Free Floating Wedge

[NvBoarder]

your bringing the boat to the rent a lake right. You'll get a good test there with a lot of different opinions. Thanks for the info and glad you got your boat back up and running.

[WakeGirl]

Today was my first time actually riding with this new wedge & this thing really changed the wake a lot. As I've said in the past, with full ballast & the old fixed wedge, it created a pretty steep abrupt wake that had a trough in the transition with a lip at the top. This new wake is much different. The transition is simply awesome, the trough is just gone. The lip is also gone, but with the wedge bolts in that farther back position (instead of fully down), it's very steep & big. The best comparison that I can make is that it really reminded me a lot of the wake of a 247, and that's a very good thing. I was just feeling things out today & the weather was going from bad to terrible, so I couldn't really give the wake a proper test drive. But the more time that I get with this new wedge the more I really like it. It may give the best of the power wedge to people that would rather keep it on the simpler side. I'm sure becoming a believer.

[SacRiverRat]

Any comments on the handling when returning to your rider?

[WakeGirl]

Any comments on the handling when returning to your rider?

Not really, I can't really say that it handles that much different, but didn't exactly put it through its paces (we were really focussed on testing the rudder & looking for any potential problems with that). I did have to do one pretty good turn at one end of the lake when we were coming up on the no-wake zone (it was a tighter turn than you'd do for a double up), it handled just fine. But this boat really didn't have too many problems turning like with the old wedge, I attribute much of that to the Gorilla Fins. I'll probably have a much better report on this after the rentalake next weekend.

[ffdawg]

Tracie,

Do you have any idea on how much it would cost if a guy wanted to upgrade to the floating wedge? I guess I am not grasping the concept if there are still set bolts?

Jay explained it quite well. The foil just floats between the bottom & top position. The idea is that it's supposed to find the optimal point in between, & speed & boat attitude seems to play into that. I want to think that the complete setup would be around $1200, but you'll want to check with your dealer on that. If you've already got a wedge, I'm not sure if it's worth spending that kind of money or not to upgrade. Time & more testing will tell.

So it installed in the same holes in the transom?

Was the install fairly easy then?

Yes & yes. Slider actually did it with no help & had no real problems. The old nuts spun off with the help of a wrench that he wedged in on the bolt heads to keep them from spinning. The old wedge came off super easy & using the wedged wrench once again, he was able to put each nut right back on. The backing plate on the inside was so stuck in place that he didn't try taking it off to put the new one on, they're identical with the exception of the old one being black & the new one being SS. So yeah, there were no issues at all with our boat. I'm going to try to take some measurements & do a direct comparison while I've got both brackets to see if there's any difference with regard to distances of the holes to the edges that could affect whether or not the new bracket would mount up to any boat.

I must not be understanding the operation correctly. I have the older style manual wedge. Couldn't I get the same results simply by lowering my wedge but not locking it in the down position? It seems that a free-floating wedge would settle in the area of least resistance and therefore not be in the best position for pulling the stern down. There must be some sort of limits to its range of motion?

[jtrovato]

I can't tell you for sure, but I'm thinking the new wedge foil is designed differently than the old one. The aerodynamics of the water flowing over the foil is what is keeping it down without the need to lock it in. I'm assuming that the old wedge was not designed like this and therefore needs to be locked down. Just simply changing the shape of the foild can have a big impact on whether it wants to naturally pull itself down or push itself up. Think of it as an airplane wing. Just slightly changing the shape of the foil make it have more or less lift. This is what keeps the wedge down and pulls the back of the boat down without locking it into position.

Edited June 11, 2007 by jtrovato

[WakeGirl]

I must not be understanding the operation correctly. I have the older style manual wedge. Couldn't I get the same results simply by lowering my wedge but not locking it in the down position? It seems that a free-floating wedge would settle in the area of least resistance and therefore not be in the best position for pulling the stern down. There must be some sort of limits to its range of motion?

No, the older fixed wedge reacts differently when you don't lock it in. Without having the 2 different foils to compare side by side, I can't tell you what the difference is, but it definitely changes the outcome. And the set bolts in the bracket definitely play a part. Maybe at WOW this year I'll be able to get a comparison with some of the other boats running fixed wedges.

