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Weight in the Bow for wakeboarding or not?


timelinex

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Currently I ride with all stock ballasts full in my 2007 23lsv (200 each locker,500 center, 350 bow), wedge down and about 300lb more in the port side to even out the driver & passenger. It makes for a nice wake but I'm never really fully on plane (1235 prop). Other than the gas guzzling, I'm not sure if thats a problem.

I'm thinking about sacking out the rear with 1k more weight and don't know whether I should add weight to the bow as well. Doesn't adding weight to the bow make the wave SMALLER. I understand it mellows out the transition, but the transition on our big malibu boats are already very nice and mellow.

 

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

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The boat does get MORE on plane than when you just start giving gas, but it definitely doesn't go down to actual plane (even lean front to back, or even close to it).

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How fast are you going?  seems to me you should be on plane at wakeboarding speeds, now it's not like you will plane like you are going 25+, but with weight you'll always be pushing water to some extent.  I have an older vlx, and if we don't have people ballast we throw 500 in the bow in addition to center and about 450 lbs in each side tank, wedge down.  It does push the bow down.  However may be talking apples to oranges due to the difference in boats.  I still consider myself on plane at speeds from 19.5 to 22 mph

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Being heavily weight in the rear and not in the front is going to cause your bow to sit higher even at wakeboarding speeds. It will also create an unnatural angle for your driveline which will in turn cause the boat to actually work harder and burn more fuel. I'd be willing to bet that if you added bow weight you'll notice less fuel consumption. Unfortunately you'll never really know how this changes the wake until you experience it behind your own boat. I'd recommend trying it. I added 540lbs up front on mine and the boat actually planes faster and doesn't seem to work as hard now, even though I've added that extra weight.  For surfing it created a longer and cleaner wave and my wife can see over the front of the boat now when she's driving. It was a winner in every aspect for me. I'm not skilled enough to be very picky with my wakeboard wake, but I haven't found any issues there with the addition of the bow sac.

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