Homemade delta wakeshaper

[95echelon]

I want to post some information that might help: I just got my HOD from amazon today and I also bought the harbor freight one. The harbor freight model has MUCH HARDER RUBBER, it wont attach even nearly as well as the HOD. Since they are both under ten bucks BUY THE AMAZON HANDLE!!!

EDIT: after testing I am not a fan of the Handle on Demand. It fell off no matter how i configured it. It lasted a few minutes and was fun while it lasted.

Results of my test to come!

 

 

Edited June 13, 2016 by 95echelon

[chris4x4gill2]

3 hours ago, 95echelon said:

I want to post some information that might help: I just got my HOD from amazon today and I also bought the harbor freight one. The harbor freight model has MUCH HARDER RUBBER, it wont attach even nearly as well as the HOD. Since they are both under ten bucks BUY THE AMAZON HANDLE!!!

 

Results of my test to come!

 

 

link to the amazon one your referring to?

[95echelon]

35 minutes ago, chris4x4gill2 said:

link to the amazon one your referring to?

Sorry, brainfart.

http://www.amazon.com/FastCap-HOD-DOUBLE-Handle-On-Demand/dp/B001PBQ9K8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

 

[WABOBO]

On 5/30/2016 at 0:12 AM, AussieSkier said:

Looks good WABOBO! But does it work.....?

Weather this weekend was not ideal - raining on and off and windy. But, I took the boat out on the water for 10 minutes to try the "suckey-gate". It works! it cleans up the wake quite a bit, and also adds a touch of height and length. 

Since I was going out for just a few minutes, I only filled up one of two 400lb fat sacs. Keep in mind I have a response lxi, so I can't load it up like a Wakesetter. 

In the below image I had 400lbs, full wedge, and 2 people in the boat. The ballast was at the back, but slightly listed away from the gate, on the surf side. Next time I'm out and have more time, I'm going to adjust the angle of gate and add more weight. Right now the angle is at about 45 degrees, but I'm thinking it needs to be between 60-80 degrees. I also need to find a new surf speed...its kind of like trying to set up the boat for surfing for the first time, again. 

 

 

[AussieSkier]

10 hours ago, WABOBO said:

Weather this weekend was not ideal - raining on and off and windy. But, I took the boat out on the water for 10 minutes to try the "suckey-gate". It works! it cleans up the wake quite a bit, and also adds a touch of height and length. 

Since I was going out for just a few minutes, I only filled up one of two 400lb fat sacs. Keep in mind I have a response lxi, so I can't load it up like a Wakesetter. 

In the below image I had 400lbs, full wedge, and 2 people in the boat. The ballast was at the back, but slightly listed away from the gate, on the surf side. Next time I'm out and have more time, I'm going to adjust the angle of gate and add more weight. Right now the angle is at about 45 degrees, but I'm thinking it needs to be between 60-80 degrees. I also need to find a new surf speed...its kind of like trying to set up the boat for surfing for the first time, again. 

 

 

nice one.

[joshuadale07]

I made one with the harbor freight handle Friday. Turned out great. Surfed for about 4 hours yesterday and it never moved an inch. That being Said, I made it 6.5"x9" and I think I'm going to go up to 7.5x10 as I didn't feel it helped the wake much. It did seem to have slightly more push I guess but I didn't ride that much, mainly pulled inexperienced surfers, and I didn't change my ballast setup besides filling the non surf side bag with ~500lbs instead of having it empty. As easy and cheap as this was to build, I'm very impressed and can't wait to go out next weekend with a larger face and have time to mess with ballast combinations to see what it will do

[me_ski]

Made myself a suck gate on Thursday night using harbor freight suction clamp and a small piece of 3/4 oak from Lowes. Similar to the one reposted by ncvride that was by blkjeepzj, 7x9 Panel but just rectangle with no beveled edges and at 75 degrees.

Went to Lake Oroville this weekend and the suck gate worked amazing. 2002 LSV 23 with 1,100 hundred in each locker (not enough room for them to fill completely) and then stock ski locker sack and 400 lb bag on bow and wedge down. I have bags under rear seats but we didn't use them because we would have needed more weight up front and didn't bring our other 400lb bag, maybe next time.  Place suck gate all the way back and finger's width below ridge. No spray.

