More wake?

[dtwallace84]

I have a 19' searay with 140 gm I/O and the wake is not very good. I new this when i purchased the boat, but is there any way to get more taller wake out of a boat like this?

 

[MikDee]

Re: More wake?

Yeah, drive it at 1/2 throttle

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: More wake?

You gotta get the bum of the boat deeper into the water. Many dedicated wake boats have balast tanks, we use sand bags .

 

[sabastianunf]

Re: More wake?

You need a wake enhancer also known as a fat sack. Sand bags work but cost you gas getting to your creek and can make the boat hard to trailer and heavy sand bags can be a pain in the but to load and unload. Fat sacks are water filled bag that goes in the front or center of the boat. The extra weight makes the boat sit deeper in the water making a bigger wake. You can buy them on e-bay. I installed a 600lb sack on my boat and the wake is steeper and a little larger which gives me a lot more pop. Most come with a pump that plug into your cigarette lighter but I plumbed mine in with a nice 1100 GPH simmer pump since I don't plan on taking it out any time soon. You can see a 600lb version at http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MASTERLINE-FAT-SAC-SACK-BLADDER-WAKEBOARD-PUMP_W0QQitemZ230158823503QQihZ013QQcategoryZ47363QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[ISF_badognobiscuit]

Re: More wake?

agreed with the fat sacks. keep in mind tho when you add weight, your driving skills at low speeds deteriorate. Also keep in mind your weight capacity and the placement of the weight. I use 2 each 250 lbs upfront to push the bow down and a 600 in the locker. The fat sacks are the way to go since you can just dump them and turn your bilge on to conserve gas when you are not wakeboarding. I got mine from ebay flyhigh store 7 years ago along with the pump. the only prob I have had was just 3 weeks ago I lost one of the fill valve seals on the 600 lbs. but it was an easy fix.

 

[germanstyle]

Re: More wake?

agreed with the fat sacks. keep in mind tho when you add weight, your driving skills at low speeds deteriorate. Also keep in mind your weight capacity and the placement of the weight. I use 2 each 250 lbs upfront to push the bow down and a 600 in the locker. The fat sacks are the way to go since you can just dump them and turn your bilge on to conserve gas when you are not wakeboarding. I got mine from ebay flyhigh store 7 years ago along with the pump. the only prob I have had was just 3 weeks ago I lost one of the fill valve seals on the 600 lbs. but it was an easy fix.

i've got an 87 seaswirl tempo 4.3. i just got two sacs from friends a 500 and i believe a 900. can i really dump the water in the bildge and pump it out? i guess i'm worried that the pump won't be fast enough and thats alot of water in the bildge.

 

[sabastianunf]

Re: More wake?

Yes you can but I would not reccomend it. If you bilge fails then you are left with a lot of water in the bottom of your boat which makes it difficult to manuever and even harder to trailer. Also if it is an I/O or inboard all that water splashing around in you bilge can cause other problems like a wet electronics (starter, distributor) or a rusted out oil pan. Real wakeboats have reversible pumps to pump the water out of the sacks. I set mine up with a reversible simmer pump which works great. You can go to wakeboarder.com and look under diy project link to see some very nice diy setups.

 

[JuanRiosBR190]

Re: More wake?

I also run a 19' sea ray, & in addition to the size of the wake for boarding, you may want to consider your boat's ability to plane quickly & maintain speed in the 15-25mph range. A couple of things that helped me were a hydrofoil & a 5-blade low-pitch prop.

I used to have a 3-blade SS prop with a 19 pitch. I'm now running a stainless merc high-five 5-blade 17 p prop, & a hydrofoil by StingRay. This helps the boat plane very quickly, keeps the nose down, reduces cavitation in turns & generally improves the handling of the boat for watersports. You will, however, sacrifice top end speed with this setup. I dropped from about 50 to 42 mph.

This alone will improve your wake size also, as long as you are trimming up (getting the stern deeper in the water) once you get up to speed.