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New 2003 VLX Owner


JasonRMorrow

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Hey everyone,

Proud owner of an 03 Wakesetter VLX checking in from Calgary, Alberta. I've wanted a boat for about 10 years, set the goal to buy one before I was 30, buying a house, getting married and settled into a career, then having a baby (she's 5 months now) put things on hold for a bit but I made my goal by a few years.

This came up 3 hours from home $9000 less than a local dealer was asking for a similar one with 560 hrs. I bought it from only pictures and discussion with the One owner, he had 13 offers after me, at higher prices. I asked the price if we skip the water test in interest of getting my butt home faster, he dropped the price $1900. I knew the boat was on the water the previous weekend, so for $1900 I figured I can fix any small issue that comes up. I knew I'd be doing some work with the money I saved, but I wanted a bit of a project and this is much much newer and nicer than I thought I could get for the price.

Purchase price was $21000 Cdn.

216.3 hours

Heater

Shower

MLS (locker bag, rear tanks)

Heated Seat

Fiberglass Swim Platform

Tandem axle Trailer

Original Illusion Tower with Bimini

Aftermarket towable cover

Spare 537 prop

It was sunny and hot where I bought it. Drove 3 hours towards home and as I pull into my subdivision it starts raining, and doesn't stop for 2 days. Torture!

UFP surge actuator doesn't work right. He had replaced the solenoid once but it failed again and he just left it, I think he bypassed the entire system, it clunks like crazy. For piece of mind I ordered a brand new unit.

After getting the cover off I realize the previous owner has been towing down gravel roads with the cover off for most of its life. The seat surfaces looked clean but lift a cushion and it told the story. I scrubbed the entire interior with a fingernail brush, locker ballast bag was disgusting, pressure washed it for 25 mins in the driveway, cleaned bilge, vacuumed carpet, replaced trailer safety cables, retractable transom tie downs, charged battery, prepped and sprayed bedliner on gravel blasted fenders, replaced his damaged 537 prop with the spare 537 prop and prop puller that he already had! Scrubbed gas tank, re sealed and tightened loose bow eye, went over the entire boat tightening clamps and checking through hulls, replaced broken speedometer paddlewheel and retrieved the jammed Tupac CD from the factory headunit.

So far I have about 12-15 hours cleaning and prepping the boat and about 2hrs on the water, including tonights eventful outing!

In his driveway, I have real wheel chocks!

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It needs a good polish, and unfortunately the guy beached it at his favorite campsite everytime he was out there. When he showed me the beaching mat I went UGH!

There are a few dime sized marks on the hull that are down to the fiberglass. The gelcoat is quite cloudy too and the gravel roads did a number on the bow area as well. I will get some quotes on repairs. Mainly just from the black down, I will remove all the decals and get the black and purple polished and call it good.

Had a Rule locker ballast pump outlet disintegrate in my hands today so I'm off to get a replacement aerator tomorrow for the weekend. Luckily we are having remarkable weather this week for this time of year. Looking forward to putting some hours on it.

Tonight cruising under a bridge at 10mph, 10 mins after launching I hit a submerged log, shuddered the boat quite bad, then past the no wake zone throttle up and I felt a vibration. Stopped the boat and just stared straight ahead, my wife realized we weren't going to sink, and I just needed a minute to collect my thoughts, couldn't believe my luck. Decided to float, eat some snacks and then head for home. After playing with reverse for a while to get the feel for the complete lack of control I seem to have in reverse we headed slowly for the launch.

No vibration at 10mph, nothing at 15-20-25-30, awesome! Load the boat without issue and check the prop, its perfect. I can't explain it, there are no weeds in this glacier fed lake.

Any tips for backing off the trailer? I cannot keep the boat straight at all. Bow swing lefts immediately, first day I ended up rotating in the launch (3 wide, no one else there), today I thought I had it nailed with full rudder right and a little more throttle, bow went left, I stayed committed on the throttle thinking it would go back straightish, then the stern went right, and started backing into a moron who had docked inside the launch. Ended up saying sorry and using his boat (young guy, older bayliner), I pushed mine back out of the way.

Long intro, it's been eventful, I will share my plans for it a little later. Thanks!

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You'll have no steering in reverse as the rudder is in front of the prop when backing up. Due to the way the prop rotates, your stern will also always kick to the driver side. Key is to just go slow. Give it a bit of throttle, then neutral, a bit of throttle then neutral. Take your time and you'll get the hang of it. Bought my first boat at the beginning of the season. It was a s*** show parking. Now can do it in my sleep.

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Looks good. For $21k you got a steal of a deal. Talk to the Wizard Lake boys and see if they have someone in calgary that they trust for gelcoat. I see you were out at Ghost! Must be pretty cool still! My boat sits in the garage right now under cover and I am stuck in Fort McFurry starting up a new site! Some if the best weather of the year!

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Welcome to the crew and congradulations on the new boat.You have a great boat,and when you get it just like you want it you will be so proud ,and attatched to the boat almost like another child ,or wife :innocent: .lol.And you did get a good deal on it in my opinion.

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I hit a log earlier this year and instantly had vibrations. I noticed that the log broke up and thought something might be lodged in the prop. Decided to throw it in reverse and out it came. No more vibration.

Now when I hit a log on the bottom in a shallow area, not the same luck.

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Thanks guys, I had been seriously looking for about 3 months before I found this one. If you know Calgary you know how ridiculous prices are here. Lots of oil money around, nearly every dealer in the area is #1 in sales in North America.

