Official Epic 23V Wakeboat Owner's Thread

My buddy ripped out the foam on the floor and had a snap out carpet made for his. Looks nice but I don't think I have a pic of it anywhere.

Surf wave pic (I didn't like it):

Hey Chad, I know there is one there, but when I left it sitting in the lake at my parents for a few days I couldn't use that hook and still put the cover on which was a bummer.

wakeboard wake...

twitch- that excursion is Epic's excursion, i dont know what year it is?

Goofey surfwake-

Wifey and littleman riding- stock front and side tank full, 5 adults and 1 child spread evenly throughout the boat, plate all the way up, and about 10.6 mph. Didn't take pic to 'showcase' the wake, but you can get an idea, (her left hand is touching the wake).

Another surfpic- stock ballast only and about 7 adults and 2 kids.

Wakeboarding wake- No ballast, 3 adults and 2 kinds onboard, plate halfway, about 22mph

Sorry not more wakeboarding wake pics, we surf 95% of the time...

I also had to resize this pic down, so not the best shot, but its all I had.

Timmy- The surfwake takes a bit to get used to. Just stay out of that trough about 2-3ft off the swim deck, or you will dive the nose everytime. Throw your tricks and spins a little further back in the wake then normally.

I actually hated the surfwake a couple of summers ago when I first demo'd the Epic. We kept diving the nose and couldnt figure out how to ride it. Then the dealer called me back last summer telling me the Epic guys advised him on how to ride the surfwake, we went out again...and its been on like donkey-kong since!

The Goofey wake is MUCH better than the regular on the Epic, most of our crew rides goofey so we havent played with the regular side much to get it dialed, but out of the box comparing apples to apples, the goofey side is much better and easier to clean up and ride...IMO

Timmy BTW- BEAUTIFUL RIDE! Love the color combo on the Tige...

Timmy, I can't believe your buddy ripped out the rubber floor for carpet! That's like one of the coolest things about the boat. I can't stand wet, soggy carpet.

We surf the Epic regularly on the regular side. Getting the wake clean is pretty easy with the right speed setting. The steepness takes a bit to get used to for some. Turning a slight arc reduces it. There's so much power in the wake that it can launch you forward and out so much that you can dip the nose.

But once you figure it out and stay back on the board (for beginners, it helps to have your toes, on both feet, near the right edge of the board) the wake is a blast. I love slashing the top and then dropping into the pocket. Good times.

Is there anywhere besides Epic's site that gives any info on these boats? The website is very limited and needs to be updated in a big way. (still shows Volvo engine) I've tried getting info from the closest dealer to me (Texas) and all I got was a "highlight" page with basically the info the website offers. There is no photos of storage compartments, no mention of warrenty periods, etc. I just want some more info like I would get if I were looking at CC, MC, BU, etc.... Is that asking too much? I've only ridden behind one Epic and was really impressed, but never had a chance to really look at the boat.

Knock on wood, if anything ever happened to my boat the Epic is my top boat to pick from if I had to get another. Can someone help me out?

My throttle is a little sticky on my '07. Anyone know how to get it moving nice and smooth?

I also emailed you the contact info for Greg Smith. He has been helping me along the way.

ICE, what kind of surfboard do you ride?

I ride the xxx slasher 5.0, I love the board. Look up Nikki sixx on ww, he is sponsored by them & is a rep, ask him aBout the new models, I jus saw them last Sunday & they r sick.

The board u see in my pics is my wife's hyperlite coex, she loves it & ridiculously ez to spin, look up logan erickson on YouTube to see what the coex can do.

Jason, there's a long story about the website. They basically can't update it because the developer screwed them and only the developer can update. However, they should have a new one up soon.

Anyway, here's some stuff for ya.

2009 Epic Brochure
http://www.kneeboardworld.com/images/09_EPIC_BROCHURE_FIN.pdf

Video I shot when i first got the boat
http://www.kneeboardworld.com/movies/Epic_session_1.wmv

Video of kneeboarder Dan Henning
http://www.kneeboardworld.com/movies/Dan_Henning_and_Epic.wmv

Pics (My '09 is for sale, $45,900, if anyone is interested):

Epic is coming up in our rapidly advancing world.

http://www.popsci.com/gear-amp-gadgets/article/2009-09/first-hybrid-sportsboad-makes-seas-cleaner

(Message edited by themxercr85 on September 18, 2009)

for the surf wakes, I am pretty sure you can adjust the prop rotation from LH to RH and visa versa on the transmission via a switch if you wanted to invest in a new prop.

Yup thats true.

Are they currently set up to run LH and thats why the goofy surf wake is better or what?

Yes, whichever way the prop spins, it pulls in that direction and makes the boat favor leaning to that side.

