurpee]

Happens on my '01 Sunsetter VLX (diamond hull) with the wedge down, 450s about 2/3 full, center locker sack and integrated bow sacks bulging. We ride at 22.5 or so. It takes a little chop to get it going, but another person in the bow if we have 'em tends to settle it down, OR slowing down a bit works for us to about 22.1 or 22.3.

I tried no wedge and big sacs and my wake shape sucks then. The wedge does a lot to clean up the diamond hull wave so I need it. Without any bow weight the wake isn't very long and you have to board very short line - which isn't bad for beginners. The more weight up front the faster we have to go (from 20.5 or so up to 21.7) to get the shape we want and the closer we get to porpoising. So there seems to be a fine line. My crew just knows to all climb forward one at a time if it starts doing that.

Oh, and it starts to happen to me more often when the gas tank is nearing empty than when full. Do you have any correlation between your events and that? There's several hundred pounds of ballast in there low and center and to the rear.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Slurpee

[dadboarder]

Happens on my '01 Sunsetter VLX (diamond hull) with the wedge down, 450s about 2/3 full, center locker sack and integrated bow sacks bulging. We ride at 22.5 or so. It takes a little chop to get it going, but another person in the bow if we have 'em tends to settle it down, OR slowing down a bit works for us to about 22.1 or 22.3.

I tried no wedge and big sacs and my wake shape sucks then. The wedge does a lot to clean up the diamond hull wave so I need it. Without any bow weight the wake isn't very long and you have to board very short line - which isn't bad for beginners. The more weight up front the faster we have to go (from 20.5 or so up to 21.7) to get the shape we want and the closer we get to porpoising. So there seems to be a fine line. My crew just knows to all climb forward one at a time if it starts doing that.

Oh, and it starts to happen to me more often when the gas tank is nearing empty than when full. Do you have any correlation between your events and that? There's several hundred pounds of ballast in there low and center and to the rear.

[SacRiverRat]

Happens on my '01 Sunsetter VLX (diamond hull) with the wedge down, 450s about 2/3 full, center locker sack and integrated bow sacks bulging. We ride at 22.5 or so. It takes a little chop to get it going, but another person in the bow if we have 'em tends to settle it down, OR slowing down a bit works for us to about 22.1 or 22.3.

I tried no wedge and big sacs and my wake shape sucks then. The wedge does a lot to clean up the diamond hull wave so I need it. Without any bow weight the wake isn't very long and you have to board very short line - which isn't bad for beginners. The more weight up front the faster we have to go (from 20.5 or so up to 21.7) to get the shape we want and the closer we get to porpoising. So there seems to be a fine line. My crew just knows to all climb forward one at a time if it starts doing that.

Oh, and it starts to happen to me more often when the gas tank is nearing empty than when full. Do you have any correlation between your events and that? There's several hundred pounds of ballast in there low and center and to the rear.

[Surfin247]

I have a 2003 VLX when fully loaded with ballasts and manual wedge down and extra 500 in the front I still get some serious porpoising. Will changing the prop help? This is my third wedge. So it hasn't been banged up but I wonder if there is something I did wrong in installation.

You stated that this was your 3rd wedge. Seems like a lot for only 6 yrs. Is it the old style with straight foil or the newer one with a slight v shape. One possibility is that the wedge plate attached to the transom is not installed in the proper location or the plate has shifted from the previous wedge malfunctions. Stand behind your boat with the wedge down and check to see where it lines up to the hull and the prop.

[obski]

Happens on my '01 Sunsetter VLX (diamond hull) with the wedge down, 450s about 2/3 full, center locker sack and integrated bow sacks bulging. We ride at 22.5 or so. It takes a little chop to get it going, but another person in the bow if we have 'em tends to settle it down, OR slowing down a bit works for us to about 22.1 or 22.3.

I tried no wedge and big sacs and my wake shape sucks then. The wedge does a lot to clean up the diamond hull wave so I need it. Without any bow weight the wake isn't very long and you have to board very short line - which isn't bad for beginners. The more weight up front the faster we have to go (from 20.5 or so up to 21.7) to get the shape we want and the closer we get to porpoising. So there seems to be a fine line. My crew just knows to all climb forward one at a time if it starts doing that.

Oh, and it starts to happen to me more often when the gas tank is nearing empty than when full. Do you have any correlation between your events and that? There's several hundred pounds of ballast in there low and center and to the rear.

I had a very simialr experience with my '01 SSVLX, but have not had the same problems with the '06 VLX. I figured that it was the difference with the diamond hull vs. the wake hull.

[D-GOOSE]

I have the same VLX and only had that happen once and that was because I was loaded down doing 30 and was hitting this all so smooth rollers. I mean the lake was glass and rollers from a boat across that lake had send a nice little wave and the noise was just going up and down.

I would check your wedge but we need to look at it being the prop is its still happens when the wedge is up.

Troy Nice reply thats some of your finest input.

[SacRiverRat]

I have the same VLX and only had that happen once and that was because I was loaded down doing 30 and was hitting this all so smooth rollers. I mean the lake was glass and rollers from a boat across that lake had send a nice little wave and the noise was just going up and down.

I would check your wedge but we need to look at it being the prop is its still happens when the wedge is up.

Troy Nice reply thats some of your finest input.

Thought you'd like that - nice, brief, and to the point

[Slurpee]

I thought I'd report some interesting results. A buddy and I went wakeboarding last night and triwd to get my 01 Sunsetter VLX to porpoise. We did. Barely. Had V-Drive sacs in rear lockers full, ski locker sack full, integrated bow sac on top of the seats and full. Without the wedge the wake is big, massive, and no steep ramp at most useable boarding speeds. No porpoising. With the wedge down we're back to a really good wake at 70' and I could get it to porpoise at a very specific range of speeds around 22.5 to 23 mph. Not real bad, but I know from experience it'd be significant without the 600+ lbs in the bow. Faster or slower and it settled into a good AoA again.

Edited June 9, 2009 by Slurpee