X-Star wake question
 

finally bought an X-Star, 2009 - previous boat was a 1998 Maristar 225VRS.

the Maristar wake unballasted was pretty good, the X-Star wake is way better but heres the problem (and probably lack of knowledge and experience on my part as only had the boat a few weeks). if we ride without ballast at around 22.5 / 23mph the passenger side wake is washed out and the boat seems a bit tilted on the drivers side but this didn't happen with the Maristar. We are in the same lake which is mostly only around 6 to 9ft deep, i can clean it up with ballast in the port side but should i need to? anyone have a rough guide to where to best ballast the boat in our shallow lake (p.s. i have put in ballast and the wake is awesome, more than pleased with it). I think the ballast pumps are also on factory preset 2mins runtime which isn't enough to fill the tanks but i'll time them this weekend.

I'd get some lead bags and even the weight out. If your battery's, sub box, gear, etc. are all on one side than that could be the problem? Hide the bags on the rear locker and in the bow on the other side til the wake is what you want. I by no means have a star, just my .02.

I agree with bryce. My old Centurion was the same way. Does yours have a trim tab? I would usually have my passengers sit on one side while I drove the boat. You have two options, add lead weight or add ballast.

cool, thanks. will be in the water tomorrow, will start by moving my ballast (aka the other riders) around the boat but need to look at my ballast timers to as if they only fill 2mins i'm only getting around a 1/3 fill on the rear passenger side. I'm sure its just down to some experimenting over the coming weeks to - i guess i just thought that as its an X-Star i could just drop it in the water and the wake would be perfect both sides before even messing with the ballast

oh and batteries are both under passenger spotters seat - no trim tab...

something's wrong with your weight setup. I have an 07 star (same hull) and it doesn't do that if i'm balanced side to side, heck it doesn't do that at 20 mph if i'm weighted right. I'm running in the same depth of water you are, too. Your timers are programmable, so the pervious owner did something to them.

the real question is, why are you riding at 22.5-23 without any weight? shorten the line length before you try and make the wake narrower with speed. we ride at that speed with 2500 lbs of ballast, 75ft behind the boat. Sounds like you should try 60 ft or so.

good point and i'm sure its down to the weight and likely need to sort the timers out to, we've been riding for 5 years behind the Maristar, at around 23mph on a 75ft total line length which was perfect for that boat although the wake was wide - its my only reference point but obviously going to need to do some experimenting to find the right setup, on the Maristar our level was at Wake to wake on all four edges, good height, most 180s, the occasional invert. Our lake depth isn't going to change so would you say basically we could ride a shorter length at slower speed with the same hangtime - I'm 6'1 and weigh 210 so cutting in at 21mph feels a bit bogged down for me - That said the wake was washed out all the way down the line, although it cleans up when i fell the port ballast (still playing with the ballast settup as the Maristar only had integrated bow ballast that i installed so basically filled it up and it firmed the wake but didn't change the height)

Only an axis will do that ;) :p

may be so but an Axis isn't an X-Star (not knocking Axis either - i considered them and every other mfr. here and saw them all in the flesh - X-Star was the one for me hands down - I'm sure the wake is awesome though)

Truer words have never been spoken

That was more of a humor reply. If I had the money, I'd have a star too. :D

LOL, no problem here - i'm confident the Axis wake is epic, I love all the wakeboard boats but for now just want to sort out my wake, got a few ideas from here this afternoon so can try a few things out tomorrow, at least I have a starting point now.....

The easiest way I know how to help your issue is get behind the boat in the water and check your swim platform. If it is level then your wake should be the same on each side. If your platform is not level add weight until it is. In the event your platform is level and the wake is still not right on one side you have some other issue.

The one thing that can cause this issue at wake speed is torque from the prop but I don't think that boat should have that issue as much as some other models.

I agree. I say this because when running a
3k in my boat if I am level I get just a slight bit of wash. This is because my upgraded prop has so much torque I need to offset a little bit on passenger side so my platform leans a bit to passenger side while at rest. You need to level it while on plane at speeds to get the best results. Find out what prop is on there.

Thanks, the boat level solution sounds bang on and the prop torque makes sense, well im off to the lake in a couple of hours for some trial and error, will feedback

We expect a full write up to be posted two hours after you get back.


Jk. But really. Screw you for still being able to ride this late in the season. :-)

thanks for all your help guys, trying riding behind the boat with zero ballast worked and could see the level was way off, kept adding weight under the spotters seat to around 50Kilos and it cleaned it up, then we reduced out tow speed to 21.6mph and added a full KGB and a small amount of ballast in the rear, the wake was epic, think we found our new tow speed and setup. thanks again

Wow that's super slow for that boat are your riding a really short rope?

Well we have always towed around 23mph with the maristar so we were towing same speed with xstar but somebody mentioned on this thread we are going to fast unballasted so yesterday tried the alower speed on a 70ft line (usually 75ft) and it worked, does feel a bit slow though but hangtime feels the same - if anybody else wants to chip in here please do, thin to remember is adding ballast doesnt gain that much in our lake (i dont think?) as its only around 6ft deep in most places

Adding ballast will matter. May not be as meaty as it would be in say 12 ft of water. But it will grow in size. I used to ride that hull every set out. It seems like every 100 pounds you add it grows.

I suggest riding at whatever speed and line length you feel comfortable at. It varies between riders and it all depends on the approach you take. It isnt a cock measuring contest. Have fun and ride hard. Plus post some pics of the wake.

This is the wake of an 07 Xstar at 23mph with 3K in ballast... With only a driver... I've always had to move peeps around or add a little extra port ballast to compensate for the driver weight and prop torque... It's normal for my Star..
Also when the rider pulls, it'll clean up the wake on that side..
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps9a6896ee.jpg

now thats an awesome wake. ours is not that big yet but wasn't running ballast, that said i know when we took the Maristar from our local 6ft deep lake to a lake in South of France thats 60ft+ deep the wake size and volume increased by a HUGE amount - really was night and day, I've ridden an X-Star in deep water and the wake was more like your picture so will be looking forward to getting it down to a deep lake in France - that said the wake was great on the weekend with next to no ballast but cleaned up

This true... I've had this boat for 4 years and can say that X stars need at least 10 feet of water to produce... Anything less and you'll start bottom push... Mine has the capacity of 4k in ballast but never use it.. I also have X-10 type tabs on it to plane off fast.. Without them the boat labors hard..