My First Boat, 2000 X-Star!

Thank you to everyone who has helped me figure out what boat would be best. The dealer made me an offer I couldn't pass on.

It came loaded with only 250 hours. They are fixing so minor stuff and I should pick it up on Thrusday.

Is there anything I should double check before I take delivery?

I have read some about the alternator bracket may crack, recall on center ballast bag, problems with the tower cracking, the part that raises and lowers the back cover may go out. Is there anything else? Has anyone replaced their tower or just gotten it welded?

Is there any kind of upgrades that people commonly do? Sacs in the back front, how much? It comes with PP, ballast, tower speakers, XM wired.

Thanks for everyone who has responded to my mesages.

Oh does anyone have an electronic version of the owners manul they could send me so I can be reading up? Or is there a good place to download one?

Congrats Andrew, great boat you will be happy. Get some foam guide pole covers for the PVC. Plenty of 303 cleaner and Protecant for the vinyl, some marine wax, good safety chain, and you should be good to go. Check the classifieds, grizzly sports and ebay for blem boards and other equip.

Thanks Shane,

I am making sure I pick up some 303 when I get my boat. Is there any particular brand of marine wax to get?

What is the point of the foam cover for the PVC? Does it rub the boat as is?

Thanks for the advice on the blem board, I have been riding for a while and have a premier/parks set up, which I enjoy.

Looks great
Congrats

The foam pads, are just so you dont get any dings, they already guide the boat on the trailer but unless your an amazing driver, you'll still hit the rubber side gaurds on the boat and scuff em, its just a nice thing not to worry about.
~Tyler~

Congrats on the new purchase. Quite a step up from what you were originally looking at getting. Can't wait to see it out at lake bryan. Try not to throw too huge of rollers my way. Have you taken it out yet? Let me know if you need some extra weight/gas money. It's hard to get my buds down from H-town to go hit the lake.

Thanks Brandon,

I am planning on going out almost everday after I get my boat. I will hopefully get it Thrusday once they get some minor stuff fixed.

If you want to come PM me your phone number. I am not sure if my boat is already full or not with all my new found friends but you are welcome if it isn't.

Are you headed out there this weekend?

Congrats on new boat. Looks great!

Indmar has engine manuals for download at www.indmar.com.

Was the back seat bottom three pieces on the 2000s? Looks like it in your picture. I would love to have three rather than two cushions in my back seat. The long one is a pain to deal with. A MC rep told me that they made that change since they didn't stay in or whatever...but the x10 has 3...

Thanks for the link to the engine manuals. It will need a oil change when I get it so I want to know how to get it done before hand.

Yeah the back seat is 3 peices on mine.

Does anyone know if the center ballast bag was recalled for the '01 models too? Mine is leaking like a siv.

Congrats Andrew! I have to snicker at how you started out saying it had to be under 10k, then it had to be under 15k, then you end up with a 2000 X-Star v-drive. Good for you! I did the same thing with my latest boat. Are you going to tell us what Guido's offer was that you couldn't refuse? Nice boat!

Andrew

I have a 2000 X star as well. A couple of suggestions:

-change out the motorized rear hatch with a manual shock. If the motor breaks you are stuck

-You can run the binding lube through the rear exhaust port, works out really well.

-2 500lbs fat sacks in the back, 2 250 lead in front will give you a nice wake

-Change the rear mirrow to a tower bracket or right about the driver. Having the mirror on the passenger side is a pain.

-If your tower rattles, get some spacers from Mastercraft.

Enjoy the boat!!!

I have a 2000 X-Star i picked up in '03, and we've loved it ever since. Can't beat that boat in terms of how it compares to new boats.

A couple things I've added since:

I have the hard tanks in the back on either side of the engine. Some people prefer sacks, but I'm sold on the tanks.

We replaced the original sub with a better one and its a pretty good difference.

Added a second battery on the port side near the engine with a perko switch up front next to the original battery. Made for an easy and clean installation.

Couple things to keep an eye on:
1. the tower rope towpoint has some rough welds that have worn through one of our towropes, we're tying to come up with a solution there, so if anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
2. the bottom of the glove box basically cracked and failed, but some superglue has it basically good as new
3. take it easy on the tranny shifting into gear right after starting, ours takes a while to get back down to steady idle.

