05 Vride surf set up- Best it gets for this hull imho.

[08oregon v-rider]

One thing I did was run the drains out opposite sides of the boat. This prevents the constant siphon from the boat being listed. A problem I had at first. Just buy some extra hose.

They assured me this doesn't happen, but its easy enough to prevent so some extra hose will be ordered.

[08oregon v-rider]

Talked to Paul at Bake's and he said they don't run vents at all when they do the hard tank replacement with 750lb sacs. This is because they start to drain when they are onlt 75% full and you want the bag to conform to the locker to fill completely. He also said fill times tend to be quicker without a vent. They have not had any problems with this and makes the install even easier so I ordered everything I need without venting the bags.

[Lance B. Johnson]

Talked to Paul at Bake's and he said they don't run vents at all when they do the hard tank replacement with 750lb sacs. This is because they start to drain when they are onlt 75% full and you want the bag to conform to the locker to fill completely. He also said fill times tend to be quicker without a vent. They have not had any problems with this and makes the install even easier so I ordered everything I need without venting the bags.

I don't run vents. It will push water out the drain line when full. Mine actually did siphon right past the drain pump. This is why I ran the lines to opposite sides.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Ruffdog

[rennis]

I installed mine based on Paul & Andrew's advice and skipped the vent line too. I didn't run drains to opposite sides and I haven't had problems with siphoning out of the drain line yet.

[DPopa]

So I have been toying with the idea of getting the wakemaker tankbuster upgrade... One question, do I get the 750s or 1100s? This will be the first ballast upgrade from the stock MLS system. There is usually 6-8 people in the boat to make up the rest of the weight. We have been surfing for the last few years with no more than stock ballast in an 04 vlx hull and I am looking forward to not having to stack people in the back corner. What do you guys think?

[demo9asx]

Get the 750s. 1100 wont fill up to its capacity and will likely push the engine divider in

[WakeGirl]

So, I got to spend a fair amount of time on Ruff's boat over the weekend, & I was really surprised at how much that wave had changed since the last time that I'd surfed it. The one thing that (up until now) I've never really cared for about this hull was its surf wave, but it's so much better with the way that he has it set up. I'll let him speak to the weight distribution, because we played with that a bit this weekend, but that wave is much more forgiving & much easier to ride than it had been in the past. I've got a few pictures & video on my phone that I'll pull down later to post.

[Bradley Thornton]

So I have been toying with the idea of getting the wakemaker tankbuster upgrade... One question, do I get the 750s or 1100s? This will be the first ballast upgrade from the stock MLS system. There is usually 6-8 people in the boat to make up the rest of the weight. We have been surfing for the last few years with no more than stock ballast in an 04 vlx hull and I am looking forward to not having to stack people in the back corner. What do you guys think?

Get the 750s. 1100 wont fill up to its capacity and will likely push the engine divider in

Get the 1100 It will put less pressure on the dividers dew to it molding to the compartment and you will get more water in it when it molds to the compartment. It will fill about 90%. = 990

[wakedncsu]

I would also add that your overfill/vent/drain line needs to be on the other side of the boat. I have the 750's and cant keep them filled all that way because i didn't reverse the lines when i installed the bags. and now the lake siphons water out of the bag to a point. I can still hold a bunch of water in the back corner. My 750's don't press on the divider walls at all hardly. There is pressure on the walls, but they don't bow in toward the motor at all.

[WakeGirl]

Finally got off my rear end & pulled this off of my phone. Sorry for the poor quality (I am not a movie-maker!), but among the plethora of things that I forgot to take to Shasta was my camera. So I was left to use my phone. Argh, I hate it when I do that.

Anyway, maybe Ruff can remind me of how the boat was weighted. In this first video, we didn't have as much weight in the boat, & it was a very nice wave. Normally behind this hull, the wave is super steep (kind of a sheer face) with a pretty sharp edge at the top & a trough at the bottom. Every SV23 hull that I've surfed is that way. With the mods that Ruff has done, this wave is so much easier to surf. It isn't such a sheer wall now, & it kind of lays over at the top. The transition at the bottom is so much better too, & the trough is completely gone. I haven't surfed since last fall, & this past weekend I was very close to riding out of a 180 on several attempts. I think that with a little time & persistence, I could nail it behind this boat. I never would have said that before.

He hadn't surfed since last fall either, & also had never ridden that board. This wave is easy to ride! RJ on the right side (notice what I did there? ):

Phil on the standard side. This was the following day & we had more weight in the boat, so it was a bit better. I don't think that we ever tried the goofy side with that weight setup, but I'll betcha that the wave would be superb. Anyway, Phil is a naturally gifted athlete, but rarely gets to surf which is why he was holding the handle even if he could have thrown it. Given some time on a surfboard, he could be really good.

