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Wedge & Fat Sac's


MIKEGOUGH1

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I am fairly new to the wakeboarding experience. Being the hard core slalom skier that I am, adding weight to my boat was the opposite of what we always were looking to do, but now that my son (and myself, I admit it) are getting into the wakeboarding more and more, we began discussing ways to get a better wake. My question is, will adding weight or the wedge, or both, put a strain on my engine? I don't think the Echelon was designed for that. I see other Echelon's with the wakeboard packages, ie Captain Blood, but it still concerns me. The newer wakeboard boats with the more powerful engines can handle it with no problem, I'm sure. It reminds me of 5-6 years ago when a boat load of teenagers in their dads MC 205 came up to our pier one summer loaded down with fat sacks, the engine was so hot it was smoking. That had to do some damage to the engine. Also, what about structural integrity. Can the older, smaller boats handle the weight and the stress. I did have my gunnels reinforced where my tower mounts to help prevent stress cracks in the gelcoat, what about the rest of the boat. Just cautious about my Bu.

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I know guys that add fat sacs to older boats all the time without problems,,,,the engine overheating would be due to another problem (impeller, clogged tranny cooler, fan belt, etc)

Someone else would need to answer if a wedge can be safely mounted to you boat, or if reinforcements must be done.

I have been behind dozens of DD's that are 10-20 years old, and without the wedge, but adding the necessary weight they do great.

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Go a little at a time. Don't jump in with a boat load of ballast. The narrower hulls of the echelons/sporties/....don't take near as much wake to sink in for a real decent wakeboard wake. I get a nice wake with just 200 in the back and 100 up front, and only the wife and two skinny little boys in the boat.

:)

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Go a little at a time.  Don't jump in with a boat load of ballast.  The narrower hulls of the echelons/sporties/....don't take near as much wake to sink in for a real decent wakeboard wake.  I get a nice wake with just 200 in the back and 100 up front, and only the wife and two skinny little boys in the boat.

:)

Definitely. 500 lbs in a Response/Sportster/Echelon is not the same as 500 lbs in the bigger boats.

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That being the case, would it be easier to use a couple of hundred pounds of weights like lead, instead of the bulky fat sacks?

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I agree, I have been in older boats that have been really weighted down... and they have done fine. But I'm not sure about the older 'Bu with a wedge...someone on here will know. Glad to finally see someone from my area by the way. Biggrin.gif

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I know guys that add fat sacs to older boats all the time without problems,,,,the engine overheating would be due to another problem (impeller, clogged tranny cooler, fan belt, etc)

Yeah, if the fan belt goes out, what's going to cool your radiator Tease2.gif

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Safety wise, God forbid you would have a hull breach and the boat began to sink. With fat sac's as ballast, once they are under water, they become neutral and the boat should stay at the top of the water. Lead or any other solid form of ballast will probably be found at the bottom of the lake with your boat.

I think the choice is an easy one.

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lead is an okay option in moderation. i feel it is very useful for wake shaping, i.e. a block or whatever to easily move around to even the wake or whatever.

100-200 lbs of lead shouldn't be that big of a problem. that's all i would ever use.

my friend hasa 97 prostar 190 ls1 and with 2 550 sacks and 4 180 lb guys the wake is respectable. last summer we boarded w/ just the rear sack and people and it was very small. the wild thing is he said he put 3-550's, and 3-225's in it. along with 4 people. i wasn't there but he said the wake was alrge and in charge. i guess what i'm trying to say is, even with all that weight there was no problem with the engine at all.

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I know guys that add fat sacs to older boats all the time without problems,,,,the engine overheating would be due to another problem (impeller, clogged tranny cooler, fan belt, etc)

Yeah, if the fan belt goes out, what's going to cool your radiator Tease2.gif

:lol: So, how do you get the bugs out of your Malibu's radiator? Crazy.gif

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The radiator in my LSV is up above the drivers feet so it doesn't get any bugs there. Those Malibu engineers are pretty smart ! Crazy.gif

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c'mon guys, you know what he means......

his radiator doesn't work as well as it has in the past. LOL!!! Crazy.gifCrazy.gifCrazy.gifTease2.gifTease2.gifTease2.gifTease2.gifTease2.gifTease2.gif

Edited by madchild
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"Does it strain the engine?" I'm sure it does, and you can tell this by how much more gas you burn when its loaded up. "Does it hurt it?" I don't think so those engines are built pretty strong.

As far as loading the boat up with sacks, I'd go easy. While the Echelon has the same bottom hull (SV23) as some of the newer boats. It does not have the same freeboard. You put to much weight in the boat and you have to worry about swamping her.

I 'm running the wedge and and a fat sack with approx. 300-500lbs up front to balance it out. You would be surprised how nice the wake is with this set up.

And the nice thing is in 5 minutes you can drain the sack, raise the wedge and your ready for sking again.

I'm not a big fan of the lead bar thing because you can't get rid of it when you want to do something else. But if you go out and you dont have a boatfull of people, its nice to have a couple hundred pounds to move around to balance out the wake.

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My Malibu is special,,,it has a fan belt,,,the others just have an alternator belt.....btw, I use a tooth brush to get the bugs out of the radiator. ROFL.gif

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Does that 300-500 lbs up front make the wake alot more rampy?

no, it cleans it up.

Bigger, Cleaner, and more Rampy.

You want to sink the whole boat evenly so that you can take full advantage of the wedge at its proper angle.

CB

i thought weight up frount helped get rid of the "wall" that you hit if you only weight the back.

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Does that 300-500 lbs up front make the wake alot more rampy?

no, it cleans it up.

Bigger, Cleaner, and more Rampy.

You want to sink the whole boat evenly so that you can take full advantage of the wedge at its proper angle.

CB

actually you want a 60% rear 40% front split

Rockon.gif

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The weight certainly causes stress on the engine, but what doesn't? I personally believe that as long as you don't hammer it with a ton of weight, it's fine. I see people that run 3000#s and floor it coming out of the whole...now they might me tearing a lot of stuff up. But, having 1500#s of drag in the boat is certainly no harder on an engine than running wide open for a barefooter with a few people in the boat.

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