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How to weight the boat down.


malibubu

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We ride behind a 2006 vlx.

We have tried with standard ballast and the manual wedge down. But we don´t really get the desired pop.

What can we do? Is it better to skip the wedge and get more weight? Or both?

And where in the boat? We did put some in the back of the boat but it made the boat perform rather bad.

The wake looks pretty good in lower speeds but it decreases a lot when reaching wakeboard speed or about 20mph.

We cannot decide what is best, please help and give advice.. We want a huge, great wake for easy rolls... :)

Thanks!

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We ride behind a 2006 vlx.

We have tried with standard ballast and the manual wedge down. But we don´t really get the desired pop.

What can we do? Is it better to skip the wedge and get more weight? Or both?

And where in the boat? We did put some in the back of the boat but it made the boat perform rather bad.

The wake looks pretty good in lower speeds but it decreases a lot when reaching wakeboard speed or about 20mph.

We cannot decide what is best, please help and give advice.. We want a huge, great wake for easy rolls... :)

Thanks!

here is what I found with the VLX...

18 MPH no ballast the wake awesome

20 MPH with full ballast no wedge the wake is awesome

22 MPH with full ballast and the wedge down the wake is awesome

Big pop is all about edging properly and riding technique.

Pick up aversion of "The Book" on DVD

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here is what I found with the VLX...

18 MPH no ballast the wake awesome

20 MPH with full ballast no wedge the wake is awesome

22 MPH with full ballast and the wedge down the wake is awesome

Big pop is all about edging properly and riding technique.

Pick up aversion of "The Book" on DVD

Yeah we sure do can sharpen our technique.

But it is nice to have the best possible wake as well.

We will try your different setups tomorrow..

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We ride behind a 2006 vlx.

We have tried with standard ballast and the manual wedge down. But we don´t really get the desired pop.

What can we do? Is it better to skip the wedge and get more weight? Or both?

And where in the boat? We did put some in the back of the boat but it made the boat perform rather bad.

The wake looks pretty good in lower speeds but it decreases a lot when reaching wakeboard speed or about 20mph.

We cannot decide what is best, please help and give advice.. We want a huge, great wake for easy rolls... :)

Thanks!

Also depends on the length at which you are riding. As far as weighing it down, ideally you want 30/40/30 percent weight distribution (rear/center/front). May need additional ballast to achieve this depending on what hard tanks you have. An equal distribution such as this will keep your original wake shape but make it bigger. The wedge will sharpen the wake for more vertical pop. And as was mentioned before, proper set-up and edging technique are crucial.

Edited by mikeyg
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We ride behind a 2006 vlx.

We have tried with standard ballast and the manual wedge down. But we don´t really get the desired pop.

What can we do? Is it better to skip the wedge and get more weight? Or both?

And where in the boat? We did put some in the back of the boat but it made the boat perform rather bad.

The wake looks pretty good in lower speeds but it decreases a lot when reaching wakeboard speed or about 20mph.

We cannot decide what is best, please help and give advice.. We want a huge, great wake for easy rolls... :)

Thanks!

Putting an addiional sac in the bow or walkthrough (about 500-750) makes the wake on that boat like a cement ramp. If you can't get pop off that thing there is no hope for you.

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Putting an addiional sac in the bow or walkthrough (about 500-750) makes the wake on that boat like a cement ramp. If you can't get pop off that thing there is no hope for you.

I hope there is some hope! We just want to dial in the best wake! And it is fun to hear what others ride with.

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Yeah we sure do can sharpen our technique.

But it is nice to have the best possible wake as well.

We will try your different setups tomorrow..

I don't know your skill level and this is just my opinion, but if you're at all serious about wakeboarding I wouldn't use a bigger wake as a crutch to make up for skills you haven't yet developed. Wakeboarding is a sport where fundamentals are very important and once you start developing bad habits they get instilled in your muscle memory and become hard to erase. Your learning curve will be a lot shorter if you learn things right on a moderately sized wake from the get go and I've seen this first hand several times.

All that being said, I have the same hull as you, but with a power wedge and I don't like what the wedge does to the wake or how the boat handles with it down so I run extra weight. I have about 250-300 lbs of lead in each rear compartment and about 450-500lbs in the nose of the boat. Add 3-4 people and full stock ballast (including the bow tank) and in my opinion it creates a very nice wake at 75-78ft and about 23-23.5mph. The people who are just learning wake to wake and progressive edging I have ride at 70ft and about 22.4-22.6 and I keep the rear ballast empty for them and let a little out of the front and center (I ususally adjust this depending on how many people are in the boat and where they are sitting).

In my opinion this hull likes a little extra weight in the front (really needs it with the wedge), so my lead is 50/50 front/back sometimes 60/40 front/back when I have a lot of people in the boat (it's rare anyone sits in front of my windshield or that I have more than 5 people when we're riding). General rules of thumb, if you want the wake steeper, move weight back, if you want it rampier, move weight front. Adding more weight will force you to ride at faster speeds.

Hope this helps, enjoy the boat....

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I don't know your skill level and this is just my opinion, but if you're at all serious about wakeboarding I wouldn't use a bigger wake as a crutch to make up for skills you haven't yet developed. Wakeboarding is a sport where fundamentals are very important and once you start developing bad habits they get instilled in your muscle memory and become hard to erase. Your learning curve will be a lot shorter if you learn things right on a moderately sized wake from the get go and I've seen this first hand several times.

All that being said, I have the same hull as you, but with a power wedge and I don't like what the wedge does to the wake or how the boat handles with it down so I run extra weight. I have about 250-300 lbs of lead in each rear compartment and about 450-500lbs in the nose of the boat. Add 3-4 people and full stock ballast (including the bow tank) and in my opinion it creates a very nice wake at 75-78ft and about 23-23.5mph. The people who are just learning wake to wake and progressive edging I have ride at 70ft and about 22.4-22.6 and I keep the rear ballast empty for them and let a little out of the front and center (I ususally adjust this depending on how many people are in the boat and where they are sitting).

In my opinion this hull likes a little extra weight in the front (really needs it with the wedge), so my lead is 50/50 front/back sometimes 60/40 front/back when I have a lot of people in the boat (it's rare anyone sits in front of my windshield or that I have more than 5 people when we're riding). General rules of thumb, if you want the wake steeper, move weight back, if you want it rampier, move weight front. Adding more weight will force you to ride at faster speeds.

Hope this helps, enjoy the boat....

Thanks!

We also left the wedge up the last few times we went out and think that is a lot better!

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