350 HP at high altitude weighted down

[janine22]

Hello,

I'm close to purchasing a 2008 Malibu Wakesetter 23 LSV at the moment. Having second thoughts because when I test drove we only used factory ballast on surf side. It was a bad surf wake, but I know this boat can produce a good surf wake with lots of added weight (I've looked at many of these threads for that purpose).

Basically, I'm nervous about the 350 Hp monsoon engine at 5500 ft elevation loaded down with weight for surfing. Does anyone have experience at high elevation surfing with similar style boat and engine?

[Steve B.]

Welcome, and definitely try it first.

Steve B.

[janine22]

Thanks! It ran great on test drive at high altitude with factory ballasts. But factory ballasts are only 250 on left, 500 in middle and we had to about a 200 lb in front with people. That's not much weight for surfing and owner didn't have any bags to use for additonal weight to test that part.

[racer808]

You just get a different prop. I have the 1235 & run 2800 pounds with no problems

[janine22]

You just get a different prop. I have the 1235 & run 2800 pounds with no problems

Ok, and you have the standard engine?

[racer808]

Ok, and you have the standard engine?

Yep. You'll lose top end though. Mine does 32-33mph at 4000rpm which about as all as fast I want to go anway so it doesn't bother me. Was a small nuisance on a really large lake where we cruised 10-20 miles to check things out but that's once a year for us

Edited June 24, 2015 by racer808

[CJAY]

since you are going to be running listed you should be ok, but it will not be great for wakeboarding. We ran an 07 VTX 350 with about 2850lbs of ballast listed and it surfed great. An LSV will be a tougher test though. We had a 1235 on the VTX and we could run about 600lbs over stock in the rear with a 650 in the bow and still plane as long as we had a small crew wakeboarding

[janine22]

Yep. You'll lose top end though. Mine does 32-33mph at 4000rpm which about as all as fast I want to go anway so it doesn't bother me. Was a small nuisance on a really large lake where we cruised 10-20 miles to check things out but that's once a year for us

Cool. That's alright with me. We'll maybe go to a larger lake once a year as well, otherwise small local lakes. So that shouldn't be a problem for us.

[janine22]

since you are going to be running listed you should be ok, but it will not be great for wakeboarding. We ran an 07 VTX 350 with about 2850lbs of ballast listed and it surfed great. An LSV will be a tougher test though. We had a 1235 on the VTX and we could run about 600lbs over stock in the rear with a 650 in the bow and still plane as long as we had a small crew wakeboarding

We won't need much more over stocks for wakeboarding for a while. This will be our first full time wakeboarding boat, so the wake looked great compared to what we are used to. But glad to know with that weight it surfed good.

[CJAY]

We won't need much more over stocks for wakeboarding for a while. This will be our first full time wakeboarding boat, so the wake looked great compared to what we are used to. But glad to know with that weight it surfed good.

Yeah if you aren't running over stock or with huge crews you will be fine. It will struggle if you start putting lots of people in the boat though

[varner]

Hi @janine22, how did it go with the 350? If you ended up with that size of motor in the 23 lsv, how did it perform for you? at this altitude? was it able to surf well with the boat loaded with people and extra ballast?

[Nick55]

Last visit to this site for Janine was June 2018.  Doubt you’ll get a response.