Re: Exaust noise
I like my vehicles as quiet as possible. My favorite sound is a super quiet engine, and the sound of a fuel pump whining.
The only reason to have a super loud exhaust, is childishness. Being "older" doesn't make you more mature. The lake is used by a lot of different people, for a lot of different reasons. Is your boating experience REALLY going to be enhanced by making more noise? Are you that desperate for attention? Compensating for something, perhaps?
Whatever little bit of extra enjoyment you might get by gaining negative attention, is far outweighed by the annoyance you're going to cause to other users of the lake.
If it weren't for inconsiderate children, we'd have a LOT less babysitter laws than we do now.
Anyway, my boat has the tube, rather than bellows, and even though I love a super quiet ride, the sound is not offensive. It makes it a bit harder to have a conversation while underway, but the wind noise kinda does that anyway.
The sound is still muffled, but you can definitely hear it.
I'm considering putting a bellows on it next time I replace the gimbal bellows, just to compare the difference in noise levels.
One benefit to the tube vs. bellows, is that the tube doesn't go bad like the bellows does. Also, I'd imagine that there's a little bit less back-pressure to deal with, but nothing significant.