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Adjustable fixed wedge......


Ndawg12

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As winter approaches and I search for bu projects to keep me busy I thought about this. My buddies 23LSV, when surfing the wake is significantly better with the wedge around 50%. I also read that alot of people recommend "all the way down then up 2-3 clicks" for surfing. I pulled my wedge off tonight to put a new finish on the foil and thought about why we couldn't have 3-4 selections as well with a different mounting plate. I'm not sure that all theway down yields the best possible wake (especially for surfing but maybe for wakeboarding as well) on my hull in particular (v23 wake). Before I give away too much information about what I'm thinking about doing, what are your thoughts about the angle of the wedge on different hulls and your experiences.

Thanks,

Nate

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I can say without a doubt you'd change the wake, just can't say how much of an angle would be best for your setup. I thought the same thing, and when I built the stainless wedge for my 87 Sunsetter project a few years ago -- I did make it adjustable (manually), and I thought it made a pretty noticable difference. MartinArcher might chime in on this one since he owns the boat now. But basically I made 3 positions, all the way down, slightly up, and somewhere near a 45 degree position (most aggressive). I ended up liking the middle position best, not sure which one MA uses because he surfs with it and has added more ballast. It's a totally different hull, and the wedge was custom -- but the same principles should apply.

It's an easy mod to make on the stainless "floating" (that doesn't really float) wedge, because the foil has a little different pitch to it than the older fixed wedges, and when deployed it dives down to the lowest position until it stops at the stop-bolts in the bracket. If you drill and add stops further up (so it stops sooner) you'd have a different position. So we had to make the adjustment by moving the bolts with the boat on the trailer. But I always intended to add a 1/2" stainless pin so you could change positions in the water, and keep the bolts at the very bottom, stock position as your fail safe. Hopefully I'm explaining this clearly.

For the manual wedge (what I have now), it'd be possible, but a little more difficult mostly because of the bracket shape. I'm also a little nervous about the foil being screwed to the arms instead of welded. I thought about swapping the arms for aluminum and then welding the foil to it -- but now I'm on a path to build another custom wedge that's closer to a power wedge.

Hope that helps -- it's at least some experience. MA can chime in since he's had more time with the "adjustable" wedge. I'm guessing he doesn't ever move it, but it might produce a better result in the position he leaves it in than "stock" - if that makes sense. At least it'd give you the option to play around and try it.

Edited by rugger
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You gotta post your results or ideas if you come up with something. Or maybe you could make a few brackets while you're making a new one, eh? :)

I keep falling short on free time...

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You gotta post your results or ideas if you come up with something. Or maybe you could make a few brackets while you're making a new one, eh? :)

I keep falling short on free time...

That was my initial thought and I was gauging interest, which apparently is lacking... I know I could make the stock one for WAY cheaper than what I've seen them sell for...

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martinarcher

We run the wedge in the middle position most of the time. I like it in the third position the best (most aggressive angle) for surfing, but we board the most so it stays in the middle slot. I need to run with the 1/2 quick change rod we talked about a while back and make it adjustable in the water. The third position does affect how long it takes to come out of the hole and the amount of gas the boat uses. The closer to parallel with the water flow, the less gas the wedge seems to add to the gallon per hour meter. LOL.gif Lately we have had a decent crew and with some ballast in the walkway and enough peeps, we leave the wedge up. It's all about displacement so the harder that foil pulls the hull down, the better your results will be, but the less efficient the boat goes through the water.

have fun and post up some pics. I would make a new bracket with additional stop holes so if you don't like how it turns out you can slap the stock bracket back on. Thumbup.gif

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martinarcher

This subject comes up every couple of years. This guy did it...

My link

sorry the pics. seem to be gone.

That was a good read. Gotta love threads like that. Wonder what happened to Tim? Did he ever get his retro wetsuit? LOL.gif

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