Surf Plates NSS type Malibu project

[trayson]

Trayson, looks good. I'd suggest making the edges smoother just to make it look a little cleaner.

Are you just talking about rounding the edges of the HDPE? Or are you talking about smoothing the lines of the blade? I could certainly do a little bit of rounding, but my boat does have fairly "square" lines to it...

I'm definitely going to round the edges. That HDPE could cut a person if they hit the edge of one of those pieces wrong.

Edited June 10, 2014 by trayson

[h2ojunkie]

Just take em to a grinder and get "edge" off of it or a dremel tool sanding rounds. HDPE easy to shape and get edges off. I just ran mine along the bench grinder wheels. Your plates will work juts fine. You got enough base plate for mounting to boat and enough area for slide plate to work juts fine.

You are on your way man. Nice work. I like the idea of all 1/2" thick as well and made a couple of spare slide plates for mine if my 3/8" slide plates get cracked ect...

Tao's advise is spot on as well.

Just take your time and do it right, be patient with the hull holes and "pre tap" the holes with the screws so when ya go to mount the plates no screws strip out. I bought 20 SS screws for my 14 hull mount holes cause SS strip out so easy, take your time in the glass and screws will go in nicely. Also, make sure to use Loctite primer first on the SS bolts then the red Loctite and you should be money in the HDPE so no bolts back out on ya ect... PM me if ya have any questions and we can talk.

[trayson]

Just take em to a grinder and get "edge" off of it or a dremel tool sanding rounds. HDPE easy to shape and get edges off. I just ran mine along the bench grinder wheels. Your plates will work juts fine. You got enough base plate for mounting to boat and enough area for slide plate to work juts fine.

You are on your way man. Nice work. I like the idea of all 1/2" thick as well and made a couple of spare slide plates for mine if my 3/8" slide plates get cracked ect...

Tao's advise is spot on as well.

Just take your time and do it right, be patient with the hull holes and "pre tap" the holes with the screws so when ya go to mount the plates no screws strip out. I bought 20 SS screws for my 14 hull mount holes cause SS strip out so easy, take your time in the glass and screws will go in nicely. Also, make sure to use Loctite primer first on the SS bolts then the red Loctite and you should be money in the HDPE so no bolts back out on ya ect... PM me if ya have any questions and we can talk.

Well, my intention is to thru-bolt my holes. Since I have a direct drive, I can access behind where my plates will be by pulling my gas tank. The only part I'm not sure about is how much material there will be in the outside corner of the hull. I'm really hoping that I can get the outer bolts my blade will slide on far enough to the edge for it to work well.

I think it'll be really awesome if I can through-bolt the whole thing. No worrying about tapping the threads or even having the threads stick to the HDPE with loctite. I'll keep you updated with how things progress.

[trayson]

Well, I tore into the boat last night. I wanted a really solid mount for the baseplates to the hull, so I have 10 holes in the boat per side. Yikes! I first cut my "filler" baseplate that will go against the white part of my hull. Then I used that to help me cut the rest of the baseplate. It was pretty easy actually. I just traced certain parts and then used a sharpie to draw the outside edge on the HDPE. I was going to use my chop saw to cut some of it, but I ended up just using my jigsaw. The HDPE is really easy to cut with standard woodworking tools. I took the sharpness off the various edges with a file. when I cut out the 2nd baseplate, I had my wife hold the plastic against the hull and drilled from the inside of the boat outwards through the first baseplate. That allowed me to make sure my bolt holes were perfectly lined up. That worked pretty good until one where I told my wife that the drill bit would be popping out in one spot and I had judged wrong and the drill bit jumped out in a different spot and I got her finger a tiny bit. Not enough to be seriously hurt, but I did draw blood! Oops.

It was a PITA to take the gas tank out again because my fluid pump died. Thankfully I had ran the gas down to about 6 or 7 gallons, so I was able to take the tank out without draining it. However, having the tank out and being able to access the bolts and holes from the inside of the boat is totally worth it. I made a run to "Vancouver Bolt" and got more hardware. turns out that on many of my bolts, I needed a lot longer because I was going through a lot of material. On a couple of them, they're going through 3 pieces of 1/2" HDPE, then the hull, then the part of the hull that was built up extra for the swim platform brackets, then through the backing plates for the through-hull bolts on the brackets.

It got late and I had pretty much had the upper and lower baseplate completely cut and all holes drilled for one side of my boat. I'm starting with doing the plate on the Port side of my boat because I care a LOT more about my Regular Wave and I tend to do better on the 2nd iteration than I do on the 1st when I tackle projects. So I'm sure I'll learn from the Port side and apply that to the Starboard Side.

[h2ojunkie]

trayson, sorry man but my wife and I had a good laugh bout the oops ya had. That's why she rarely helps me on stuff like that casue invariably she is the one who gets hurt even tho I'm the accident prone one.

Hang in there man, good idea on the side to start with first but you'll get it right. Use good quality silicone for the holes around bolts and your money. Careful w the 3M 5200, ya may never get bolts apart or out of hull if ya use that stuff.

[trayson]

trayson, sorry man but my wife and I had a good laugh bout the oops ya had. That's why she rarely helps me on stuff like that casue invariably she is the one who gets hurt even tho I'm the accident prone one.

Hang in there man, good idea on the side to start with first but you'll get it right. Use good quality silicone for the holes around bolts and your money. Careful w the 3M 5200, ya may never get bolts apart or out of hull if ya use that stuff.

