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Axis A22 over 3/4 of a tank in 3 hours?


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I just took out my 2019 Axis A22 with 409 Monsoon engine for my first time today.  We surfed for maybe 2.5 to 3 hours and the boat used up a little over ¾ of a full tank.  I have owned a Malibu VLX, Tige RZ2, Tige 22ve and a Mastercraft X2 and I’ve never gone through so much fuel in that short of a span.  Ballast was filled 100%, Speed was set to 10.5, RPMs were reading about 3700, Surf gate was active / wedge was not in use and we had 3 adults and 4 kids on the boat.  The boat struggled to get up to the set speed...you had to hang on and wait in the wash for quite a while.  One thing I noticed was that the boat was loud making the interior speakers and tower speaker almost inaudible. It felt as though we were dragging an anchor. I’ve never had this kind of an issue before with the other boats I’ve owned, hole shot was always good and with twice the weight, engine noise was minimal and a tank of fuel would last at least through the weekend at 4+ hours a day of surfing and crusing.  Is this typical of Axis boats?  Thanks

 

Prop 2249

Edited by MexTex
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I haven't spent much time in the A22 but had a 2019 23 LSV with the same engine. That fuel burn isn't normal at all, even in a slightly larger boat and using the wedge anytime we surfed. My initial guess is the boat was fairly bow high, which results in the prop pushing at what can almost be a 45 degree angle to the sky. If everyone is piled in the back watching the surfer, and there's nothing weighting the bow down to counterbalance, being excessively bow high is pretty common.

That engine with the 2249 at or near sea level should have no issue getting to speed with even a larger crew than you had, which is why I think it's running too bow high. I ran a speed prop, the 2277 for that year, on mine and still had no issues. I tried the 2249 at lower elevations once but otherwise saved it for higher elevations since I could drop down 300 RPMs by using the 2277.

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One of the things that pushed me away from buying an axis was the fuel tank size. The a22 only has a 42 gallon tank. So if you’re burning 10 gallons an hour surfing, that pencils out to 3/4 of a tank. 

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The 2019 went up to the 48 gallon, but yeah, it’s tough dealing with the tank size.

The 23 ft traditional bow 23lsv and t23 have something like 50% more fuel capacity.

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Wakemakers prop selector says 2247 is the right prop.  Essentially you have that with a 2249.  I run a 2249 and do not have any issues but I have a VLX.  I would get that bow down with ppl or ballast and go from there before spending the $$ on another prop.  Yours should work.

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ahopkins22LSV

It would be worth verifying that the bow bag is installed. Axis bow ballast is a plug n play bag. There is no hard tank. Also what size are the rear plug n play bags? Depending on the adults you may not need to fill those all the way if they are 750’s or bigger. Even with the 550’s in my vtx, if I have 4+ adults I don’t typically fill them all the way unless someone wants to sit in the bow to supplement my 200lbs of lead. And last suggestion, even with the bow ballast bag you probably need extra bow weight as others have mentioned. 2-300 in lead goes a long way. 

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I appreciate all the feedback. The bow rise was something that I noticed for sure...it was very high.  I didn't feel like the bow rise should have been as high as it was given the way it was weighted. Bow/Center/Port and Starboard were all filled and surf gate was active.  Two of the bigger kids were in front, I was driving, 2 small kids and an female adult in the back and 1 female adult riding. One thing I remember doing that helped things out was I put the Wedge all the way down and that dropped the bow a bit.  I also played around with the weight and placement of passengers just to get the engine to get to speed quicker.  

I have a Acme 1235 Prop that was on my Tige.  I don't know if this prop would even fit or if it would help in my situation.  

I checked out the ballast bags in the rear compartments and they are 550 lb each, the front bow bag is I believe 440 lb, not sure what the center bag is?  One thing I would like to do is check to be sure the front bag is filling.  We had a very hard freeze this year and I need to check to be sure that it is in fact working.  

Another thing I want to mention, if it is even relevant.  We surf in a shallow lake.  Average depth is around 8 feet deep (maybe).  The boat really struggled in the shallower areas (engine got louder and louder) in the deepest part of the lake (around 35 feet) it quieted down.  I always hear about changing props due to altitude, but would lake depth justify changing out a prop?  I remember even with the more aggressive prop that I had on the Tige, in certain parts of the lake it felt as though it would hit an air pocket. 

Edited by MexTex
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16 minutes ago, MexTex said:

I appreciate all the feedback. The bow rise was something that I noticed for sure...it was very high.  I didn't feel like the bow rise should have been as high as it was given the way it was weighted. Bow/Center/Port and Starboard were all filled and surf gate was active.  Two of the bigger kids were in front, I was driving, 2 small kids and an female adult in the back and 1 female adult riding. One thing I remember doing that helped things out was I put the Wedge all the way down and that dropped the bow a bit.  I also played around with the weight and placement of passenger just to get the engine to get to speed quicker.  I have a Acme 1235 Prop that was on my Tige.  I don't know if this prop would even fit or if it would help in my situation.  I checked out the ballast bags in the rear compartments and they are 550 lb each, the front bow bag is I believe 440 lb, not sure what the center bag is?  One thing I would like to do is check to be sure the front bag is filling.  We had a very hard freeze this year and I need to check to be sure that it is in fact working.  

In my T22, I have 400 in lead that i put in the walkway.  If I fill my 750s all the way for surfing (which I rarely do), I will move the lead all the way forward in the bow.  That's with the underseat bag filled too.  It's real easy to have too much weight in the back on the shorter hulls.

