Trim Tabs on a VTX

[truckjunky87]

I also run the 1273 as I'm trying to balance skiing and surfing at 4500' elevation.  I have the 1939 as well and it skied well but just can't do double duty for me.  I'll try to grab a picture or video of the wake with that prop if I can this week.

 

[truckjunky87]

OK, so the I pulled up the live Webcam for the lake I'm near and it was glass. That and I had an hour without meetings so it was a good excuse to go get a couple photos. This is 32.6 mph at 15 off from the rear pylon. I cross right at the back off the rooster tail but its soft and not a big hit. 

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by truckjunky87

[obski]

Man, that looks nice.  I'm totally jealous.

The wake does look flatter than on my VTX.

 

[rakr]

#1 @truckjunky87 thanks for the info!!! that wake looks fantastic and exactly what I am looking for!

#2 I am so jealous of the glass, and boat... Mine is still at the dealership, hopefully soon!!!

#3 how is the throttle issue you brought up last summer? Unfortunately mine required a new throttle...

 

[truckjunky87]

No problem.   Forgot to mention that I run the front tank 50% full. I haven't played around with that too much so I don't know if its helping or hurting to be honest.

Still having the throttle issue from time-to-time meaning I'll go into forward or reverse and engine rpm will increase but the gear drive fails to engage.  If I don't catch it it will sometimes slam into gear.  It hasn't gotten any worse though and both my wife and myself have gotten use to "feeling" for when it happens.  We have to shift into and out of gear a couple times and it starts acting normal again.  We'll need to address it sooner or later but not excited about the cost of a new throttle either.  I'd like to open up the throttle and see if cleaning the micro-switch contact surfaces will improve it but I'm also afraid of making it worse.  

[rakr]

1 hour ago, truckjunky87 said:

I'd like to open up the throttle and see if cleaning the micro-switch contact surfaces will improve it but I'm also afraid of making it worse. 

I opened up my old one. there really isn't much to it... I can fire up a new thread with some pictures here soon if you would like. $1200 kind of sucked, but it happened to me a handful of times times in pretty short order. most of them were right as I was getting into gear, but one time was while we were underway pulling a wake boarder and it came out of gear, and back in gear within about 2-3 seconds. The engine seemed to rev up quite a bit and slammed back into gear. That was enough for me to not want to risk something worse. I probably put 10-15 hours on it since we replaced the throttle, and no issues.

[rakr]

537 was on there. Just put the 1273 on. Here is a pic of the hull. Looks to be diamond. 
 

I’ll see if I can get a few turns in tonight. No video tonight as it I don’t think my 5 year old will have a steady enough hand.  

[UWSkier]

On 6/3/2020 at 2:47 PM, rakr said:

537 was on there. Just put the 1273 on. Here is a pic of the hull. Looks to be diamond. 
 

I’ll see if I can get a few turns in tonight. No video tonight as it I don’t think my 5 year old will have a steady enough hand.  

verdict?

[rakr]

@UWSkier The water was absolutely awful (it looked ok, but as soon as we got out, it seemed like 10 boats came out of nowhere). I had my wife drive and I tried to take a pic of the wake, but none of them would do us any good. additionally I didn't fill up the bow... we just got the boat that day, and I wasn't thinking enough about the task at hand. it did seem like the rooster tail was still pretty large vs. some of the pics above.

This weekend looks awful, so it might be at least a week or so until I can get any better info.

Thanks for checking!

Ill post with as much info as I can, as soon as I can.

[rakr]

Without a doubt the wedge is dragging in the water. It looks like probably a good 2-3 inches. There is a very defined trough behind the wedge and tons of water splashing around behind the wedge. 
 

I made sure it was all the way up. There is a little play in it when it is all the way up, but I would doubt that is the whole problem, but it probably doesn’t help. (pics below). 

Does anyone else’s wedge have a little play? 

I am assuming that the wedge is not designed to drag in the water. Any ideas as to a permanent solution? It doesn’t look like you can move the assembly up at all. 

Take it off or get out the angle grinder!?!? 
 

[UWSkier]

Tip of the wedge drags on my boat too. Same with my dad's Sunsetter. It's not enough to effect the wake IME

[Eagleboy99]

2 hours ago, UWSkier said:

Tip of the wedge drags on my boat too. Same with my dad's Sunsetter. It's not enough to effect the wake IME

Mine does not drag (at least at 34 mph) but there is some spray off the hull that the Wedge deflects downward. Don't think it affects the wake at all.

[UWSkier]

That might actually be what I see on my wedge. I see water deflecting off of it so it looks like it's touching. Perhaps it's not. 

[rakr]

Hmm... maybe it is spray. I am going to take the wedge off, not the bracket. I’ll see if that makes a difference. 
 

I did ski this morning and the rooster tail still seems pretty big and it is definitely hard. 34, 28 off, and I took everything out of the boat I could.  Bow ballast filled. 

[Eagleboy99]

14 minutes ago, rakr said:

Hmm... maybe it is spray. I am going to take the wedge off, not the bracket. I’ll see if that makes a difference. 
 