Ahh right on. I may have to look into that for next summer. We all mainly surf on the regular side

We got our first Epic in on Saturday, I have been going through the boat today, very impressive.

Jeff - What?? Are you guys now carrying Epic and CC?

Yes

Sick Jeff! Awesome bang for the buck imo

Love the idea of putting some extra cupholders in the gunnel like you did. Any gelcoat cracks developing or anything. Just trying to make sure it would be cool from a structural standpoint on my supra

No gelcoat cracks...yet . I did the same thing on my supra and no gelcoat cracks after 3 seasons.

One word of advice, I am not a gelcoat expert, but I was told to run the blade in reverse when drilling the hole, i guess it minimizes the blade 'chewing' or jerking on the gelcoat when setting the hole.

Good piece of advice ICE. Always run the blade in reverse when cutting through the gelcoat. My buddy learned this the hard way when he was cutting holes in his boat to mount tweeters. 2 of the 3 holes cut perfectly running the blade forward, but one hole suffered a minor gelcoat chip. Reverse is definitely the safer direction.

Thanks guys. Now just have to see if I could live with it from a structural standpoint. That is a pretty decent hole in the gunnel

I seem to have a speaker that is not connected in the transom. Both the tweeter and the midrange aren't working. I haven't checked if the speaker works on different connections yet. If that is the case then the the wire from the amp back to the speaker must be loose or damaged. I hope this is not the case because those wires aren't color coded. Every last one of them is white. That makes for some difficult diagnosis.

I think we should start a list of future changes/upgrades that should be added to newer generation Epics. Starting with color coded speaker wiring.

These threads get annoyingly long. Do they never wrap to a new page?

To go along with your list Nic...

The only Epic I have been on I noticed "felt" small on the inside. When I got in I thought I was in my 2003 SANTE. It didn't feel like I was in a boat that was 4" wider and 2' longer. If Epic narrowed the gunwells by a few inches the interior could definately benefit just like CC changed the 210 in 2003. The last pic above shows what I'm referring to. The gunwell must be 6-8" wide. You could narrow that in half and still have a gunwell wide enough to walk on, plus still have room inside for cup holders, speakers, etc. This would make a huge difference in interior room IMHO.

I just picked up mine last week. Went out last weekend for the first time. This is the most AMAZING boat I have ever seen. They have thought of everything except....

1) a trashcan (wakeboarders drink, a lot)
2) a rear tie for surfing, no one in the boat likes being hit in the face by a rope off the tower
3) a bow filler cushion

Besides that this boat is straight money. Wake is huge. Stock wake with no ballast at 21.5 is the same as my buddies 2008 nauti 210 sac'd out... and then you can add 4000#'s. It has huge transitions like a malibu wake but a lip like a 210. If you stacked 210 wake on the bu wake you'd almost be to the Epic. 23 mph and 80 feet back is picture perfect. I didnt get any pictures of the wakeboarding since there were just two of us, but will have some up soon. Tweeked my knee a little with the crow. The pop takes some getting used to.... This is the most solid sounding boat I have ever been in.

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Sick boat man, welcome to the fam! I love that white/black classic color scheme with the white tower!

How did you have the boat set up to surf? Looks like you got a nice long pocket in those pictures.

Nice board, I also have the custom. How do you like yours?
Epic could also add a wind dam.

+1 on the wind dam idea.

A wind dam would be nice as I used to lock my oversized dogs up there for ballast in my old malibu. They no longer get to go...

I love the surfing wake... I cant surf and I didnt even need a rope. I set it up with about half ballast on the left and half ballast in the front. I wanted to go bigger but I didnt have a driver besides my fiance and she is scared to death of the boat leaning. I also had 4 people on the left, a driver and two people on the right. The transition was to steep at first driving in a straight line, board would nose dive coming off the wake. We put her in a slight left turn and money. Surfing like a pro. I love the board, it is the 4'2" though not the 4'10". I have never been able to surf without a rope yet with that board. Its amazing at spinning and really lose due to the rounded edges. I love it so far. Gonna learn how to spin eventually without the rope. Gotta get my knee better first though.

Glad you are loving your Epic Sam.

That surf wake looks nice!!

Thanks for all the help last weekend Jeff. Glad everything turned out to be correct. Love the black on red also. We almost chose those exact colors but white is just to easy to keep clean! Once I get this bum knee healed we need to get together on Granbury and do some riding. I know Gary and JT wanted to also.

No problem Sam, I am glad you got the boat that night and are a happy Epic owner.

I love White, its so clean, you made a great choice, you epic looks great.

Yeah just let me know when you will be in Granbury and we can all get together.

I am setting up pulls for my riders Keith and Dustin with Gary next week, they need to get in some water time for the comp at TXMC, next weekend.

Talk with you soon.