Don't run the 1235, it will be all revs, no go.

Once you can get the bow down, the taller prop (2277 and 2279) will also work to bring RPMs down (but ONLY if the bow is down too).  I run the 2279 at 4000' and it's great.  For you in texas it would be perfect.  the 2249 is too short IMHO (unless you are trying to get 5000 lbs on plane for wakeboarding... and even then the weighting principles of balancing bow weight with rear locker weight apply).

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Like others have said, more bow weight is needed on these shorter boats.  With my 750 lbs rear bags, I had to stash lead under my bow bag and  added lead in the front of the observer's compartment storage area.  I also move more lead towards the front when I have a larger crew.  Even doing all of this, I still burn about 12 gallons per hour using a 2277 prop and turning 3200-3700 RPM. 

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I’ve been meaning to reply to this but haven’t had a chance. I couldn’t agree more with what everyone else has said. This will be a bit redundant and nothing new on the thread but I have a ‘19 A22 with 750’s in the rear and started with the 2249 prop. Based on what @shawndoggyhas explained on other threads on the TMC forum, I switched to a 2279 and our RPM’s went from about 37-3800-ish to 34-3500-ish. Still burns a lot of gas (welcome to the 409) but if you can keep the bow weighted enough and down, it helps GPH quite a bit and the prop switch also definitely helps. We only fill our rear 750’s all the way now if we have multiple ppl in the bow. And yes, definitely make sure your bow bag is full.

Edited by formerathlete
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We also had our 2019 A22 with the 409 out for the first time this weekend as well and we didn't really have the same issues.   We were only out for 2 1/2 hours but were between 1/2 and 3/4 when we pulled out.   Our boat does have the 2773 prop, I'll pay closer attention to the RPM's this weekend but it seemed to run strong and we didn't notice any excess noise (except from a rattle in the helm that I need to figure out).   We also are running on a shallow river that is probably 10 to 15 feet.  

We are running 200 lb (4X50lb) of lead in the nose -  1 on each side under the bow seats and (2) by the batteries with the nose bag full, center ballast, and rear PNP with 750's.   We were using the lift mode for wakeboard and surf but had no issues with the hole shot.   When we were surfing we had (4) kids in the bow (~200lbs total) and 3 adults in the back.  Wakeboarding we had everybody in the back.     Wakeboarding the bow rise didn't seem significant until we had the wedge at a 4, but it wasn't too bad.  I still haven't installed the seat riser yet but once I do I think it will be a non issue.  I may try to snag another 100lb of lead for the nose, but for now we were really happy with the wake.  

I did order a spare prop from OJ that I will report back on once I try it out.   I can't remember the model number right now, but it is slightly less aggressive than our 2773.    

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20 hours ago, MexTex said:

I appreciate all the feedback. The bow rise was something that I noticed for sure...it was very high.  I didn't feel like the bow rise should have been as high as it was given the way it was weighted. Bow/Center/Port and Starboard were all filled and surf gate was active.  Two of the bigger kids were in front, I was driving, 2 small kids and an female adult in the back and 1 female adult riding. One thing I remember doing that helped things out was I put the Wedge all the way down and that dropped the bow a bit.  I also played around with the weight and placement of passengers just to get the engine to get to speed quicker.  

I have a Acme 1235 Prop that was on my Tige.  I don't know if this prop would even fit or if it would help in my situation.  

I checked out the ballast bags in the rear compartments and they are 550 lb each, the front bow bag is I believe 440 lb, not sure what the center bag is?  One thing I would like to do is check to be sure the front bag is filling.  We had a very hard freeze this year and I need to check to be sure that it is in fact working.  

Another thing I want to mention, if it is even relevant.  We surf in a shallow lake.  Average depth is around 8 feet deep (maybe).  The boat really struggled in the shallower areas (engine got louder and louder) in the deepest part of the lake (around 35 feet) it quieted down.  I always hear about changing props due to altitude, but would lake depth justify changing out a prop?  I remember even with the more aggressive prop that I had on the Tige, in certain parts of the lake it felt as though it would hit an air pocket. 

I don't have a Axis so I cant offer advice on that, but you said something that most might have just glanced over.  The shallow depth of the water causing your motor to work so much harder.  I boat on the Delta mostly and it has many shallow areas especially during low tide.  It's crazy the difference in wave size and the amount of effect the motor is making in the shallow areas.  We try and surf only in the deeper areas like 15ft, but we immediately notice the engine rev up, boat slow down, and wave get smaller as soon as we hit some shallow areas.  Obviously trying to keep the bow down with weight is ideal, but If you are constantly surfing in shallow water your boat is working harder then most.

It's pretty crazy to see how much water these boat displace to make a surfable wave.  I never noticed this with my older 07 lsv, but noticed it on the first day owning a newer style boat with surfgate.

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You need to keep to deeper water.  I dont even need a dept gauge when surfing.  I can hear the engine pitch change once i hit 12ft.  At 10ft, the wave almost disappears.  Deff check your bow bag.  Make sure its filling.  If you can, make sure the air is bleeding out of it as well.  Get the nose down with weight.  This season, i added a triangle bag for on top of the cushions (in addition to the PNP bow bag).  I prefer the additional bag over the dead weight of lead.   When the nose is pitched up, the prop is pushing water downward.

my T23 (same motor) with 3 adults on board will burn 15-20 ish gallons on a typical outing of 80/20 surf/wake (4-5 hrs).

Edited by Texan32
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