[WakeGirl]

More info:

This weekend we had a direct comparison with another '06 VLX that has the Power Wedge. With the Power Wedge in the farthest back position, the wake was very similar to what our wake was like with the old fixed wedge. Maybe a bit steeper, but cleaner & with no trough. Now, this was in 7-8' of water, so my edumacated guess is that out on open water it would be bigger than what the fixed wedge produces. Our floater in the farthest back position produces a wake that is mellower with more transition. This is running equal amounts of ballast (all stock) & people. So my initial impression is that the power wedge offers a greater distance of adjustability with the shape of the wake. People that favor a really peaky wake may want to opt for the power wedge, but for others the floater may give them everything that they want. We'll be able to compare these boats on open water next month, so we'll have more data then. And I still need to start playing with weight distribution to see what that does with the shape, but so far I'm really liking the floater.

Handling (Troy):

We were in a tight environment over the weekend, being on a private lake so it provided a good opportunity for testing. Honestly, I don't think that there's a great deal of difference between the old fixed wedge & new floater, at least on my boat. But at the same time I wonder if the better overall handling that the newer boats have puts forces on the old fixed wedge that it can't take & if that's what possibly ripped it off of my boat. The older boats can't handle like that, so they can't put those kinds of forces on it, right? But I don't know, I could be off base on that. I saw a greater difference in handling by just pulling ballast out as well as changing props (having a prop that bites properly & doesn't cavitate in a hard corner reallly makes a big difference in the handling of our boat). I also wonder how much Gorilla Fins (or the lack thereof on your boat) plays a part. I suspect that all of it plays a part, & that just one thing in the equation isn't the definitive answer to handling goodness - the fins, the prop, the wedge, & the overall handling characteristics of the hull itself.

[WakeGirl]

Here's a tip:

The little pins that you use to pull the outer bigger pins together (to release the wedge off of the bracket) are screwed into each bigger pin. We didn't know this & over the weekend both pins came unscrewed, & we lost the capability to pull the wedge up. This is a very simple fix, a little Locktite will take care of this. Our dealer fixed us up by just swapping our wedge for one on one of his boats, but when I checked the pins in this wedge, I could unscrew them with my fingers. So for those of you with floating wedges, check those pins & if you can use some Locktite on them. Here's a pic to illustrate what I'm talking about:

[WakeGirl]

More info. This post is a replication of one that I made in another thread, but I've added some additional info for the sake of comparison with the fixed wedge.

Yesterday we replicated the surf setup that we used to get the best wave from the old wedge, & this really solidified my opinion of the floater being a much better design over the old wedge. Here's the setup:

Speed: 10.4 mph

Ballast:

~ Rear MLS surf side full

~ Rear MLS off side empty

~ Center MLS full

~ Bow MLS full

Wedge down

750 in rear surf side locker

750 on surf side seat in cabin

500 on surf side in bow

Yesterday we had about 75 lbs. more of human weight in the boat than we did when we did this setup with the old fixed wedge, but IMO that amount is nearly negligible in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, to start with the floater produces a cleaner wave that isn't so vertical up the face. This results in a wave that is very easy to ride. It was so easy in fact that we had 2 people yesterday that had never surfed in their lives that were ropeless for almost as long as they wanted on their second turns. That wasn't as easy with the fixed wedge because the wave was so vertical that the push generated almost too much speed. It made your ride kind of like being on the gas-on the brakes-on the gas-on the brakes, & it was hard to find the spot where you could just hang. This wave is very easy to be neutral on almost anywhere. So at least for surfing, IMO the floater is hands down the winner over the old fixed wedge. Here are the comparison pics:

Old fixed wedge:

New free floating wedge

The other thing that the floater did without sacrificing much (if any) size, was that it's longer. You can surf this wave so far back & recover that it's almost silly.

[jshap]

Good Lord! You can almost surf the pipeline on that thing. Wow.

[tyuhas]

Can the same result be achieved with the power wedge??

[WakeGirl]

I'm quite sure, since I think that there may be more potential in the power wedge. I just have seen enough people that have had problems with the power variant that I personally prefer the KISS principle myself. The floating wedge IMO works so well that I think that the gap between the 2 is much smaller than it is between the power wedge & old fixed wedge.

[tyuhas]

What about cost differential between the two?? MSRP of course.

[WakeGirl]

Guessing here, but probably around $1k, maybe just a little more.