Other than that, ours has been rock-solid, so good luck and enjoy it!

Thanks guys.

Ok Surf, I got it for $28.5. 7.5% APR. So does that qualify as a good deal? When I got there I drove a '95 MC 205, and it was nice then I drove this and was pissed about how much more the boat made me spend. It didn't help that my buddy was like hey man "Go big or go home". haha.

Wilson -
Is there any acuator for the rear hatch that is more stable I could put on it. I like the fact that it is motorized but if it goes out i will be a little pissed. How do i get in if it goes out?

What is this about binding lube? do you have one of the tanks on your boat? Where do you instal it? Where do i get one? Is it worth it?

Did you get custom sacs? Or which ones did you get? Why lead in the front?

Thanks

Scott

Where and how much were the hard tanks? Are they flat or stand up? Was it hard to install?

thx for the info

Scott,
Where did you get your hard tanks from? Which pump do you use? Any weight in the front?

If you get a chance can you send me a picture of how you installed the second battery. I would like to run my radio off of a second with a switch.

What I do on rough welds it take a grinding blade to it and smooth it out. Not sure if that helps.

Wilson -
Hard tanks were installed by the dealer as part of the purchase price. They're vertical up against the sides of the boat. That way you still have lots of storage on either side of the engine.

I think they were about a grand total for the tanks, plumbing, and the 4 pumps.

If you visit www.mymastercraft.com, those are the guys that installed it. You can post a question to "Mike" the guy who runs the dealership and the site and ask what they're doing it for these days. I'm sure it probably more.

We sometimes put a 200lb Fatsack in the walkthrough (and even another across the back seat) if we don't have a bunch of people in the boat, but generally we use the three built-in tanks and it puts out pretty well.

I'll be glad to send you the battery photos. I'm no expert installer like some people on this site, but I'll be glad to show you what I did on a relative budget.

Tried the Dremel power tool trick, but its still fraying somewhat.

After some thinking, I usually need all the room I can get to work in the boat. I have been troubleshooting an overheating issue and pulled all the hoses out as well as changing plug, impellar, and spark plugs, it would be so much more difficult if there were hard tanks there.

Have been talking to Mike about my overheating issues, great guy...

thx for info

Andrew

I don't know of an actuator that is more reliable, but my actuator was acting up, sometimes open and other times not. It is nice and "cool" that it is motorized but it gets old quick when you need to get in there quick. I ordered the shocks and hardware from Mastercraft and installed it myself, less than $100 in parts, works really well now. I can get in and out of the engine compartment in no time. If you don't want to go that route, you can run a wire to the pin that connects the actuator arm and run it into the side seat so if the motor goes out, you can pull the wire and realease the pin. I don't know how else to get back there unless you pull the seat back out. Way too much trouble, I didn't want to have to worry about it. The shocks work great.

Binding lube let's you get into your bindings easier, a must have. I just bought a gallon jug of newt juice with the extra long spray hose, ran the hose through the rear exhaust into the the back and place the gallon jug next to the acutator. Your riders will love how accessible it is.

I got the regular 500lbs sacs in the back. I put lead in the front because it takes less room and fits better under the front seats.

Andrew,

Here is a picture of my second battery install. It all tucks away nicely behind a pannel.



I use a Hellroaring isolator (BIC-85300A). It's pretty brainless to operate. It isloates the back-up battery any time the draw is greater than the alternator output.

Andrew

I don't know of an actuator that is more reliable, but my actuator was acting up, sometimes open and other times not. It is nice and "cool" that it is motorized but it gets old quick when you need to get in there quick. I ordered the shocks and hardware from Mastercraft and installed it myself, less than $100 in parts, works really well now. I can get in and out of the engine compartment in no time. If you don't want to go that route, you can run a wire to the pin that connects the actuator arm and run it into the side seat so if the motor goes out, you can pull the wire and realease the pin. I don't know how else to get back there unless you pull the seat back out. Way too much trouble, I didn't want to have to worry about it. The shocks work great.