Now my son is WakeMitch who many of you may know is an avid wake surfer. He has ridden behind just about every wake boat out there, his favorite wake being from a T22. He has felt our boat listed provide a good wake and was very skeptical of my suck gate. He had just been behind my friends new T22 Thursday and was saying how great it was (he had recommended a T22 to my friend). Well after riding behind our old boat with a suck gate and landing every trick he know he is a suck gate believer. He said wake was similar to T22 just not quite as high. That's probably at least partially due to not having as much ballast as the T22.

$20 in materials and a couple hours, best bag for the buck investment. No more having everyone moving to one side of boat. No more ordeal emptying one side and filling another for goofy footed guest. Also seems more forgiving to front to rear weighting, still changes length but doesn't seem a big factor on how clean the wake is not the strength of the push.

Now that I know it works I'm going to make an HDPE one with Amazon suction clamp before my Shasta trip next month. Don't expect it to perform better, doesn't have to, but it should last longer and look a little better.  Thanks for all those that tried this before me and took the time to post their experience.

[95echelon]

16 hours ago, joshuadale07 said:

I made one with the harbor freight handle Friday. Turned out great. Surfed for about 4 hours yesterday and it never moved an inch. That being Said, I made it 6.5"x9" and I think I'm going to go up to 7.5x10 as I didn't feel it helped the wake much. It did seem to have slightly more push I guess but I didn't ride that much, mainly pulled inexperienced surfers, and I didn't change my ballast setup besides filling the non surf side bag with ~500lbs instead of having it empty. As easy and cheap as this was to build, I'm very impressed and can't wait to go out next weekend with a larger face and have time to mess with ballast combinations to see what it will do

The amazon Handle on Demand didn't work well. I am trying the Harbor Freight this weekend.I highly recommend the vinyl trim for a material though, it floats, it's soft enough not to scratch the gel harshly and its extremely easy to work with:

 

I ordered the aluminum clamp from amazon too to compare. 

Edited June 13, 2016 by 95echelon

[Chatty21VLX]

Sucks to hear about the HoD because I bought one and was going to start building today or tomorrow. My hdpe sheet should be waiting for me on my front porch...

[joshuadale07]

Are you guys wiping down the area you are installing with alcohol or something to remove the wax? I wiped mine down with rubbing alcohol and it didn't move at all after a full afternoon of surfing. That's with the harbor Frieght version, but maybe the wax on the hull is causing it to slide or not suction 

[prion]

The harbor freight version seems to have a more robust/thicker rubber used for the suction cup vs the hod handle. I first used the hod and it would fall off within 10 seconds. The harbor freight version does not move an inch. 

[Bigstic]

I got my suck gate out on Friday night.  I fought getting it to stay.  I have the HoD.  After looking at the design I found that adding another washer between the fold over piece and the hard plastic should give it some more suction. I didn't have washers on the boat but I had some side cutters and the plastic dividers in my tackle box (yeah we fish).  Fabbed up some spacers and tried the unit again.  She held like a champ after that.  Next time I am going to try mounting the gate lower to see if it will reduce the splash you can see in the second picture.  It wasn't splashing the occupants but quite a bit of water going in the vent.

This was the wave with wedge one click up, MLS in the ski locker, 800lb bags in back lockers, 400lb lead in the nose, and 400lb of humans.  I'm 280lb and the wave looked better the closer to the front I stood so next time will put my 400lb bag in the front too.  I definitely need a real board as this Airhead one that came free with the boat wont come close to handling my weight ropeless.

[sidekicknicholas]

What are you guys noticing in a chance in RPMs with the suck-gates?

Ballast + Wedge listed setup I was usually like 2400 rpm to surf, with the suck-gate it is closer to 3200 rpms, seems like a big jump... are others seeing similar increases?

[95echelon]

1 hour ago, sidekicknicholas said:

What are you guys noticing in a chance in RPMs with the suck-gates?

Ballast + Wedge listed setup I was usually like 2400 rpm to surf, with the suck-gate it is closer to 3200 rpms, seems like a big jump... are others seeing similar increases?

My wife drives and I have a 2419 but when I tested I noticed no noticeable difference.

[wakemitch]

9 hours ago, me_ski said:

Made myself a suck gate on Thursday night using harbor freight suction clamp and a small piece of 3/4 oak from Lowes. Similar to the one reposted by ncvride that was by blkjeepzj, 7x9 Panel but just rectangle with no beveled edges and at 75 degrees.

