The new underwater hotness

[Nitrousbird]

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.

I've read your thread a couple times before. It was part of my incentive to do the upgrade.

Right now I have 750's in each locker, 500 under the port seat (we don't surf goofy), and 300lbs in the bow. Adding 500 to the bow sack once my Wakemakers order arrives. But this will all change as I forgot the other project I'm slowly in the middle of...building my own manual surfgate. At that point I may/may not utilize my port sack. I know that if I wasn't doing the manual surfgate I would be upgrading the port locker to an 1100lb bag (which would fill to about 1000), but I don't think that will be necessary with the manual surfgate. I guess if the surfgate thing works out and I want to push it any further I could swap both rear 750's for 1100's next year and really go nuts with it.

[WakeGirl]

I'll be really interested to see how that turns out for you. If you DIYers come up with some good designs for a Surfgate retrofit, it's going to change the game entirely.

And STEs.....sweeeeeeet. They started offering those right after I ordered my VLX, & they're so much better/nicer/more functional than the old turn-downs.

[Canyon Blue]

Thanks for the link, WakeGirl. I'll check it out.

And nice catch on the hull difference, Nitrousbird...

[Vcardkiller1]

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.

I did hit a log with my wedge down. It just missed the prop and the wedge sheered off just like it was might to do.

So are you selling you stock manual wedge?

[WakeGirl]

Thanks for the link, WakeGirl. I'll check it out.

And nice catch on the hull difference, Nitrousbird...

My gut feeling is that it may be an even better upgrade on the SV23 hull than it was on the V25, but that's a guess (albeit an educated one). Do you have a wedge installed Canyon?

[FastFreddy]

I have two 750s in the rear lockers of my 99 VLX. I filled them with air to see how full they would be and they filled the entire compartment from what I could tell. I have an 1100lbs bag that I was going to sell since the 750s seem to fill the lockers right up. Should I keep the 1100lbs bag instead of the the 750 for the port side? Can you really get more water in there than 750lbs?

[ande2407]

What did you do with your manual wedge? You said no problems, want tro sell the arm and foil? Mine is still broke from last season, and would like one for wakeboarding.

[Nitrousbird]

What did you do with your manual wedge? You said no problems, want tro sell the arm and foil? Mine is still broke from last season, and would like one for wakeboarding.

I will be selling my manual wedge, but ONLY as a complete setup. I was going to paint it and get it looking nice and pretty before selling.

I have two 750s in the rear lockers of my 99 VLX. I filled them with air to see how full they would be and they filled the entire compartment from what I could tell. I have an 1100lbs bag that I was going to sell since the 750s seem to fill the lockers right up. Should I keep the 1100lbs bag instead of the the 750 for the port side? Can you really get more water in there than 750lbs?

They do not fill the entire compartment and physically can't, since the compartment is a few inches taller than the bags. The 1100's fill right up to pushing against the locker lid. With my 750's tight and full I can still store a bunch of life jackets on top of them.

[Dale974]

you said the ski locker ballast was your last of 5 all hidden bags, where else did you put the others, i have a 300# in my ski locker and a wedge, just wondering where else you went with them

[Nitrousbird]

you said the ski locker ballast was your last of 5 all hidden bags, where else did you put the others, i have a 300# in my ski locker and a wedge, just wondering where else you went with them

750 in each rear locker, 500 under the port seat, 500 in the ski locker and 300 under the bow seats.

Just finished installing the ski locker bag and got it all plumbed this evening. Ended up being even easier than I thought it would be and turned out to be a very clean install

[Levi900RR]

750 in each rear locker, 500 under the port seat, 500 in the ski locker and 300 under the bow seats.

Just finished installing the ski locker bag and got it all plumbed this evening. Ended up being even easier than I thought it would be and turned out to be a very clean install

This is turning into a ballast hijack thread...

You running seperate pumps on all those? I'm thinking I'll have the same exact set up but Im trying to decide how to NOT need 6 X ~$250 for pumps...

[Ndawg12]

I have two 750s in the rear lockers of my 99 VLX. I filled them with air to see how full they would be and they filled the entire compartment from what I could tell. I have an 1100lbs bag that I was going to sell since the 750s seem to fill the lockers right up. Should I keep the 1100lbs bag instead of the the 750 for the port side? Can you really get more water in there than 750lbs?

FWIW, filling a bag with air doesn't really tell you what shape and how it will fill a compartment once filled with water. Water will cause the bag to be wider rather than taller, hence why people with bigger bags (20" or 24" wide) end up needing to reinforce the engine divider walls.

[Levi900RR]

FWIW, filling a bag with air doesn't really tell you what shape and how it will fill a compartment once filled with water. Water will cause the bag to be wider rather than taller, hence why people with bigger bags (20" or 24" wide) end up needing to reinforce the engine divider walls.

Am I gonna have to reinforce the walls with #750's in my LSV? Looks like those bags are 20" wide

Edited June 4, 2013 by Levi900RR

[Ndawg12]

Am I gonna have to reinforce the walls with #750's in my LSV? Looks like those bags are 20" wide

I don't know for sure but I think most can get away without on the 750's but some people still have. Anything bigger than that seems to be a must. Again, this is just what I've gathered from here.

[wakedncsu]

I have 750's in my locker's. They fill up the space completely, but my dividers don't bow in toward the motor at all. I have not reinforced mine.

[Nitrousbird]

This is turning into a ballast hijack thread...

You running seperate pumps on all those? I'm thinking I'll have the same exact set up but Im trying to decide how to NOT need 6 X ~$250 for pumps...

3 pumps. One pump for each rear bag. Starboard locker pump has a Y-valve on it, so when I surf, I change over the Y-valve to fill the port under seat bag since the starboard bag isn't being used.

I am doing an overflow setup for the ski locker/bow bags. Pump fills the ski locker first, which then overflows from 2 of the top ports to each leg of the bow bag. Once full, the bow bag will overflow to the outside. Very simple/clean setup. We will see how well it works this weekend.

750's won't require you to reinforce the dividers. I do love how people keep saying 750's fully fill up the space, yet when mine are tight/full and overflowing out the vent hole I still have plenty of space above them for life vests. That != full. 1100's will 100% fill the locker (though they only fill to ~1000lbs) and you 100% have to reinforce your dividers with those.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Nitrousbird

[Levi900RR]

Good info. Thanks Bird.

[Levi900RR]

So Bird, you gonna have some in the water night time pics of those LED's??

[Nitrousbird]

So Bird, you gonna have some in the water night time pics of those LED's??

Hopefully this weekend. Since I broke off a tracking fin on Memorial Day weekend, I wasn't able to stay out into the evening. New fin arrives today and I should have the boat ready for the water this weekend...I'll get some pics if we can stay out late enough.

I guarantee the pics won't be all that impressive for the murky water we boat in.

[Nitrousbird]

Night pictures, though taken with my iPhone 5 which sucks at night pictures. Our water is very dirty so the light output is impacted accordingly:

[Levi900RR]

Cool man!

[Nitrousbird]

I would like to also add that after surfing behind the boat with the STE, I'm glad I didn't go the FAE route. I used to notice a bit of fumes when surfing before, but noticed none at all surfing this weekend. I was even getting really close to the boat and trying to smell any sort of exhaust but there just wasn't any to smell.

My ONLY complaint about them is the now hearing the driveline noise when crusing instead of the exhaust...boat is a bit too quiet now (though I'm sure it would be even worse with the FAE). You can still hear it behind the boat though.