Malibu Washy Wake

Hey Guys and Gals,

Our family has a 08 VLX – On the 08’s Malibu has pre-set settings for your ballast. Currently I am using the Intermediate Wakeboarding setting and ride at 19.8mph at 75ft.

Anyways to my question...

I noticed that the wake is washy on one side and on the other side, really clean lip.

What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this?

For you Malibu guys and gals, how do you guys use the power wedge?

Thanks!
Kevin

Your biggest issue is add more weight to the side that is washing. Hence, if you see it washing on your port side, move one of your passengers over there, or over a bit towards that side and you will see it disapear. Your other issue is you are running too slow to be running ballast. Good luck

What speed should I be running at?

What does Malibu consider an Intermediate Wakeboarding setting? Where is the weight and how much?

Try 23-24.5 it should clear up. You may also try themalibucrew.com they may be able to help you as well.

If I can remember it showed the rear tank and center tank to be filled up half way. and I think the power wedge was down a little...

Kevin

That boat keeps a nice clean wake at 22 or probably closer to 20 with no weight... don't have a ton of experience with that boat, but it will clean up real nice...

You're okay starting out at that speed, but you can't always run ballast while going that slow. Even if you adjust weight to the other side, it might not clean up going that slow.

Couple of things...

At 19.8, you may not be able to run the wedge at all.

Or, you may have to add more weight to the front of the boat to even things out and clean up the wake.

Or you could just speed up.

Speed is preference, but it must match your rope length, which right now is way off.

75 feet of rope is usually run around 22-24mph. You're trying to run a beginners speed, with an advanced riders rope length.

(Message edited by jarrod on September 08, 2008)

definitely speed up....but keep in mind that it might flatten the wake a bit....verdict: fill it up full, adjust speed to clean and crisp, and have a nice flight!

If you have a rider that likes to cut out to one side and stay out there, rather than hitting both sides of the wake, then that will also make the opposite wake of the rider washy. If someone cuts out way into the flats it will drag that side of the boat down just a little more. make sure that when you are balancing the weight of the boat out the rider is in the middle.

Diggs is right. 19.8 is about how fast I pull a little kid with no weight. Fill the center tank full, fill the front full, and fill half the back and put the wedge about 7/8 of the way down. Go at least 21-22 mph and see what happens. Watch the rooster tail if the rider is directly behind the boat and the boat is weighted right the rooster tail will go straight back. If not move weight to the side the rooster tail is shooting towards until the rooster tail is going straight out the back. Hope that makes since.

Sounds good, I will try this out this weekend... I'll speed up to about 21 and see how it does... Thanks for all the advice..

Yea, what everyone else said. Also, if you have people in the boat you may need to move them around to clean things up too.

(Message edited by bogiedog1 on September 08, 2008)

i always have the people in the boat move around to clean up the wake!

Full ballast wedge down, I would say 21 and up, No ballast or just wedge 18-20. Half ballast no wedge you can go 19-21 and it will be clean just remember to even out the weight and it will be clean everytime. If 21 is two fast for the rider chances are they don't need full ballast. In my opinion until you get to a certian level you don't need full ballast but some will disagree. As far as the wedge goes it's for the most part down all the way, coming a quater way up, about two clicks, the wake gets very lippy, unless you have extra weight up front I don't suggest it. Some of my friends prefer just ballast and no wedge, they get out of control when the wedge is down. Experiment and see what you like best.

(Message edited by Nvboarder on September 08, 2008)

Depending on rider skill level ballast may not even be necessary; no ballast or wedge. If the 19-20 mph speed is what is comfortable right now run light without ballast to keep the wake clean; at those speeds the wake can get pretty meaty for no weight. I would also invest in a shorter segmented rope, 55 feet with 3 - 5 foot sections. I generally ride at 21.8 to 22+ depending on the wake shape at 70 feet and it works very well. I generally land well into the flats but that is the wake shape and speed that works for me. Run light without ballast and add the weight and the wedge as the rider skills demand, just because you have it does not mean you need to use it at this time. Play with the ballast a bit to see how it affects the wake; weight to the rear adds peak to the wake while weight to the nose will make it rampy. Use the mid ballast to add bulk to the wake and the rear ballast to add peak (too much and it will begin to wash out/ roll-over). You should be able to use the power wedge to fine tune the wake to your liking. Since you have the power wedge you have a lot of versatility. I would spend your time finding a wake that works for you as opposed to a factory set wake. Congratulations on your new boat, great choice it happens to be my favorite.

Rope Questions: I use a 75ft non stretch rope with 15inch handle.

At the speeds of 19-20, what rope length do I need?

