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2016 Wakesetter VTX Draft


jd4440

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I am considering buying a 2016 Wakesetter VTX. According to the 2016 brochure, this model had a T-Cut Diamond Hull and a 22" draft. However, the 2017's and later also have the T-Cut Diamond Hull, but list a 27" draft. The 2015's and earlier listed the 22" draft, but had a different Cut Diamond hull.  Since the specs for the 2016 seem a little contradictory compared to the surrounding years, I was wondering if anyone can confirm that the 2016 did really only have a 22" draft and not the 27" draft. This is very important to me since spot were I have my boat lift is a little shallow. Thanks!

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Draft numbers are always tricky because there are no set conditions for which manufacturers report draft. When doing research for this very thing I seem to remember a lot of manufacturers reporting drafts using mostly unloaded hulls (no tower/options/people/equipment) in order to achieve some of the draft numbers they were stating. So the change from 2016-2017 could simply be a change in how they are measuring the draft. I have an '08 VTX which was reported to have about a 22 inch draft but I can say from experience that it realistically needs about 27-30 inches to be able to move on its own safely.

I think most of that draft number is for clearance for the propeller/guide fins not really the fiber glass hull itself.

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@ahopkinsVTX and @LateNightSalami,

Thanks for the responses.  I agree that planning for 27" is probably my best bet.  All the VTX models to date have the same length, beam, and dry weight, so it seems unlikely that the actual draft changed considerably unless they added a lot more 'V' to the hulls at some point.  My main concern is just making sure there is clearance for the skegs to clear the frame when going on and off the lift. Where my boat lift is right now had ~35" of water above the frame last night, but the water is high right now because of all the rain.  I'll have to get in the water and walk around to see how much I can gain by adding another dock section.

I do have another follow-up question on what actually changed from 15 to 16.  I had contacted Malibu to ask them about the draft as well and it actually generated more questions because they pointed out that the Brochure and Manuals in that time frame don't match in regards to the name of the hull and the draft.  I ended up putting the linked spreadsheet together to show the discrepancies and asked them to confirm when the VTX changed to the T-Cut Diamond Hull and the draft changed.

VTX Hull Info Spreadsheet

This was their response:

"The cut diamond and the t-cut hull are the same just a different name. From what I am seeing the draft changed in 2018. Please keep in mind that this is dry weight draft, this doesn’t include ballast, fuel, people, gear, etc."

So, was there really a major change to the hulls of the 16 and newer VTXs, or was it just a change to everything 'inside' the hull?

@LateNightSalami, BTW what lake are you on in Brighton?  I live on Woodland Lake.

Edited by jd4440
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ahopkins22LSV

How much do you expect the water to drop? That sounds like plenty of clearance to me even if the water drops 5" (which I feel would be a lot for it to drop even with how much rain we have had lately!). You won't be driving over the frame with the prop and rudder which are the lowest point by a bit. 

BTW, I don't believe that the dry weight would be the same between the 2013-2015 and 2016+ VTX's. The hull change wasn't to the wetted running surface, but there was freeboard added. A decent amount. That is going to add weight. 

Oh, and do you have pictures of your new VTX?!

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So I went through this exact thing when first buying my VTX. I live on a shelf and need about 150ft worth of dock to get it to a reasonable water level. Even then, on rare super dry spell occasions I have to get the boat off of the hoist and leave it in the water (only had to do this once so far). In this case we actually needed to lift the bow in order to get the middle fins to clear the crossbars on the lift. This had the side effect of digging the prop into the sand so the boat wouldn't move. We ended up firing up the engine and backing the boat out while people lifted the bow to get the fins over the crossbeams. Not a fun time. Also, when things get shallow: watch your intake screen it will get clogged and you will be wondering why your engine is overheating.

 

I would be surprised if the actual draft changed significantly. I think the newer numbers are probably more reflective of what really takes place. I think ahopkinsVTX is right though. 35'' is plenty of clearance to get the fins over the skegs. I would think you could get down to 22'' or so over the main frame and still clear the skegs with the fins...though in this case you might want to load the boat after it is off of the lift.

 

My lake varies as much as 4 ft sometimes. We are on the Huron river system. Kensington is upstream with a dam and Strawberry lake is downstream with a dam. We have no dam. So if Kensington raises theirs and Strawberry lake drops theirs we loose a lot of water. I am on Ore lake. 

I second the VTX pictures.