I'm going to TRY and not take over your thread TOO much, so I started my own on the Supra forum, the Moomba forum, and on Wakeworld.

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1880854

I am using the 3m 4200 for that reason you stated.

I will share a couple pics. Port side is mostly done. I would like to trim up some bolts and I haven't added the knob, but it's functional. I have been getting lots of criticism about using the HDPE and it's strength for this application. I think it'll be fine. I suppose my bolt locations and the channels they required could have been better, but I guess we'll see. I also have gotten naysayers questioning the hull integrity. But mine is through bolted with 2 of the bolts going through the swim platform backing plate and all that extra reinforcement. Most of the other bolts are near an edge/corner, so that's inherently stronger. I'm optimistic.

The HDPE is really easy to work with, so that's nice.

Edited June 13, 2014 by trayson

[Ndawg12]

I'm going to TRY and not take over your thread TOO much, so I started my own on the Supra forum, the Moomba forum, and on Wakeworld.

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1880854

I am using the 3m 4200 for that reason you stated.

I will share a couple pics. Port side is mostly done. I would like to trim up some bolts and I haven't added the knob, but it's functional. I have been getting lots of criticism about using the HDPE and it's strength for this application. I think it'll be fine. I suppose my bolt locations and the channels they required could have been better, but I guess we'll see. I also have gotten naysayers questioning the hull integrity. But mine is through bolted with 2 of the bolts going through the swim platform backing plate and all that extra reinforcement. Most of the other bolts are near an edge/corner, so that's inherently stronger. I'm optimistic.

The HDPE is really easy to work with, so that's nice.

I wish you the best of luck Trayson but I also would have to question the strength of that HPDE based on the attachment points. I don't think any screws or bolts will rip out of the hull but that 1/2" HDPE is going to see alot of blunt force (as opposed to surf gate where it's gradually redirected) coupled with the fact it's weakened with the slots.

[Malibuzer]

Nate, H20 Junky made his out of 3/8 HDPE. SO this should be ok. Besides, it is for testing and can be made out of stainless or something else later.

Edited June 13, 2014 by Malibuzer

[trayson]

I wish you the best of luck Trayson but I also would have to question the strength of that HPDE based on the attachment points. I don't think any screws or bolts will rip out of the hull but that 1/2" HDPE is going to see alot of blunt force (as opposed to surf gate where it's gradually redirected) coupled with the fact it's weakened with the slots.

You're right. It seems to be working for H20 junkie. But he had the luxury of additional width between the ouside of his hull and the swim platform bracket that I simply don't have. With my decreased width, I had to work with my surface area the best I could... We'll see how it goes.

If this doesn't work out, I'm not prevented from attempting a surfgate installation. I already have the 2014 Axis surfgate template and some ideas of how I could make that a reality. But I decided to try this first as I liked the idea of being able to have adjustable excursion to tailor a skim vs. surf style wave.

Also, I agree that the placement of my slots didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. the variables of where to drill and what was behind my transom came into play. And the slots happened AFTER the holes were drilled, so I was kind of stuck with the slot layout that the hole locations dictated.

That's why I did the Port side first, so I could make subtle improvements on the Starboard side. Most everyone I know rides regular, so the starboard blade is absolutely more important to me than the Port blade.

Edited June 13, 2014 by trayson

[h2ojunkie]

More wave pics from Norris Lk water. Plates are working great, can adjust for surf or skim, lovin it.

[h2ojunkie]

Trayson,,,,,how are yours working out for ya?

[trayson]

Trayson,,,,,how are yours working out for ya?

fantastic. It's basically reinvented my boat. We did the Wake the World event on Monday and we took out the organizer and some of the volunteers for a surf session. The organizer was goofy. No problem there. The next rider thought she was Regular, but got up goofy. So we swapped. then she got up regular, so we swapped back. having 10 second transitions between regular and goofy is amazing.

The Wake the World event ended up being a lot of pulling tubes. that with a little wind meant that it was roller city out there. We had to chase down the organizer's boat and get his surf board. We were caught in a hot mess of big rollers. Our boat was rocking like I've never seen it. I can guarantee you that had we been slammed like before (with the rear corner waterline 4" below the rub rail) that we cold have absolutely taken on tons of water. It would have been downright scary. But with even weighting on either side of the doghouse, the boat handled it with NO water over the transom.

It was also really cool to be at an event with 30+ wake boats (most of them $50k to $100+). I was one of 3 direct drives and my boat got a TON of attention at the event from the other boat owners. Ha!

The wave isn't as tall as slamming the back corner, but it's totally surfable and we're having a blast cutting and shredding it up. Today I experimented with a DIY Fresh Air Exhaust. That changed the wave a little but again, not enough to make me go back to listing. I actally was getting REALLY frustrated because I set it up like the last few times and I couldn't get quite enough to freeride. It turns out that in addition to my under seat bag and the pair on either side of the engine that I needed to bust out a little 150 pound "baby bag" because I only had my wife and 8 y/o son with me. I just needed a little more weight in the surfside corner and I was back to shredding the wave. *whew*

So, things are going well and this is most certainly how I'll continue to run my surf wave.

[h2ojunkie]

Nice man. I still list my boat but only say 70/30-60/40 Stock tanks full and just fill a bag on rider side. I feel the plates made our wave a real blast as well and the push and length/surf area is fantastic. Glad it's working for ya. Nice implementation on your part man, congrats and enjoy.