Went to Lake Oroville this weekend and the suck gate worked amazing. 2002 LSV 23 with 1,100 hundred in each locker (not enough room for them to fill completely) and then stock ski locker sack and 400 lb bag on bow and wedge down. I have bags under rear seats but we didn't use them because we would have needed more weight up front and didn't bring our other 400lb bag, maybe next time.  Place suck gate all the way back and finger's width below ridge. No spray.

Now my son is WakeMitch who many of you may know is an avid wake surfer. He has ridden behind just about every wake boat out there, his favorite wake being from a T22. He has felt our boat listed provide a good wake and was very skeptical of my suck gate. He had just been behind my friends new T22 Thursday and was saying how great it was (he had recommended a T22 to my friend). Well after riding behind our old boat with a suck gate and landing every trick he know he is a suck gate believer. He said wake was similar to T22 just not quite as high. That's probably at least partially due to not having as much ballast as the T22.

$20 in materials and a couple hours, best bag for the buck investment. No more having everyone moving to one side of boat. No more ordeal emptying one side and filling another for goofy footed guest. Also seems more forgiving to front to rear weighting, still changes length but doesn't seem a big factor on how clean the wake is not the strength of the push.

Now that I know it works I'm going to make an HDPE one with Amazon suction clamp before my Shasta trip next month. Don't expect it to perform better, doesn't have to, but it should last longer and look a little better.  Thanks for all those that tried this before me and took the time to post their experience.

Here is a pic from the weekend. I was very impressed with how well it worked with our hull. Great wake!

[Dodger40]

Is the steering effected as much as the wicked wakesurf gate?

[wakemitch]

3 minutes ago, Dodger40 said:

Is the steering effected as much as the wicked wakesurf gate?

I could hardly notice it. It is way easier to drive with it than it is with a listed boat

[Bill_AirJunky]

9 hours ago, 95echelon said:

The amazon Handle on Demand didn't work well. I am trying the Harbor Freight this weekend.I highly recommend the vinyl trim for a material though, it floats, it's soft enough not to scratch the gel harshly and its extremely easy to work with:

What is this vinyl trim you speak of?

[joshuadale07]

I second it being easier to drive than a listed boat. I'll take some videos Saturday and upload 

[NCVride]

6 hours ago, sidekicknicholas said:

What are you guys noticing in a chance in RPMs with the suck-gates?

Ballast + Wedge listed setup I was usually like 2400 rpm to surf, with the suck-gate it is closer to 3200 rpms, seems like a big jump... are others seeing similar increases?

Not sure but it would make sense.  If you are pumping all ballast full instead of listing then that's more weight.  More weight = higher RPMs

[95echelon]

17 minutes ago, Bill_AirJunky said:

What is this vinyl trim you speak of?

I just grabbed it on the way out but I think it is this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/3-4-in-x-7-1-2-in-x-8-ft-White-Reversible-PVC-Trim-Board-HD910808R/206516584

Here is what it looked like: (smooth on one side, wood like on the other) It floats and doesn't seem to absorb water. You can see it floating in my second video I think after the amazon handle gives up the ghost.

 

 

 

[Cayute]

43 minutes ago, 95echelon said:

I just grabbed it on the way out but I think it is this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/3-4-in-x-7-1-2-in-x-8-ft-White-Reversible-PVC-Trim-Board-HD910808R/206516584

Here is what it looked like: (smooth on one side, wood like on the other) It floats and doesn't seem to absorb water. You can see it floating in my second video I think after the amazon handle gives up the ghost.

 

 

 

How much ballast were you running in your videos?

[95echelon]

1 hour ago, Cayute said:

How much ballast were you running in your videos?

Very little. 400 sac in the bow, 500mls in center, factory rears full and my 900lb rear sacs were at most a third full. Wedge down. So around 1900lb  

The VLX in my year seems to really want front weight. Filling the rear more or adding rear passengers washed the wave a bit. I have a 1000 pound bow sack coming this week to try more total weight. 

Edit: take all of this with a grain of salt. This is about my third time trying surfing. The front weight thing could be boat dependent. 

Edited June 14, 2016 by 95echelon

[wakemitch]

Here is video of me behind my dad's 2002 lsv with the home made suction cup surf gate

 

[mountaineerhill]

So after watching this thread closely my riding buddy and I decided to tackle this project

we are lucky enough to have access to a CNC Machine as well as autocad. We picked out some PVC for the base and aluminum for the plate and the sides. This is our first test design. I have my Malibu and he has a supra direct drive so the adjustablity allows us to go from one boat to another.

Any thoughts? Going to try it out this weekend hopefully

Edited June 17, 2016 by mountaineerhill