I did ski this morning and the rooster tail still seems pretty big and it is definitely hard. 34, 28 off, and I took everything out of the boat I could.  Bow ballast filled. 

How much ballast in the bow?  Maybe try less?  And what prop are you running?  A tall prop will be better; but less holeshot.

[rakr]

Full, which I think is 100lbs. Bow ballast doesn’t seem to make a difference on the rooster tail. 
 

I just put a 1273 on. This is what a few of the other guys were running with good results. Didn’t really seem to make a difference. 

[rakr]

Ok ladies and gentleman. Without a doubt, the wedge affects the wake on my boat in a very noticeable way. 

I took off the wedge and actuators off wrapped up the cables in a double bag and  fastened them to the top of the wedge bracket. 

the rooster tail is still there, but somewhat smaller and waaay softer. 

all other parameters are the same. I had the best ski tonight behind my boat and tonight was a little busy at the lake and it was 10x better than skiing on glass with the wedge on. 

It went from worse than the 86 SN I learned behind, to almost as good as an 08 LXI I skied behind last summer.

I’ll probably go back and forth a couple of times to make sure I am not crazy. It wasn’t too hard to get the wedge off. Now that I’ve done it, probably 10 min off and another 10 back on. 
 

it almost seems like a new boat... I was starting to look for an SSLXI and “pull a @Badger” I’ll stick with it for now! 

[UWSkier]

10 minutes ago, rakr said:

Ok ladies and gentleman. Without a doubt, the wedge affects the wake on my boat in a very noticeable way. 

I took off the wedge and actuators off wrapped up the cables in a double bag and  fastened them to the top of the wedge bracket. 

the rooster tail is still there, but somewhat smaller and waaay softer. 

all other parameters are the same. I had the best ski tonight behind my boat and tonight was a little busy at the lake and it was 10x better than skiing on glass with the wedge on. 

It went from worse than the 86 SN I learned behind, to almost as good as an 08 LXI I skied behind last summer.

I’ll probably go back and forth a couple of times to make sure I am not crazy. It wasn’t too hard to get the wedge off. Now that I’ve done it, probably 10 min off and another 10 back on. 
 

it almost seems like a new boat... I was starting to look for an SSLXI and “pull a @Badger” I’ll stick with it for now! 

weird!  Definitely try it a few more times.  BTW, how much does all that stuff weigh?  Every little bit of weight reduction behind the boat will help also.

Wonder if you can mount the actuators such that the wedge is pulled up and out of the water flow further when stowed?

[Eagleboy99]

Weird is right!  The weight of the Wedge could not be the issue.  What prop are you running? (I recall the mid's 80's SN and there is no way I can fathom your rig being that rough)

[rakr]

I’d guess maybe 15, maybe 20 lbs total I can get a good weight on it before I put it back on. 

it looks like the actuators mount to a smaller bracket and I thought about moving it a bit forward before I give up on the wedge, but I would doubt it would raise the wedge enough to make a difference, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch  

in looking at the back of the boat when skiing there is a good bit of spray coming from the middle, which I am guessing is from the prop/rudder, not 100% sure. I don’t know if the wedge is actually dragging or deflecting the spray down and “enhancing” the rooster tail. 

At this point, I’d rather get bigger PNPs and a bag in the middle to surf/board if I can keep the slalom wake as it is now. I’ll be getting the swervey stick out a lot more. 

I’ll do some more science-ing this summer and report back. 

[rakr]

Just now, Eagleboy99 said:

Weird is right!  The weight of the Wedge could not be the issue.  What prop are you running? (I recall the mid's 80's SN and there is no way I can fathom your rig being that rough)

Dude. It was bad... and again, just the rooster tail. Now I would say it is darn good, definitely a bump, but not bad. 

1273. 

I won’t discount the possibility of my brain playing tricks on me, so I will put it back on for some sessions and report back. 

[asnowman]

10 hours ago, rakr said:

Dude. It was bad... and again, just the rooster tail. Now I would say it is darn good, definitely a bump, but not bad. 

1273. 

I won’t discount the possibility of my brain playing tricks on me, so I will put it back on for some sessions and report back. 

So, now that you mention the wedge dragging, ours did that as well on our 2011 vtx. It felt strange to drive and ski behind at one point, figured out it was the wedge dragging.

I ended up adjusting the position at fully retracted to be as high up as possible, more than an inch higher than the manual shows as being the right location. Made a huge difference. The bolts on the top of the wedge bracket that hold the actuators were the solution.  

[rakr]

1 hour ago, asnowman said:

So, now that you mention the wedge dragging, ours did that as well on our 2011 vtx. It felt strange to drive and ski behind at one point, figured out it was the wedge dragging.

I ended up adjusting the position at fully retracted to be as high up as possible, more than an inch higher than the manual shows as being the right location. Made a huge difference. The bolts on the top of the wedge bracket that hold the actuators were the solution.  

I’ll take a look tonight to see what “play” there is. Thanks!!!

[rakr]

Wedge is almost 17 lbs and each actuator is just under 3 lbs, so call it 22 lbs I removed. 

[Eagleboy99]

You could have siphoned out 3 gallons of gas.