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Adding to a 01 Respoins LX


julrich

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Well my pops and I are at the point that we either need to upgrade to a Wakesetter or modify our Response to suit our needs, and with work being slow for both

of us right now we are leaning towards making the modifications to our current boat until its more feasible to do a complete switch.

Anyhow, here are some of the questions that we had before we just dived into it.

Has anyone installed any of the exhaust muffling systems? Our boat can get kind of loud with the mid engine (compared to some rides in v-drives) and at times,

it can be hard for the drive and spotter to hear each other. We suspect this is a combination of engine and exhaust noise and planned on insulating the motor box

a bit more one way or the other, but several dealers in the area have suggested a few different styles of exhaust system mufflers, but they never had any installed

to show us what they would look like, or more importantly how they would sound. We are not expecting greatness here, but knocking down the engine and exhaust noise a

few decibels to allow for easier communication would be superb.

Then next question would concern the never ending debate of the added tower. We run with an extended pylon now, but it gets crazy when we have a full boat of people and

gear, we are constantly waiting for one of the kids to step on a ski and rip the carpet up with the fin. So we have been looking at towers after towers online, Titan towers still seem to be the best, the only tower we have seen installed up here in north WI at a dealer is one of the Monster towers and we just don't like the blocky

look of the mounting plates. We almost purchased an Illusion with the hopes of modifying it to fit our boat, but missed out on the deal unfortunately.

Our biggest concerns with the tower situation is finding one that doesn't impair view, and looks right on the boat, without giving up quality in the process. We both fell in love with the Illusion tower when it was released, and have seen similar models, but have only seen it on larger model boats which got us to wondering if

there was a safety reason for that due to different construction at the mounting point. We are not dead set on having an illusion style tower, but for one it was all mounted behind the driver leaving an open view which would be great because many of the lakes we board other water-sporters and fishermen don't care to follow the safety laws quite as much as one would like.

After our first two ski boats we decided to go with an open bow this time, but in retrospect we should have gone walk through instead of over. So we are tossing around the idea of making it a walk through before we don't catch someone using the windshield as a weight support and doing some serious damage to the boat and possibly themselves in the process. We have been sourcing seats for this, but ultimately are concerned that it might tank the value of the boat should we consider reselling it down the road. We planned on building up walls in the new walk through and adding a sub woofer on each side which would look pretty cool I think.

This one might belong in the ballast section, but along with opening up the walk through we were thinking about adding in a ballast similar to the one we saw in an Iride we tested out. It seems like a logical place to open up and install one if there is enough room in a response. Has anyone had any luck with this on a Response, or at all? I will do some more searching in the ballast section as well, but any ideas I can get would be great.

I know in the long run all of this might offset a trade-in, we likely wouldn't be doing everything at once, probably tower and one of the others this off season, and others the next, along with the fact we nearly have the boat paid off would be nice to have a boat that works for our amateur level riding and is skill good for pulling

the skiers in the family while not scaring the kids and new recruits away from getting into water sports so down the line we have a solid reason to get a bigger boat. Also I suppose it might be good to note that with the exception of modifying a tower to fit the boat we can do all the work ourselves which would save quite a bit in costs, itself. If we knew for sure that we would end up keeping the boat for its lifespan we would just hop right in, but since upgrading isn't out of the question we don't want to kill the value modifying the boat in ways that might turn off potential buyers, or just turn out to have no value at all.

This is probably a lot to read over, but if you don't mind giving us some insight on what direction we should go with these options that would be fantastic! If anyone has any further questions about our plans or situation we would be glad to fill in any blanks that I may have left open here.

Thanks in advance to any of you that are willing to help us out with our decisions.

Justin and Bill Ulrich

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My opinion... Do everything but the Walk through. I think that would really kill your resale value, everything else is value add.

Good luck and post pics :thumbup:

I agree this would be a major project to pull off well enough to pass as factory, and many might not want a boat that is that highly modified by someone else.

I will also add that while I like the illusion tower, this particular boat is more sought after by slalom skiers, and that tower interferes with short line slalom. I would snatch up one of the few remaining Titan 3's, if you can before they are gone. Titan 1&2 are still made by StarOne, but the 3 is discontinued.

Linky:

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/27205-more-titan-iii-towers-found/

Post up some pics as you guys progress!

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Motor box insulation and the inline STE silencers will really quiet down the boat.

I'd do a Titan tower for sure, rock solid and won't mess with slalom.

No way I'd try and hack that dash in half, before you do that just sell the boat and buy a Sunsetter LX or DD wakesetter from the same era.

-Chris

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My opinion... Do everything but the Walk through. I think that would really kill your resale value, everything else is value add.