Edited by LateNightSalami
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@ahopkinsVTX and @LateNightSalami,

I would say that an 8" drop between now and mid-August would be about normal, maybe even a few more in a super dry year.  Yeah, I went out last night and looked under my current boat on the lift last night and confirmed that prop and rudder are way back beyond any part of the frame.  My skegs are also a couple of inches shorter than the prop, but I wasn't sure if that was still the case or not.  For awhile, Malibu was making a big deal about their bigger Gorilla skegs back when they changed from 3 to 2, so I wasn't sure how they compared to the prop these days.

As for the dry weight, I looked at the brochures and manuals for the 15-18's and they all list 3500lbs.  Given some of the other discrepancies, I'm not sure how much I trust them though.

In general, what other things changed between 15 and 16 and are there any concerns?  It looks like a lot of 16s had issues with the 12" and 7" touchscreens, but they eventually resolved that?  Is there any noticeable difference in how they ski, board, or surf?  I plan to do a little of all 3.  I'm probably at an intermediate level in all 3, so likely won't notice small changes.

Finally, I haven't bought anything yet.  My primary interest as of now is a 16 that is for sale, but just trying to figure out if that is okay or if there are any reasons to get 15 or earlier.

Edited by jd4440
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35 minutes ago, LateNightSalami said:

So I went through this exact thing when first buying my VTX. I live on a shelf and need about 150ft worth of dock to get it to a reasonable water level. Even then, on rare super dry spell occasions I have to get the boat off of the hoist and leave it in the water (only had to do this once so far). In this case we actually needed to lift the bow in order to get the middle fins to clear the skegs (crossbars on the lift). This had the side effect of digging the prop into the sand so the boat wouldn't move. We ended up firing up the engine and backing the boat out while people lifted the bow to get the fins over the skegs. Not a fun time. Also, when things get shallow: watch your intake screen it will get clogged and you will be wondering why your engine is overheating.

 

I would be surprised if the actual draft changed significantly. I think the newer numbers are probably more reflective of what really takes place. I think ahopkinsVTX is right though. 35'' is plenty of clearance to get the fins over the skegs. I would think you could get down to 22'' or so over the main frame and still clear the skegs with the fins...though in this case you might want to load the boat after it is off of the lift.

 

My lake varies as much as 4 ft sometimes. We are on the Huron river system. Kensington is upstream with a dam and Strawberry lake is downstream with a dam. We have no dam. So if Kensington raises theirs and Strawberry lake drops theirs we loose a lot of water. I am on Ore lake. 

I second the VTX pictures.

In college I went to a friend's parent's place on Devils Lake and they had a Nautique on a shallow lift and we had to lift the bow up to get it on and off the lift and then push it out to deeper water.  So, that it exactly what I want to avoid!

My current Sunsetter LX is rated at 18" and I can only remember one time where a skeg nicked the lift as we were backing out.  However, as I remember it,  the lake was really low, we had a full boat, and there is a slight chance I didn't lower the lift fully to compensate.  Our lake does have dam which keeps things relatively stable, but it can only do so much.  Your guys' feedback leaves me feeling better that I should be fine, but I will still probably go out and measure a little further out in the water to see what my options might be if that ever proves to not be the case!  :) 

Edited by jd4440
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22 minutes ago, jd4440 said:

Your guys' feedback leaves me feeling better that I should be fine, but I will still probably go out and measure a little further out in the water to see what my options might be if that ever proves to not be the case!  :) 

Unfortunately, if you are anything like me, you won't feel at peace until you get the boat on the lift and can prove it to yourself once and for all.

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ahopkins22LSV

I had a TXi before our vtx and was a hardcore course skier. Was getting close to running 28 off at 36mph so the ski wake was very important to me when we decided to upgrade. My friend has a 2015 vtx and it skis better than mine but mine is still very good. You are just limited a bit more by line length and speed for ideal setups. Mine is very good at -28, 32 and 35 at 34.2mph. It’s also quite good at 32.4mph 15 off where my friends wife skis, but we Ski her off the back pylon so she is behind the rooster tail and just has the rounded wake. She says it’s a bit bigger but just as soft as their 2011 response lxi. Here are some videos. This was out first time skiing out boat too. I’d say mine surfs better than the 13-15 years. We don’t board so I can’t help ya there, I’d guess the wake is quite good though.

 

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Watching those vids never gets old. Hope that I get some videos up this year if I get healed up.

I managed to get 2 balls at 28 mph late last year on my first day ever in the course.

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On 5/7/2019 at 12:42 PM, LateNightSalami said:

Unfortunately, if you are anything like me, you won't feel at peace until you get the boat on the lift and can prove it to yourself once and for all.

