A little enginuity goes a long way...

I thought it would be fun and insightful for everyone to share what small and cheap, self modifications they have made to their ride. Whether it’s something to hold up your flag, an extra ballast hose, or a fancy cup holder...anything that’s cheap (boating is expensive enough) and beneficial, lay it out there!

This one for less than $15 and one hour:

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=749006

Unbolting the driver's seat and using longer bolts with spacers to lift the seat up a bit...I also staggered the spacers to get the seat to lean back a bit more too...for that "gangsta lean".

When we bought the Malibu, I thought it was the dumbest thing to have the stereo HU & remote right next to each other (driver's right). So I moved the remote to the passenger side of the driver's dash. Now whoever is sitting in the spotters seat can drive the stereo while the driver is concentrating on driving the boat.
Also put a 12v outlet & MP3 input in the passenger side glovebox. Now I just tell everyone to bring their whatever brand MP3 player, and they can stash it in the glovebox while it's playing & charging. I still have a 12v outler & MP3 input on the driver side too, for my own Ipod.Theres never a shortage of music any more.

Boat is in the shop. I want a box anchor but did not want to drop $130 on one, so I dug up some scrap and went to work. Total cost - $26.00 which included 50' of new line and a fresh can of gunmetal.

The cheapest mods I have done is to change the throttle nob and add a compass to the last empty hole in my dash.The compass was $39 and the nob was like $25.All the other mods go up in price from there,

Installed 2 of my heater hot tube vents as if they were cup holders (made a "4th " cupholder). IMO better than cutting up the tub to put them down by your feet and easier to grab one to put under your towel

I havent done this, but Ive always thought about it and the compass reminded me. How cool would it be to put a List (tilt) gauge on your dash with a little boat icon and degrees around the edges. That way you could see how much you were really leaning (left to right) while surfing or use it as a resource when trying to make sure the weight is even on the boat side to side for wakeboarding. No electronics needed, feel like it couldnt be that hard/expensive.

Similar to Bill K I relocated the Stereo to the glove box, put a 4" Alpine remove in the right speedo hole and Perfect Pass Stargazer in the Center hole. Engine vitals stay put to the left. What an improvement to that dumb armrest location. The new Stargazer gauge display was the key. The right info and easy to read. I don't use the pickups anymore.

Someone just came out with a product that does just what you are describing Adam. I cannot remember what it is called.

When we bought the Malibu, it came with a 6' tall anchor light that plugs in to the stern. Of course is a flimsy aluminum pole & I figured at some point someone would be too drunk or stupid, grab that pole to support themselves, or hold the boat at the dock, and rip that light right out. I liked all the tower mounted anchor lights, but at the time I couldn't find one that I liked for a reasonable price. I already owned an anchor light for a fishing or pontoon boat, so I mounted it on a piece of sewer pipe, added some padding inside so it would stay snug on my tower knob, and added a few vinyl stripes. Four AA batteries get replaced about once a year. Cost me about $4, plus the anchor light (<$20).

Bill very cool i am working on a similar project now, with some LED's Figured i could replace my stern light pole with something small and battery powered that could fit in glove box and placed on tower when needed.

Yep, exactly my thought at the time too. I still have the stern light if I ever need it, or to sell with the boat when the time comes.

One issue I wondered about, what if you used a light that wasn't CG approved? By using the light I did, I don't worry about it. But if you used some sort of LED fixture, Johnny Law may have something to say about it someday. If your on a small inland lake, I don't see it being an issue. But maybe on the 4th of July or some crazy busy Saturday night....?

To Adam and Scott ... It is called a wake gauge, heres the link to the thread : http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=786804

When I said strut I meant web. Anyway you get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwJOpmtcZHk

Bill thats a good point, i am going to make it low profile so it looks like it is part of the tower, but might just have to test the waters i guess. i know it will far out perform my stern light, which if you go by law it isnt to spec either since it isnt at the highest point of the boat.

I have put two quick connect fiitings hooked up to pumps and controled from a switch in my boat. One is in the walkway to the bow and the other is under the rear bench seat. I have two 5' hoses that have the male adapters on each end, just hook to the bag and the boat quick connect and flip the switch. I still empty the bags with a portable tsunomi pump but it makes setting up the boat very quick and easy. With this set up I have 5 pumps working to fill all the bags on the boat at once.

Hey Nick, Do you have more details and where the pumps are and what you had to do to get the switches hooked up. Also what kind of pumps do you have? I like what you did!

Oh yea, I'll tell you all about it. I love my system and it has worked so good for me. I have a 5 pump fill system all on a 2'' pvc manifold with shut off valve for saftey. All pumps are tsunomi-1200, I have a total of 9 of them in my system. 5 for filling, 3 for draining and 1 for extra push/pull of water in the line that goes to the quick connect for the bow sac. The reason for that is it is about 12' of hose and has a 3' rise in the hose. When I turn those pumps on the water comes out with some good force. First pic is of the manifold, it is a very tight fit but there are 5 pumps on there. 2nd The hose that goes to the quick connect under the rear bench seat is only about 4' of hose and it doesn't have a check valve in line because when your done filling you just cap off the bag and outlet. It is the solid black hose. The hose for the bow sac comes off the pump, snakes by the v-drive, passes the gas tank, goes through the ski locker, then I drilled a hole from the storage are behind the observers seat to the ski locker and ran the hose to the starage compartment. That is where the 2nd pump is, then it goes to the quick connect through the fiberglass.

The stereo used to be under the drivers arm rest but I moved that to the glove box. I put all my switches under the arm rest. I came off of one of the spare circuit breakers for my power and have never had a problem with the breaker tripping with all 6 pumps running. Although I am only running one battery, and I do notice it takes some of the power away after running the pumps for 5-8 minutes until everything is full. I need a 2nd battery.