A few questions

Does the drivers seat have a bolster?
What do you think about an FAE with 2 down pipes. That way you could keep it tucked behind the rudders?
Is there a throttle cable or is it fly by wire?
How big is the cooler really? It looks small in the pic's. How many cans w/ice?
Did Samson give you a hard time when you changed out the forks? How much was the credit? How much more would the hydrofoil rack be?
Has anyone modified the tower to store surf boards up top? I'm thinking foam and bungies?
How does the alt keep up w/two batteries? Does it need a trickle charger at night?

Thanks in advance, Joe

Joe, to answer some of your ?'s:

yes on the flip up booster seat
FAE, i'll leave that for others to discuss
Throtlle cable is fly by wire and the trans is solenoid shift, by wire, too. no more clunk
Cooler holds about 3 cases of adult beverages with ice
Sampson will swap the std 2 wakeboard racks to combo wakeboard/wakesurf racks for a very very minimal charge. I can call and get a price on the foil racks for you if you like. I've seen their foil racks and they are top notch.
Yes on the foam and straps, several that I know of have done this for carrying surfboards
Batteries, I have never had to trickle charge at night, maybe if you really cranked the tunes and kept them cranked all day and while parked maybe so. But this has not been an issue that I know of. Tuneman, what do you think? You're the Tuneman.

(Message edited by roomservice on September 27, 2009)

I did a demo drive of an 09 Epic 3 weeks ago and the salesman stated Epic didn't have an onboard cooler. I thought that was odd for a boat designed for and by riders. This was also an authorized Epic dealer with new boats...strange. I did like the Epic but went with another boat for a few reasons.

3 cases? Wow! The pic's are deceiving.
That fly by wire is sweet too.
Can you get pic's of the surf boards on the tower?
I looked on samson's site. The foil rack looks sweet, but expensive. I'd love to know how much the upgrade would be.
And what exactly is dynamat made of? We have rolls of tar tape at work. It's about a 1/4" thick. It looks exactly the same.

(Message edited by joesell on September 27, 2009)

The dual rudders cause a lot more turbulence in the middle. So, I'd think that dual exhaust down tubes could make it even worse. I'd stick with one in the center.

The batteries keep up nicely with the stereo. It's just like every other wakeboat out there with tower speakers: don't run them too long without the engine on. No trickle charger needed here.

The cooler is huge. And, being in the center floor, you don't have to ask folks to stand up to get a beverage.

Dynamat is basically foil covered tar tape. However, it's a bit thicker and doesn't tend to bleed off like some tar tapes when they get wet. For a nicer look around the cooler, you could go with a thin sticky backed foam. Put it on the cover so dirt and water don't get trapped.

Ice wrote that he was going to paint or rhino line the speaker grills. Are the metal? If so, powder coating would be sweet.

The grills for the 6.5" are plastic & the 8" sub grills seem to b plasic too, they could b metal though? I'm gonna leave the tweeters gray.

The cooler opening is very deceiving, the cooler is flat out huge!

I dont know why anyone hasnt posted wake pictures. But below are two wakeboard wakes, the first with about 3/4 ballast and the second with no ballast.

[IMG]http://widget.slide.com/rdr/1/1/3/W/3100000011b1c7ee/1/0/WIaKntI2vT8Pv17aasemsHxFFCTqOXZD.jpg[/IMG]

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And here are two videos. I ditched everything that wasnt wake to wake bc of my knee. I'm really not supposed to be on it for 4-6 weeks... But really cant resist with perfect days like yesterday and a new boat. Oh well.

Looks like I will be winterizing my boat this weekend. Weather around here turned cold/windy in a hurry! Boooo!!!

The wake looks awesome... so steep and clean like a blade but I though it was a bit bigger! But it's big enough for sure! I have to get this boat!

Pictures can be deceiving. If you look closely, the wake is about 3-4 inches above my knee. And I'm about 6' tall.

I know for the pic thing, but I'm used to ride behind a Sesion Si with 3300 lbs and the boat is heavier than a Epic so... I ride a big wake too. But the Epic wake seems to be a lot cleaner .... it looks like the peeeeerfect wake! This is my dream boat... maybe I figured a monster freaking wake... like a kid does!

I'm super stoked! I just bought an orange 09'. (sorry Chad, you were in the running, I just needed the trade)

I get it on Sunday. I already have a list of things I want to do this winter.

Change the racks to a Combo surf rack, and a foil rack.
Dyna mat the sub area.
Glove box spring
FAE
Cup holder by the glove box
Trash bin (but I don't know about the sub vent mod)
Cooler lid foam
Wind dam
Paint speaker grills orange
EZ nets under the hatches
Turn gains down on the amps
Maybe a boat buddy
Maybe a 3rd batt, and a charger

I'm adding to the list every day. Unlike my last boat, I'm not waiting forever to do all the stuff I want.

Keep the ideas coming.

congrat man!