This will very much be the case!  It also likely won't stop after the first time, but will last until mid-August!  :)

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@ahopkinsVTX,

Since you have the current hull, I'm wondering if they still fit through a standard 7' garage door opening.  Have you tried that or know someone else who has?

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ahopkins22LSV
1 hour ago, jd4440 said:

@ahopkinsVTX,

Since you have the current hull, I'm wondering if they still fit through a standard 7' garage door opening.  Have you tried that or know someone else who has?

I have not. My gut says no though.

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1 hour ago, jd4440 said:

@ahopkinsVTX,

Since you have the current hull, I'm wondering if they still fit through a standard 7' garage door opening.  Have you tried that or know someone else who has?

If its not raining or snowing tonight I'll measure mine for you tonight.  I can't park mine in the garage because its not deep enough.

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22 minutes ago, dcarl said:

If its not raining or snowing tonight I'll measure mine for you tonight.  I can't park mine in the garage because its not deep enough.

That would be awesome!  I hope that you were joking about a threat of snow tonight though!  I found some posts on older boats that referenced taking the bimini top, racks, and the tow bar hoop off the tower to get it to fit.  I guess it was only 4 bolts to to get the hoop off.  Not sure if that is still the case on on the G3.2 tower or not.  If so, I'd be interested in the measurement without that too if you can.  Not something that you'd want to do all the time, but I'd only be doing this once a year.

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13 minutes ago, jd4440 said:

That would be awesome!  I hope that you were joking about a threat of snow tonight though!  I found some posts on older boats that referenced taking the bimini top, racks, and the tow bar hoop off the tower to get it to fit.  I guess it was only 4 bolts to to get the hoop off.  Not sure if that is still the case on on the G3.2 tower or not.  If so, I'd be interested in the measurement without that too if you can.  Not something that you'd want to do all the time, but I'd only be doing this once a year.

No snow in the forecast but a lot of Minnesota had some last night, crazy weather this year.  2019-05-09_1334.png.879600d93987f2ad46fbd6da65bbccc3.png

It's hard to believe we were just out surfing last weekend, water was 53 degrees.

I don't have a bimini and I won't be taking off my tow bar loop, but I should be able to eyeball it close enough to tell you what minimal clearance will be.

 

 

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1 hour ago, dcarl said:

No snow in the forecast but a lot of Minnesota had some last night, crazy weather this year.  2019-05-09_1334.png.879600d93987f2ad46fbd6da65bbccc3.png

It's hard to believe we were just out surfing last weekend, water was 53 degrees.

I don't have a bimini and I won't be taking off my tow bar loop, but I should be able to eyeball it close enough to tell you what minimal clearance will be.

 

 

Wow.  While not quite as crazy as that, it's been strange weather here too.  Was awesome when we put the boat in over Easter, but cold and rainy ever since.

Sorry, I never intended for you to actually take the tow bar loop off for me, just an a guess of what it would be like you suggested!!

Edited by jd4440
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2 hours ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

I have not. My gut says no though.

I have not been successful getting my 2016 VTX under my 7' garage door.  I even tried to remove the wheels and drop the axels down onto 4 wheel dollies but this simply proved to be too difficult and I realized in practice I would never go through this much effort everytime I wanted to put the boat in the garage for a few days.

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ahopkins22LSV
4 minutes ago, thealy said:

I have not been successful getting my 2016 VTX under my 7' garage door.  I even tried to remove the wheels and drop the axels down onto 4 wheel dollies but this simply proved to be too difficult and I realized in practice I would never go through this much effort everytime I wanted to put the boat in the garage for a few days.

:shocked:

I’d shrink and store outside way before going through all of that effort. A boat properly dried out, prepped and shirked is a very safe way to store for the layup months. 

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@jd4440 Will even after @thealy post I measured mine anyways for you.  Sorry to say that with the boat level the height of just the windshield is between 6'9" and 6'10".  I didn't even bother measuring it with the tower lowered.  I also measured the opening to my garage and even though its a 7 foot door you loose about 3 inches on the top.

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On 5/10/2019 at 11:41 AM, dcarl said:

@jd4440 Will even after @thealy post I measured mine anyways for you.  Sorry to say that with the boat level the height of just the windshield is between 6'9" and 6'10".  I didn't even bother measuring it with the tower lowered.  I also measured the opening to my garage and even though its a 7 foot door you loose about 3 inches on the top.

Thank you very much for those measurements!  It'll be a little bit of a bummer to not be able to get my boat in the garage anymore, but hopefully it'll be worth all the other benefits that it will bring!

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