wakeboard cruise not keeping up?

I have the wakeboard cruise model that holds speed that is set by driving to the desired speed and pressing the engage button. The speed is held by the paddle wheel under the boat. It does a great job holding speed until I load the boat with more than 2000 pounds. Seems to creep down below the set speed of 24 and then you take a huge cut and the speed drops down to 22 then speeds up to 25ish. I know there aren't any adjustments to make...are there? The approximate weight is: 100 is the bow, about 500 in the locker, two side sacs of 700+ each side, and 400 factoy ballast, 200 in cooler behind the engine box, and finally some lead (90) in rear locker. Its a '98 air...

Rob:

Yes, there is an adjustment that can be made. ON a Perfect Pass it is often referred to as the "K" factor.

The generic name of a speed control is a "feedback control system". On any feedback control system you will have an "error", which is the difference from where you are and where you want to be, and the "gain", which determins how hard the system tries to correct for the error.

The heater in your house is a feedback control system, with maximum gain. If it is too cold, the furnace turns on, full. It stays on full until it gets too warm, then it shuts off, all the way.

You wouldn't want your cruise control to work that way. On a cruise control, if you are going just a little bit too slow, you want to give it just a little bit more gas.

A "little bit" is very subjective. A little bit of gas on a Toyota Corolla might be unnocitable, while a little bit of gas on a Corvette might light up the tires. If you are going to have a cruise control that works for both you need to be able to tell it what an appropriate amount is.

In your case, you are taking your "Corvette" and turning it into a "Corolla" by adding 2000 pounds of ballast! The amount of throttle that would correct for the speed error when the boat was light just isn't enough when the boat is heavy.

You should be able to adjust the gain so that it is appropriate when the boat is heavy, but then it might not be right when the boat is light. It is possible that you won't find a setting that works for both, so you might have to reset it each time you change or just choose which way you want to use and not use it the other way.

On my Perfect Pass I get to the adjustment window by pushing two buttons at once (I forget which two, the UP and DOWN?). You will need to read your owners manual carefully to find the proceedure on yours.

When you find the K factor, change it SLOWLY!

If the gain is too low, the boat will be very sluggish to respond and will remain off the set speed for long periods of time, even indefinately.

If the gain is too high, the boat will over correct, and the speed will go too high, then too low, then too high, etc. If the gain is way too high the engine might alternate between full throttle and no throttle.

good info

does accu ski have this? my buddys has this and it is better left off, now. an adjustment woukd be great.

Rob,
I've been having this problem with our new boat & couldn't get any settings that worked well, so I let the dealer adjust it as a warranty thing. It turned out that the paddle wheel was not exactly in a straight line. You may want to check that, since it's supposed to be. They also did a few adjustments to the NN factor & between the 2 it's a lot better, not quite where it should be, but close enough that I have confidence that we'll get there.

I did not think the cruise control system had the k-adjust factor on them. This is the system that just has an activate button, and no digital readout right? How would you adjust it, and know what you are adjusting without the extra buttons or the readout to tell you where you are.

The one question I have is, Are you givving it more throtle than it really needs? The way these systems work it the can only give the boat less throttle than your initial amount, and they can't go past you max throttle setting you initially gave it. This means that if it requires more throttle to keep up to the set speed than you initially gave the cruise to work with, the cruise can't give it enough throttle to keep upt.

The perfect pass system works by reducing the throttle to required setting, if it does not have enough throttle to work with, then it can't do its job.

Wakeboard Cruise does not have any adjustment for the NN or KDW. this is why they make the Pro model if you add alot of weight you do need to have these adjustments. You can upgrade the cruise to the pro model if your having a real problem holding speed does it hold speed without the ballast??

Doh! Somehow I missed that it was Cruise & not Pro, my bad. Anyway, check the alignment of the paddlewheel - if it's off by even a little, it could cause a lot of problems.

The speed is perfect without weight...I guess it's why folks get the pro model.