Teakgate

[Ndawg12]

Reading all this and shaking my head with a smile. Matt you are insanely talented and your projects never fail to impress. Can't wait to see the vids let alone ride it next summer!!!

[skurfer]

Yeah, any time you want to work on a project on my boat, I'll fly you out

[Lance B. Johnson]

Alright getting really impatient here :whistle:

[demo9asx]

No s***. I demand some pics or video right now. Been waiting all day

[wakebrdr94]

Dude, I woke up at 3 this morning, and the first thing I did was check for video. Then like every half hour. I could not focus on work !

Edited October 15, 2012 by wakebrdr94

[opnwide]

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing a video. Your setup makes mine look like dog poo!

I like the way you used the factory mounting brackets from the swimdeck, and then had them powdercoated. Very slick!

Edited October 16, 2012 by opnwide

[martinarcher]

Thanks guys! Sorry to keep you all waiting. Well here we go - the wait is over.....

Well the gates work like a champ. Yesterday I put 300 lbs in the locker, and about 500 lbs on each side of the dogbox. We had 5 passengers on board and me on the surf board. At rest, the boat sat perfectly level. Any listing in the pics is from the gates.

I have the gates set up to deploy at 7 mph. If the speed exceeds 12 mph they go back to the stow position. If the speed drops below 7 mph they go back to stowed. I also set up my switch bank to allow the surf side to be swapped while underway.

Here is what I noticed while behind the boat....

1. The wave is as good with my new gates if not a bit better than my prototype gate from the Poorman's Surfgate thread.

2. With the prototype gate, I had to weigh the surf side a bit heavier than the non-surf side to get the same wave I had last night.

3. I had two more people last night than I ever had running the prototype gate.

4. The wave is longer, cleaner, and a has a lot more push than our non-gated wave.

5. I finally tried surfing goofy - the wave is actually really good without moving a single person or bag.

6. It takes about 4 seconds to switch from one side to the other.....on an 87' Sunsetter.

7. I'm pretty darn happy with the wave....especially considering it's a 25 year old direct drive.

8. Stow the gates, set the Perfect Pass for 30 and enjoy a slalom run back to the dock with no disturbance to the wake whatsoever.

Now for the good stuff....

Here's the wave this spring in April. Me wearing the same wetsuit. 300lbs in the locker, 800lbs on the surfside, and 4 people in the boat (3 on the surfside and 1 driver)...

All other pics are with the Teakgates and were taken last night....

Couple shots of the right gate deployed....

[martinarcher]

I've got 5 videos. The first 3 I uploaded last night and are alright. The other 2 IMO are much much better and were taken from a camera in the boat.

This one is from a Toughcam on my wrist. I wanted to get a shot of the first gate deployment.

This is a video from the Go Pro my wife got me for Christmas. I shamed her into letting me use it to document the event. The camera was mounted on the very left corner of the transom and unfortunately I didn't realize it was in the gate's spray when surfing the goofy side. You still get the idea, but I need to mount the camera much closer to the centerline of the boat for a good vid.

[martinarcher]

Fun vid to try the suction cup mount on the nose of the board. I was super close to riding the 360 away at the end....soon!

The other 2 are uploading now on my weak internet connection. Hopefully they will be done by morning. Check back.

[demo9asx]

Very nice!!!

[wakebrdr94]

So awesome! You start production on the retro fits for the rest of us when????

[Grnking]

Love this thread cool how folks are innovating!!

[Ozfabs]

Awesome work Matt!

[martinarcher]

Thanks guys. Here are the other two vids....

[btbaeder]

sweet

[Levi900RR]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA, That rules!

[Bozboat]

[Pistol Pete]

Need to change your title on here to "Mod King"

[martinarcher]

Thanks fellas. I do love to tinker and mod anything and everything I get my hands on. I might have been one of those kids that liked to pull my toys apart and install bigger motors and larger batteries.

Pete - I love it. The "Swag King" and the "Mod King".

[old skool malibu]

Matt with the surf gates, ballast and wedge that motor has to be working pretty hard. I had my motor redone on my 89 Sunsetter and it was putting out close to 330hp. Think you will have to do any motor work soon?

[Pistol Pete]

^^^^^^^ OOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhh,

good question.

[martinarcher]

With the new exhaust, new manifolds, and a CNCed ACME it has helped big time. The boat doesn't have any trouble at all coming out of the water unless I am getting ridiculous with weight - trying to run over 1800lbs of water and a full boat of 8. I do have Vortec heads and a Performer intake on the long term mods list. I'd like to get closer to Woodski's 400hp number someday. Who doesn't want more power out of anything they own with an engine.

One thing I can say is the gates don't hurt the boat coming out of the hole at all since they don't start deploying until the boat speed has crossed 7mph.

[Woodski]

If you get the itch, with your focus on the slower speed stuff, a 383 crank might be the way to go. Lots of Torque! Again, awesome work.

[jcochrane007]

Hey Matt, how about rigging up a way to automatically start a camcorder at a specified speed?!?!

[jcon44]

really impresive!, i just saw this tread today and cant believe how good your gates work. well done!