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Freshwater V Saltwater- Does it make a difference?


Roachy

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Hey guys im new to the crew, looking at purchasing a VLX soon, still doing some research, some good reads on here already helped out heaps.

Just wondering if i were to export a VLX from the US to Australia, would the boat being used in freshwater over your way, be fine to run in saltwater over here? Would i have any problems?

Thanks Mike

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Hey guys im new to the crew, looking at purchasing a VLX soon, still doing some research, some good reads on here already helped out heaps.

Just wondering if i were to export a VLX from the US to Australia, would the boat being used in freshwater over your way, be fine to run in saltwater over here? Would i have any problems?

Thanks Mike

NOOOO. You need to have the Salt Water Package installed on it. This changes the fresh water cooling to having a closed cooling system. The system costs about $1500 US.

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Hey guys im new to the crew, looking at purchasing a VLX soon, still doing some research, some good reads on here already helped out heaps.

Just wondering if i were to export a VLX from the US to Australia, would the boat being used in freshwater over your way, be fine to run in saltwater over here? Would i have any problems?

Thanks Mike

It would run okay for a little while but with with the engine being fresh water (lake) cooled you will run into a lot of corrosion issues over time (1-2 years down the road)

Almost all engines can be retrofitted with half closed cooling kits, some of the newer engines can get full closed cooling.

In salt water you will want to run zinc's (transom zinc too) on the boat, coating the engine and metal parts with corrosion guard and cleaning/ rinsing the bilge as often as possible to get the salt off and out of your bilge & boat.

Hope this helped answer your question. It's possible to run the boat in salt water but i wouldn't do it often with out closed cooling or your engine will suffer a slow death to corrosion.

-Paul

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cheers for that guys, i thought that was the case, thanks for clearing that up for me. appreciated.

Your welcome, wish you luck finding your boat!

-Paul

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We put our boat in salt water a couple of times a year and other than some minor rust on hinges we have had no issues. We're only in this water for a few days at a time and we thoroughly clean everything after each use. Now, if your going to be in salt water all the time you would want a closed cooling system but even then, you're going to be doing a lot of regular cleaning to keep the boat looking nice.

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I exported mine from the US to Canada and it is in the salt 90% of the time.

closed cooling, zincs, etc are a must. I also have swapped out alot of the plated aluminum parts (emblems, dash etc ) for stainless steal. I also have black powder coated wake racks which make a big difference in the looks. last boat the wake racks wee really pitted.

get a galvanized trailer..........

I have run boats in the salt for the last 7 years and as long as you take care of them, wash religiously they do ok. I keep it in my garage so each and every time we go out it gets washed top to bottom.

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