As far as it being the prop that made the change, I'm not sure if I buy that it was completely the prop. I know that he had the floating wedge installed before changing the prop, & it's my suspicion that the floater & the prop work together to make the wave so much better. Let me put it this way, if the old fixed wedge were still on his boat in combination with the new prop, I believe that there would likely be characteristics of the old wave still present, even if the new prop overcomes or diminishes some of that effect (mainly I'm speaking to the trough at the bottom). I hope that makes sense.

[08oregon v-rider]

That wake looks pretty comparable to what we are working with now. We went with the 750 locker bag, a 750 up front, full 500 mid ballast, a 500 on the rear seats, and people where we can fit them with floating wedge down. Only been out once since we added all the ballast so I'll try to get some better pics or video this weekend. Still running stock prop, but I see a 1235 in our future. One thing we did that is neat and came from Paul at Bakes is running a y-valve from the drain of right locker to fill the left locker. This cuts our switching time from goofy to standard in half and was painless to install some extra hose and a valve. It also serves as an anti siphon for the right side, which is the side 90% of the people on our boat use. Wakegirl, do you know what kind of speed you are running for goofy side?

[WakeGirl]

For me, he slowed down to I think about 10.5. Normally I think he runs a little over 11. I'm not sure how fast his speed was with RJ behind the boat, but for some reason I just felt like I had a hard time keeping up at 11. Probably my board, I have an older LF Skimskate 4'6 that I ride & it's not as fast as the newer boards. We'll have to let Ruff chime in on what the speed was in those videos.

That's a really good idea on the y-valve.

[08oregon v-rider]

Well this weekend didn't go too well as far as testing our ballast some more. First, our tsunami pump wouldn't turn on and discovered the the end where it goes into the socket had somehow unthreaded and was missing, so no tsunami pump. Then we had trouble with siphoning that we didn't experience the weekend before. The bag would be half full after just a few pulls. Back to the drawing board....

[wakedncsu]

I have the siphoning issue as well. It has been discussed before. The fix is to route your vent/drain line to the other side of the boat. I'm going to run it out this year and do that over the winter.

[08oregon v-rider]

I was planning on running the drains to opposite sides, but then I decided to do this y-valve to divert drain flow to the opposite side bag to cut down on time to switch sides. I thought this would prevent siphoning, but instead it just filled up the other bag. I guess I'm not real sure how running the line to the opposite drain would be any different then what i already have. Has anyone tried check valves on there drain lines?

[wakedncsu]

I don't think a check valve would work because you are still allowing the vacuum to pull water the one direction. By routing the drain line to the other side the vent/drain line stay above the water which keeps the siphon action from occurring.

[shawndoggy]

yeah when you cross vent, the vent is higher than the filled bag (at least for surfing) so you don't get a siphon. As a belt and suspenders issue, it might make sense to run a loop in the hose between the bag and the opposite vent too, just to make it that much harder to get the siphon going.

[08oregon v-rider]

Ok, so my drain line is already routed to the other side. It just goes into the other bag instead of actually out through the drain. It still flows to the other side and fills up that bag while under tow. Idk if that makes sense, I feel like I need to draw something to explain this.

[shawndoggy]

No that makes sense. But the termination of that hose is into the opposite bag, which is lower at the end than the filled bag, right? if you took that hose off of the opposite side bag and just held it in the air above the top of your filled bag it would stop siphoning. That's all you do by cross venting... the termination end of the hose, which is attached to the vent on the side of the boat, is higher than the filled bag.

(btw... none of these problems exist with reversible pumps and are part of the reason I'd never ever consider under any circumstance running aerators again).

[WakeGirl]

My OCD really, really doesn't like the fix for this.

[08oregon v-rider]

Yeah, reversible pumps would be nice. I guess I'll have to rethink my whole system and decide which route to go.

[wakesetter8796]

Ok so we are thinking about getting the tankbuster kit and 750s, we have 300 in the bow, and floating wedge, and will probably have at least 500# of people on surf side. 537 prop for now. Will this set up make a decent wave?

[wakesetter8796]

Anyone?

[WakeGirl]

I think that Ruff will need to respond to that, because I believe that the 537 is what he replaced on his boat. The new prop is what he says made such a radical difference. But if that's what you have, roll with it & see what you can get out of that setup. Remember that given equal weighting on each side, goofy will always be a little better. Standard side needs a bit more weight to get the same results.

[DPopa]

Ok, I bought the tank buster 750 kits and routed the drain/vent lines to the other sides. I also run the 500 midship and a manual wedge. I have had zero problems with siphoning but kinda wish I just would have made my own "tank buster" kit to remove unnecessary connections. I usually have at least 750 lbs of people and no other ballst bags. The wave is awesome!! I still have the 537 prop also.

Ok so we are thinking about getting the tankbuster kit and 750s, we have 300 in the bow, and floating wedge, and will probably have at least 500# of people on surf side. 537 prop for now. Will this set up make a decent wave?

I absolutely loved dealing with wakemakers and would recommend them to absolutely everybody