Binding lube let's you get into your bindings easier, a must have. I just bought a gallon jug of newt juice with the extra long spray hose, ran the hose through the rear exhaust into the the back and place the gallon jug next to the acutator. Your riders will love how accessible it is.

I got the regular 500lbs sacs in the back. I put lead in the front because it takes less room and fits better under the front seats.

The tanks really don't hurt you that much in terms of storage, and the engine is VERY easily accessable still if you remove the black panels. I can still get to the blower, impeller, etc. no problem by crawling into the compartment. I'm a little guy though, so if you're a former Nebraska lineman, you might have a little trouble.

As for the wiring on the battery, I have to say, Matt, that looks FAR more complicated than mine. We just put in a Perko Switch and a Streetwires power splitter for the three amplifiers we're running. Pretty simple without any complicated stuff. Like I said, I'm no expert.

I just recently bought a 2000 xstar as well. (upgraded from an old stars and stripes mastercraft)

One interesting thing to note, is that yours seems to have the center ballas accessable. Mine has a smaller square there, but its screwed down. Would be nice to be able to see the bag from time to time.

So far, im loving the boat, and the wake is GREAT!

Hey I live in Texas too and was just curious where you bought this boat from.

Andrew Congrats on the boat you will love it. For the price you won't find and better boat in terms of wake and performance. I have a '99' and it's running as strong as it ever was at 550hrs. Some things you might want to consider.

-the tower mounts stick out a bit from the side of the boat so be cautious of that when your loading your boat on the trailer. If you come in hot you can catch them on the bumpers and it'll scare the crap out of you.
-also if you have a boat buddy have someone spot to make sure your inline. Learned that one the hard way.
-See if the dealer will throw in some of their store foam bumper covers. They should since it's free advertising for them.
-I have 500 pounds of lead in the bow of the boat. You'll need that or some sort of weight in the bow, if you decide to run the ski locker sack as well as 1000 in the rear of the boat. It really cleans up the wake and makes driving easier.
Good Luck
Nishida

Texas MasterCraft in Ft. Worth. They picked it up from some guy with to much money on Friday night (his wife wanted more room, they got a new X-45), I got it saturday morning.

Do you go to Trinity? I used to go TSR quite a bit. I live in College Station.

nice, I picked up mine from tsr a month ago

Question:

Mine comes with a sub at the drivers feet, 2 MB Quartz on the towers and has two amps in the passengar side storage compartment.

Is that all factory or was it done by the owner?

Do most of you guys have the same clarion speakers or have you replaced any of them. Can you tell me what size they are 6.5"?

dj,

Where they pretty comparable to what I paid? I talked to a lady there that was very rude and a guy who was very helpful. Did they jerk around or were they straight shooters?

Just curios, if I need service I think I would go there and want to know for the future.

I paid 23k wihtout a trailer (I live on the lake), no financing. say 3k for a trailer, and we came out pretty close to the same. Mine has ~300 hours, and a few scratches on the vinyl, from the pics, yours looks showroom.

tsr has been great. I've mainly delt with shane and steve (sales, and sales manager). very nice guys and very straight shooters. They let me ride behind it on the boat lake before the sale, which the dont normally do for used boats (too many people wanting a free pull). Guess I convinced em I was serious.

the only issue I had with the boat so far was that the negative battery lead was half on. That started causing some ghosts in the machine. I wouldnt have any issues bringing my boat there for service.

dj,

Sounds like a great deal to me. Good to know about TSR. Do you have a place on Canyon?

Andrew,

no, on lake austin. But you have to go where the deals are

Andrew,

My buddy with an old tristar always takes his down to Mastercraft dealer in Austin. They seem like they always do a good job, and suprisingly don't overcharge like most do. At least it is closer than Ft. Worth.

andrew-
No I'm still in high school. I go to Alamo Heights.
Actually, I was just at Texas Mastercraft this morning looking at two x-stars.

Chris,
If you go back talk to Jimmy. Very nice guy.

My boat is still there you may have seen it. Well prolly not, I am guessing they are keeping it in the back as to not downgrade the new boats.