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Loaded heavy tight turn, now caviation/vibration sound?


wakeboarder3780

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There is a guy I took out on my boat yesterday. I knew he was a really good rider so I filled it up for him as much as I could. I had dual 1100's in the back almost full, the wedge down (some people say it can't be done with that amount of weight but it can, and does peak the wake nicely). I have filled the boat this full before without issue.

The only difference is he wanted to run an 80' line and so instead of going my normal 23.6 mph, I had to bump it up to 26 mph. About 1/3 of the way through my first turn around all of a sudden i felt vibration which felt either like how when you ding the prop, or if you get cavitation. I thought perhaps it was cavitating but after the turn around the vibration persisted throughout the rest of his entire set.

I know I should have shut it down right away, but I have been trying to get out and make new riding buddies for months and I didn't want to shut down a chance at connecting with people. I was busy the rest of the night so did not have a chance to pull the boat out. I am looking for advice on what to check. I am currently thinking:

  1. Investigate prop and look for dings or bent blades.
  2. Check for prop being loose - prop rattling around in the key maybe?
  3. Investigate wedge and look for anything out of true

The only other thing to note is after unloading the boat and picking the wedge up to go home I tested things out by going all the way up to 35 and did not experience the same issue. So at this point I feel like it's definitely not the prop and if it's not the wedge I'll be completely at a loss for what to check :(

Edited by wakeboarder3780
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I suppose when I was picking up the rider after his set I did put it in reverse for 3 seconds (to slow down so the swim pad ends up right next to him). Could it really be that benign? It felt impressively serious. Over lunch I will load it up and take it out and see if I can replicate the behavior.

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I doubt you have the problem I had but it's worth checking. My rudder housing broke in half. The cast had pits in it (bad casting), and it failed shortly after we began surfing. There's a pic in my boathouse.

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I suppose when I was picking up the rider after his set I did put it in reverse for 3 seconds (to slow down so the swim pad ends up right next to him). Could it really be that benign? It felt impressively serious. Over lunch I will load it up and take it out and see if I can replicate the behavior.

When it happened to us my wife was driving and she stopped right away. The vibration felt really bad so we idled the short distance back to our dock. She reversed the boat to dock it and put it on the lift. Once it was in the air, I couldn't see anything wrong with the prop. Took it back out and the problem was gone. By the amount of vibration we had, I thought we had something seriously wrong. The exact same thing happened to our next door neighbor's Mastercraft a few weeks later.

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Happened to me as well. we shut it down I reached through the wedge door and found 1/2 of a rather large fish stuck in the wedge. I was having better luck that the fishermen that day.

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I had the same thing happen on my old DD Sportster LX. Ran through some shallow water with a bunch of weeds growing in it. A good spin in reverse and the problem was gone.

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Loaded it heavy over lunch, did super fast donuts. Mean things. Looks like you were totally correct Blast! What a load off my mind. My current todo list is 3 months long. I was not looking forward to a serious issue prior to the start of what should be an epic season. Thanks so much for hte suggestions as well, I'll be sure to throw it in reverse next time and if thats not it to inspect the rudder housing. Thanks again!

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I had the same thing happen on my old DD Sportster LX. Ran through some shallow water with a bunch of weeds growing in it. A good spin in reverse and the problem was gone.

The reverse idea is great!

I got a small small piece of coconut hust caught in my 4-blade at the base of one blade and the whole boat vibrated real hard mid-range rpm and up. A quick dive solved the problem, but reverse would have probably done the trick.

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I had a banana peel and old sandle get caught on our prop a couple years ago, no joke, it really happened.... same exact symptoms, shut the boat off and entered the water with goggles and pulled them off the prop. Cant imagine what the odds were of this happening, I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.

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I'm definitely super thankful for this crew and the advice. I NEVER would have thought of that. Should I be investigating anything like the shaft or any seals since I ran it with vibration for about 10 mins?

Edit: Fman the sandal and banana peel had me rolling. Would have been amazing if you had a gopro to get a shot of that! LOL

Edited by wakeboarder3780
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