At the speeds of 20-22, what rope length do I need?

Ballast Question: Ballast or wedge or both? I have the 2 rear tanks/center and power wedge

At the speeds of 19-20 – Ballast(rear/center) or Wedge?

At the speeds of 20-22 – Ballast (rear/center) or Wedge?

When wakeboarding, how should the pull feel? For example, When I ride at times, I feel like I’m pulling back on the rope to keep me from sinking and at other times it feels that I am leaning forward to hold onto the rope. So how should the pull feel?

I had a bunch of different level of riders this year and pretty much everyone fell into the following ranges.

19-20mph ~ 60 of rope(just bow ballast)

20-21mph ~ still @ 60(bow ballast+half middle tank)

21-23mph ~ 65 maybe 70' of rope(full bow ballast, full middle tank, and a little in the each rear tank maybe 400lbs total)

23-25mph ~ 70-80' (full bow, full mid, rear bags half full)

25+mph ~ 80'+ (fill all the ballast and as many friends as possible)

FYI - my vride has an integrated bow sack +100lbs of lead, standard middle tank, and a 750 sack in each rear compartment and I don't use the wedge.

I don't have the bow ballast, so do I just stick couple more people up front from the back?

Bow ballast is very important on a malibu. I am going to add a good 100-150lbs up front...it is gettng colder so people bow ballast is harder to find. My experience, with bow ballast, has been the wake "cleans" up at a slower speed, gets a little rampier, and firmer(as speed increases.)

should of got the bow ballast, lol

Bag is not hard to intstall and Malibu prewires everything.

ksilva, head on down for a little late summer road trip to Lake Nacimiento & I would be happy to help you get her all dialed in!

Seriously, it sounds like you just need someone with a little more experience to come out and show you a few things. Get her all set up and go from there. If I were you, I'd get some lead and put 500 pounds in the bow and just leave it there. Bow weight will not negatively affect the beginners and as you progress you will greatly appreciate it and will eventually add to it. Remember a properly weighted boat doesn't just have ass weight, you need to sink the whole hull and on a VLX you want it weighted pretty evenly. That bow tank is clutch.

2nd what Big Heavy said. We run with about 450lbs of lead in the nose all the time and usually stock or less for beginners and more in the rear than stock for advanced/intermediate. The VLXs need bow weight!

The more ballast you add, the faster you'll need to go to get a nice clean wake. You can ride shorter sometimes to stay where it is clean.

I think you really just need someone to help out once and show you where to put weight and how to set things up.

Yea, I think you guys have a good point.... Thanks!

I was thinking about VLX for my next boat, but I am not sure now. If I have a fairly advanced rider that wants some weight and rides at 22 mph and the next rider is a beginner riding at 17.5 mph, is it alot of trouble to make the wake clean at 17.5? Do I have to dump the ballast?

The wake is very easy to keep clean on the VLX, I have never had any real problems at slower speeds, Most new riders ride at 18 once they figure out the basics. You don't have to dump the ballast but its a flip of the switch and by the time the rider is ready it will be full or empty, minus the center tank of course. The center tank is 600 pounds and the other three tanks are 250, what I tend to do is drain all the tanks and once the front and rear are empty I turn off the center tank which is ruffly half full. Then it doesn't take as long to fill everything up. Find a dealer near you and go test drive the VLX don't base your opinion on the wake by this thread or any other for that matter.

if you came up to mcclure for a weekend we could get you set with the right weight and speeds and all that i have a vlx and have riden behind enough of them to help you with what you need

Kevin, so you're running the power wedge with no bow ballast??? That may be your first problem. As mentioned above, bow ballast is pretty important in the VLX, but if you didn't get it, you should be able to fit some lead or pop bags under the seats, or even put a fat sack there. Running the wedge without bow ballast and the other ballast full I could see causing some issues.

I run full factory (bow included) and I have 600 lbs of pop bags. 2 in the nose, 3 in each rear compartment, and the rest in the front of the walkway. I don't ever use the wedge except to surf. The wake is clean and plenty big at 80 feet. With 6-8 people in the boat its been huge at 85 feet. Normally an 80ft rope has me riding about 23.2mph-23.5mph. 75ft about 22.4-22.8 and 70ft you can get by at about 21-21.5 if you let a little weight out of the ballast and still have a real nice size wake. If I fill everything and have people in the boat, most people who are learning w2w are scared of it.

Greg, for speed comparison and getting a clean wake, Malibu's tend to have a little bit mellower of a wake which means it will clean up at a slower speed than most others. I used to have to ride my 04 Supra 24.5mph with a 75ft rope, by comparison, the VLX I can ride 2mph slower at the same length.