The new underwater hotness

[Nitrousbird]

Finally got all of my underwater gear installed:

- Replaced flappers with STE

- Replaced the manual wedge with the stainless floater

- Removed pitot speedo system (replaced with GPS from Nautic Laugic)

- Installed underwater transom LED's from AquaLED's

These are just the intial pics in my garage - will get some this weekend on the water and out in the open where I can take some better shots. Looks so much better under there now.

Here it is all torn down to the transom (I'll have to grab the before doing anything pics off my other camera tomorrow):

The new STE tip:

After - you will notice the three filled in holes on each side where the pitot pickups used to attach. I just filled those in with 3M 4200 for now and will re-gelcoat them when I do a couple other items this fall. Those holes do not penetrate all the way through the hull...not that it matters with 4200 in there:

[teamerickson]

Nice work.

[built2rev]

dude looks great!!!! cant wait to see some pics of it on the water

[Levi900RR]

That is awesome. What is the main advantage going from a fixed wedge to a floater?

[CumminsBu]

Pretty cool , this is on the to do list also.

[Nitrousbird]

Reason for the floater:

- Easier to deploy as you don't have to manually lock it down. This is a bigger benefit for me as my swim platform does not have the wedge access (previous owner decided to have the dealer do the wedge/tower install instead of the factory for some reason).

- Looks better

- A bit safer as you can't hit something and rip the back of your boat up with it. Of course to hit something that would damage the boat with the wedge you would have already shredded all of your underwater gear anyway so not a big benefit.

- Looks a lot better

- Some say it shapes the wake a bit nicer

- Less issues of bent wedges/broken wedge plates

I had no issues whatsoever with my manual wedge, ever. This was one of those items that just had some small advantages, gave the boat a bit of bling and will be a selling point in the future. We will likely upgrade in 3-5 years and I will be going after the upper priced market for this vintage of boat - the type of buyer that wants a very loaded boat with all the goodies/updates it can get (which I'm getting fairly close to that point). That, or at least having the most bad-a** Sunsetter out there.

[Levi900RR]

Word

[wakedncsu]

It looks really good. Can wait to hear what you think of the turn downs while surfing.

[MalibuNation]

Sweet ... with all that hard work it is time to hit the water. Rain will be out of here in time for the long weekend.

[Michigan boarder]

Saucy!

[Nitrousbird]

I wish I was done with all the work. My staples show up tonight so I will be stapling down my new seat skin tomorrow so I have a rear seat to use (all prep work has been completed). My Wakemakers order should be shipping today so I will be able to do my ski locker ballast, the last of my ballast projects (luckily this should only take 1-2 hours to complete - then I will have a 5 bag all hidden/automated setup), though the ski locker bag isn't keeping me off the water. Trailer maintenance will be the next project as the previous owner used knock-off brand bearing buddies so 2 are broken and it is also time to recarpet the bunks.

[teamerickson]

Word

HA!! That's funny!

[skaha10]

Very cool!! Nice Work!

[dtm8119]

How long did it take you to replace the flappers with the STE's?

I think that's the next project on my list...

[Rmattajr]

- Replaced flappers with STE

Are these purely cosmetic? They look awesome. My boat is in the water all year so no one would see them.

Are these the LED's you bought? If so take some pics when you are out at night, interested how they look.

http://www.aqualeds.com/index.201210060615.htm

Edited May 22, 2013 by Rmattajr

[TURNITRED]

That is beyond cool. Very nice work. What do those exhaust tips do to the sound?

[Nitrousbird]

How long did it take you to replace the flappers with the STE's?

I think that's the next project on my list...

Not all that long. Process to replace each:

- Loosen 2 clamps that hold the exhaust hose to the flapper unit

- Remove 4 screws holding the flapper to the hull

- Use a strap wrench to break the flapper unit free from the hull. It will take a bit of muscle. Strap wrench is the proper tool for the job and is under $20...don't waste your time/effort with something else. Just twist until it breaks free, go back and forth a couple of times and pull it out.

- Coat inside of hose and outside of STE with dish soap so it will go in the hose easily. Push it into the hole/hose.

- Allign STE to the position you want and mark your holes for drilling (STE is 3 screws vs the flapper with 4, so new holes must be drilled)

- Remove STE, drill your holes. I'll have to look at my drill bit case to see what bit I used for the hole. Uses a 1" #14 stainless steel screw.

- Use 3M 4000 or 4200 sealant, fill in the old screw hole and the new screw holes. Be liberal with it. Run a beat around the hole in the transom as well, and a beat on the inner edge of the STE.

- Insert STE, screw it down and screw the hose clamps back down.

- Clean up (and do it right away) any sealant that squirted out. Not a lot will squirt out even being liberal with the sealant.

Are these purely cosmetic? They look awesome. My boat is in the water all year so no one would see them.

Are these the LED's you bought? If so take some pics when you are out at night, interested how they look.

http://www.aqualeds.com/index.201210060615.htm

Those are the LED's I purchased. The tips are a current factory option and are supposed to quiet the exhaust down a little and also keep the fumes down a bit as they redirect the exhaust downward. I guess I'll see this weekend how effective they are...they look cool regardless.

[Asmodeus2112]

Wow, very nice!

[TallRedRider]

I have given the STE a fair amount of thought and then I always seem to choke a little on the price.

Is there anyway to get them for less than $370 plus shipping?

Nitrous, the installs all look awesome, as expected.

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=756

[teamerickson]

I have given the STE a fair amount of thought and then I always seem to choke a little on the price.

Is there anyway to get them for less than $370 plus shipping?

Nitrous, the installs all look awesome, as expected.

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=756

Yes. Use the malibucrew discount.

[Nitrousbird]

Is there anyway to get them for less than $370 plus shipping?

Nitrous, the installs all look awesome, as expected.

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=756

Sure there is; you are a paid member and Bakes gives a discount to paid TMC members...just check out the crew discounts page on the main forums page. Bakes also gave free shipping on my STE order.

[Canyon Blue]

Looks like you've done a real nice job. Do you wakeboard? I'm interested in hearing your opinion on the floating wedge compared to the fixed wedge. I have the same hull and have experienced a failure of the fixed wedge, but didn't know of the floater with it's two positions at the time, so I just replaced it with the same type of unit. Might be something I'll pursue...

[WakeGirl]

Looks like you've done a real nice job. Do you wakeboard? I'm interested in hearing your opinion on the floating wedge compared to the fixed wedge. I have the same hull and have experienced a failure of the fixed wedge, but didn't know of the floater with it's two positions at the time, so I just replaced it with the same type of unit. Might be something I'll pursue...

I did a review after I switched mine. You can read it here. (Before/after pics are near the end of the thread, but there's good info all the way through.)

[Nitrousbird]

Looks like you've done a real nice job. Do you wakeboard? I'm interested in hearing your opinion on the floating wedge compared to the fixed wedge. I have the same hull and have experienced a failure of the fixed wedge, but didn't know of the floater with it's two positions at the time, so I just replaced it with the same type of unit. Might be something I'll pursue...

We have very similar but not the same hulls (you are on a SV23 wake hull and I have the SV23 diamond). I wakeboard - poorly - and will get a chance to test out the difference over the next couple of weeks. I spend more of my time now surfing so I'm interested in seeing if it makes any difference in that as well.

[WakeGirl]

I think that you'll find that you'll need more weight in the cabin & less up front. My VLX wasn't on the same hull, but the same principles should apply, so you may want to take a peek at my thread that I linked to above.