Good luck and post pics :thumbup:

:plus1:

As far as ballast. I use the Fly High Fat Seat. If you have the wedge and a small crew throw another bag in the bow. That will throw a respectable wake. Not to mention that you will have a water bed in the back to relax on. :clap:

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martinarcher

:plus1:

As far as ballast. I use the Fly High Fat Seat. If you have the wedge and a small crew throw another bag in the bow. That will throw a respectable wake. Not to mention that you will have a water bed in the back to relax on. :clap:

I have one of those I don't use in case you want one cheaper than new. It has never been filled with anything but air since I've had it. It looks brand new because it looks like a bit much for my little Skier. LOL.gif PM me if you interested.

Here's a good thread to read about ballast for a Response....

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23433-ballast-or-wedge-response/

Totally agree - go Titan for the tower. Ours is rock solid and folds sssooo easily! Rockon.gif

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Does your boat have PerfectPass? Got any pics? Which engine? I agree you should sell that boat and find a Sunsetter from that era or a bit older Sunsetter VLX on the wake hull. I may be interested if you sell your Response. I love those. :)

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Holy cow, thanks for the fast responses guys.

First for some reason I keep switching the model in my head, we have the Sportster model and I for some reason or another keep calling it a Response. I might be wrong,

but I think it has a nearly identical hull. We have the manual wedge system, and the 325hp fuel injection Indmar engine, it has the gauge installed for perfect pass and the adjustment buttons, but not the engine controls. Fly High extended pylon and a fat sack we toss up front from time to time.

We are still on the edge on whether to upgrade, because for the older ones of us in the family that wake and knee board, the wedge plus some ballast throws a fair enough wake to let us have some fun, and still get back to skiing for the others that just ski now-days. And it doesn't seem logical to add 10-20 grand to the loan for the handful of us that it would really benefit. If the kids had any daring in them like us older ones, it probably would have been done already, but we have a heck of a time getting any of them from around 6 on up to 16 to get on anything but a tube and the rest are so convinced that falling in the water will kill them because my sister's and their bonehead husbands refuse to even go swimming anymore. Only 2 of the 9 of my nieces and nephews that get on one of the boards or skis will dare to cross the wake even, so down the road I think we have problems even getting them out of the house to ski at all. My cousins and most of my friends are down for a good time, but with everyone working and getting spread out over the years we are having a hard time convincing ourselves to trade up. We went from 50+ hours a summer with our older boats to less than 20 since we got the Malibu. Kind of a pickle of a situation, but we do the best we can.

The silencers were the original ones we were looking at so that is good news, and we did some minor testing while we were out on the water today, and it really seems that the noise is probably 80% or more exhaust, has anyone tried the turn downs with any success? They seem like a reasonable idea by putting the exhaust down into the water a bit more, but again never had any that could tell me if they helped or not. Would the combination of the two put a knock into the engines performance at all you think?

I will be giving those guys a call to see what they have left in stock for towers too, we really haven't been terribly impressed with anything outside of the Titan towers to this point.

Tomorrow I will take out the digital camera and get a bunch of pictures to post up, I suppose a sale is a possibility. It would maybe give us the wiggle room to shop around the country of something a bit bigger this winter, trading-in around at any of the local dealers isn't an option now that we are down to mostly fish boat guys that will carry 1 or maybe 2 ski boats. It's a hassle to even get most of them to put a boat in the water now-days.

Bonus of the day, I taught one of my nephews to do a 360 on the knee board. He even tried to jump a little though being a tiny guy was having a hard time getting much tension and speed up. Kinda makes me sad that we have such a hard time getting them out behind the boat, I remember when we used to be on the water daily. Before work, after work, calling in sick to go skiing a few times when more of the crew was around even. Now we get a good day, and drive 2 hours because they all want to go, get there and everyone is locked into a video game and we basically have to hit the breaker to convince them it is time to leave the house for the afternoon. Sad times.

I will grab some pictures and be back when its sunny.

Thanks again to everyone that responded so quickly.

Justin

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A sportster did not have mufflers standard, so you may have nothing right now and will see a world of difference when you put mufflers in. Turn downs require pulling out the backseat and gas tank to install, so forget about that.

-Chris

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A sportster did not have mufflers standard, so you may have nothing right now and will see a world of difference when you put mufflers in. Turn downs require pulling out the backseat and gas tank to install, so forget about that.

-Chris

The turn downs look SOOOO sweet, but do they make a big difference sound wise???

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The turn downs look SOOOO sweet, but do they make a big difference sound wise???

In my experience yes, especially for the rider behind the boat.

-Chris

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