I had to act fast at the price he was asking. That meant accepting any problems but even with all the little issues I'm so excited to have it. And it's my nature to get my hands on every single part of the boat so I know how it works, so its been enjoyable for me rather than work. Good stress relief, and it will be done the way I want.

Finding accessories for the Illusion tower could be interesting, anything can be modified since its a tube tower though. I want to get a hydrofoil rack on it somehow.

Offseason plans...

New stereo - headunit, speakers, sub, maybe tower speakers

2nd battery, isolator

Ballast - 750 rear bags, ibs, reversible pumps?

Gelcoat repairs

New swim deck padding

Polish all stainless

Rewire trailer plug

Convert trailer guides to round and add covers

New cup holders, black or stainless

Add perfect pass in place of tach

Figure out board racks-new rubber tie strap and rubber inserts, also modify/forks to fit surfboards on original bracket

Fix stripped mounting bolt in Bimini clamp

Wash and treat boat cover

New Ufp trailer coupler

Prop upgrade for surfing

Tower mirror

That should get me started. Hopefully I can spread it out a bit. I've had motorcycles and cars before that end up being "done" within a few months. Then I get bored and end up changing things that didn't need changing. This forum will not help!

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Thanks guys, I had been seriously looking for about 3 months before I found this one. If you know Calgary you know how ridiculous prices are here. Lots of oil money around, nearly every dealer in the area is #1 in sales in North America.

I had to act fast at the price he was asking. That meant accepting any problems but even with all the little issues I'm so excited to have it. And it's my nature to get my hands on every single part of the boat so I know how it works, so its been enjoyable for me rather than work. Good stress relief, and it will be done the way I want.

Finding accessories for the Illusion tower could be interesting, anything can be modified since its a tube tower though. I want to get a hydrofoil rack on it somehow.

Offseason plans...

New stereo - headunit, speakers, sub, maybe tower speakers

2nd battery, isolator

Ballast - 750 rear bags, ibs, reversible pumps?

Gelcoat repairs

New swim deck padding

Polish all stainless

Rewire trailer plug

Convert trailer guides to round and add covers

New cup holders, black or stainless

Add perfect pass in place of tach

Figure out board racks-new rubber tie strap and rubber inserts, also modify/forks to fit surfboards on original bracket

Fix stripped mounting bolt in Bimini clamp

Wash and treat boat cover

New Ufp trailer coupler

Prop upgrade for surfing

Tower mirror

That should get me started. Hopefully I can spread it out a bit. I've had motorcycles and cars before that end up being "done" within a few months. Then I get bored and end up changing things that didn't need changing. This forum will not help!

This forum will spend a lot of your money!! At least thats the excuse i use when the wife starts yelling at me when the UPS shows up with a package from Bakes. Congrats on the new boat. These guys are right, it will be your newest baby. Whats the water temp in that lake? Glacier--makes me shiver.

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Offseason plans...

New stereo - headunit, speakers, sub, maybe tower speakers

2nd battery, isolator

Ballast - 750 rear bags, ibs, reversible pumps?

New cup holders, black or stainless

Prop upgrade for surfing

My thoughts on the above:

- Make sure to relocate your head unit to under the dash. Arm rest sucks and it is cheap and easy to do yet so many people don't do it. I love this mod and would never go back. The rest is all budget related

- Blue Sea Add-A-Battery. Best way to go IMO, only $100

- Reversible pumps are the way to go. 750's fit perfectly; you can cram 1100's back there too but they don't fill all the way. You can get away with not reinforcing the engine dividers with 750's; 1100's and you better get to reinforcement. These hulls also like bow weight so you will need to work up a solution for that (I have an under-seat bow bag plumbed in + 200lbs of lead I use up front for wakeboarding and in various places for surfing depending on the crew size)

- Bakes sells the OEM stainless cup holders; if you become a paid TMC member you get a discount there as well. I did all my cup holders for about $70 - it's a really nice upgrade that people have noticed more than I thought they would

- Make sure to thoroughly research this and don't just fall into the Acme 1235 suggestion. There are a lot of new props out now to consider, and older props that many forgot about (such as the 1273) that may serve you better.

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Congrats on the new boat. Just got off of Ghost 3 hours ago and can see how you hit something as there is still quite a bit of debris in the water. Sounds like with a little effort it will be looking good in no time.

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Water temp was about 65*. Wakeboarding was fine once I was out of the water. Speedometer was working fine Thursday and decided to read 10-15 mph low today. So we went by feel and rpm. I love the wake and smiled the whole time I was riding behind MY boat!

And the hot shower is awesome. I've never been on a boat that had one.

Edited by JasonRMorrow
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Water temp was about 65*. Wakeboarding was fine once I was out of the water. Speedometer was working fine Thursday and decided to read 10-15 mph low today. So we went by feel and rpm. I love the wake and smiled the whole time I was riding behind MY boat!

And the hot shower is awesome. I've never been on a boat that had one.

You can adjust the speedometer. Its the switch next to your display switch (should say speed or something like that) There are a bunch of free speedometer apps you can get on your phone. I usually get to a speed the boat holds well (25 mph on my gps app) and then adjust the speedo accordingly.

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I knew there was an adjustment. Just wasn't sure how to do it. Looked it up once we got home and realized I probably screwed it up trying to set the clock! Didn't realize it was as simple as rocker switch up or down. I figured they would lock it out somehow since the rocker switch is so easy to hit instead of toggling through the functions.

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