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Ronix eight.3 surf shaper on our '02 VLX Video Review


petefranc

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What's happening, Malibu Crew? I hope this video will help those on the fence about surf shapers, specifically if you have the same hull as us (2002 VLX). The eight.3 definitely has dramatic improvements to our wave, but pulls from the hull occasionally.. super frustrating. If anyone has had success modifying it to stay on, please sound off below.

 

Ronix Eight.3 on a 2002 VLX

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Wow, great video, for $500+ they should pull that thing off the market until they cleanup the issues.  Hell, wicked wake received way more negative feedback for their product not looking "professionally manufactured", all while knowing it was made by a guy in a garage with basic woodworking tools, and selling for significant less.  

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I watched the video.  You need to run a LOT more weight.  I thought it looked small compared to mine and that would be why.

My Velcro hasn't peeled at all.  Not even a little bit.  Either the Velcro they give you is crap or you didn't prep the hull well enough.  I cleaned the crap out of it with Alcohol prior to applying it (the hard nylon side is applied to the hull - the fuzzy side on my wake shaper).  My custom spacer fits pretty well.  I noticed your spacer detached from your wake shaper - mine has never done that; it is on there very well.  We have had it pop off a couple of times, typically because we didn't put it on very well and after the boat has taken a wake beating.

For my buddy who is a big dude, he runs it all the way to the back of the hull (further back than you have it).  I run it a little forward of where you had it in the video and like it there better (I'm 6'3", 205-210lbs).  I found the wake to be longer with it further forward...that said, I am running a lot more weight than you so that does make a difference (about the same crew but ~3200lbs of hidden ballast).  Listing to the surf side a bit.

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I like that so many variations of these gates/surf systems came out.  Pretty much proved my theory that putting anything back there would work to create the delay in convergence 

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On 12/24/2016 at 11:44 PM, Ndawg12 said:

Wow, great video, for $500+ they should pull that thing off the market until they cleanup the issues.  Hell, wicked wake received way more negative feedback for their product not looking "professionally manufactured", all while knowing it was made by a guy in a garage with basic woodworking tools, and selling for significant less.  

Thanks! And that's too bad - whatever works, works! The appearance of the wake should be the only thing that matters! It rocks when it stays on the hull - definitely a bummer it pops off so frequently though for the $500 dropped. It appears Ronix has added a third adhesive strip to their 'updated' model for 2017. I'm guessing we aren't the only ones who ran into issues.

On 12/29/2016 at 4:29 PM, Nitrousbird said:

I watched the video.  You need to run a LOT more weight.  I thought it looked small compared to mine and that would be why.

My Velcro hasn't peeled at all.  Not even a little bit.  Either the Velcro they give you is crap or you didn't prep the hull well enough.  I cleaned the crap out of it with Alcohol prior to applying it (the hard nylon side is applied to the hull - the fuzzy side on my wake shaper).  My custom spacer fits pretty well.  I noticed your spacer detached from your wake shaper - mine has never done that; it is on there very well.  We have had it pop off a couple of times, typically because we didn't put it on very well and after the boat has taken a wake beating.

For my buddy who is a big dude, he runs it all the way to the back of the hull (further back than you have it).  I run it a little forward of where you had it in the video and like it there better (I'm 6'3", 205-210lbs).  I found the wake to be longer with it further forward...that said, I am running a lot more weight than you so that does make a difference (about the same crew but ~3200lbs of hidden ballast).  Listing to the surf side a bit.

Hey Nitrous,

Thanks for the response and info bud. We actually stripped the factory velcro off the hull entirely when it began peeling initially. We prepped the attach point on the hull again like crazy and special ordered some heavy duty velcro. Unfortunately, we ran into the same detaching issues from time to time. I'm glad it's working for you though!

Also, +1 on the weight. We definitely were running very light for this footage - still psyched with the wave though. The more the merrier for sure though! Best of luck surfing in 2017! 

9 hours ago, racer808 said:

I like that so many variations of these gates/surf systems came out.  Pretty much proved my theory that putting anything back there would work to create the delay in convergence 

For sure! That's why we purchased one at the boat show last year. My father was really curious about the performance of one of these on an older hull. We had been checking DIY builds on these forums from time to time with the intention of building our own. The rep for Ronix persuaded us otherwise and we took a gamble buying the eight.3 - We aren't bummed about that decision though, it's still a blast when we get it secured on the hull - the pop off is a massive headache occasionally though. 

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