Congrats Joe! You're gonna love the boat.

Congrats Joe, orange was my top pick but the wife wanted red...I wear the pants in this household!..............................

Our boat is red

welcome to the fam!

Im only 17 and I already know the truth about that!

Never gonna in that battle!

Welcome to the fam Joe! Nice to see the number of Epics on the forum growing in such a short time!

Thanks guys. I'm so excited, I haven't slept right all week. I'll post some pic's ASAP.

This is probably a dumb question, but are '07s with the Volvo closed cooling? I am wondering because the last owner didn't mention anything about winterizing the heater. In the manual for the heater it says you don't do anything for winterizing if your engine is closed cooling.

Some of the volvos were closed loop, some were not. All of the mercs are.

Here are some wake pictures from the comp we held last weekend.

None of the wake pics really show the wake well but the riders loved it and it is the biggest wake you have ever seen on a private 6 to 8 ft deep lake

Just curious how many hours do all of you have on your boats? We have 108 on our 09 that we picked up in May. For us that is all riding hours. Being on a private lake we do not have any idle or run time.

The wake behind the Epic is well Epic, we went out last week, a bunch of riders and Everyone was very impressed with the boat and the wake, X-star owners 230 owners, Ect, Ect all loved the boat and the wake.

3400lbs ballast @ 24.5 at 85feet, is money!!

The wake is awesome. Last weekend at the comp we kept hearing for the lower division riders that it was the biggest wake they had ever ridden on. Funny thing was until we hit the Advanced division we had no weight in the boat at all. no weight 22.5 and about 6 people in the boat and the wake will beat most factory ballast weighted boats out there. Not to mention when I drive the rails for the kids in the EPIC with no ballast I can drive the exact same line as they do with the Sea Doo. Boat handles so well.

Very cool to know Ben, we are just getting everything dialed in and we are very impressed with the Epic wake and handling, not to mention, you can tow this boat with a v6 if you had to its so damn light.

Which amps are in the 09's
Does it have a dripless packing?
Has anyone put a Boat Buddy on their trailer? Would it work with the bow eye being so low?

How do you edit your photo's so small. Even if I use the VGA setting on my camera, there still to big.

(Message edited by joesell on October 03, 2009)

If anyone is interested, my blue Epic (first pic in this post) is still for sale. I have it on Ebay with a buy it now of $43K and starting at $41K with no reserve. A smokin' deal. Give me a call if you're interested: 952-356-6867

Why I don't have some $40k to spend!!! Sh#t!

Tried to give a demo yesterday... Trans Pressure sensor decided to go bad and cut the fuel to the engine until we could fix it, which we couldnt at the time. What perfect timing huh?

What is the proper winterization procedure for these boats? I can't find my manuals....ugh

Joe- the '09's have (2) Kicker ZX700.5 amps

Here you go Nic:

http://www.mercurymarine.com/_media/pdfs/serviceandwarranty/inboard-models/Non-EC/90-864841070-Storage.pdf

What's with this snow!! I plan to get out at least one more time.

We went out yesterday for the 1st time. All I can say is WOW!!! I can't belive how fast this boat jumped out of the hole. And it turns so fast, my buddy slid from one side to the other. It's everything that people have been describing, no exaggeration. It was only 39 out, so I didn't brave the water, but the wake looked awesome. I'm still breaking it in, but with no ballast, it was at least as big as my old boat when it was fully loaded.

We did time the ballast fill, and empty just to see what it could do. 4000# in 10.5 min. It was funny to see 3 sunami pumps spitting all that water out the side. It was so much more water then I'm used to seeing, and it just kept going and going.

I can't wait to ride behind this thing. Maybe we'll get a nice day or two before the lake freezes.

Keep put any pic of wake.... I love it!!!

In case any of you are wondering here is the official winterization process for our boats. It is really simple and requires NO ANTIFREEZE in the raw water lines, even in states that get below freezing. The following steps should be performed out of the water. Step 1 can be performed in the water if you can't hook a hose up to the fresh water inlet in back.

Step 1: To fog the cylinders use Mercruisers fuel system treatment and stabilizer additive. Dump the bottle into your fuel tank and run the motor for approximately 10 minutes. Their additive has stuff in it to "fog" the cylinders as well as to stabilize the fuel.

Step 2: Unscrew the 3 blue plugs from the sides of the motor. There are two blue plugs on the port(left) side and one blue plug on the starboard(right) side. They are low on the engine and near the belts.

Step 3: Use the air pump that is attached to the motor to pump air through the lines until the two green nipples appear. The air pump attaches to a valve at the top of the motor. Mine had a blue rubber nipple over it. There is also a pressure release valve next to where the air pump attaches.

Step 4: Quickly crank the engine over without starting to clear water from the raw water pump.

Step 5: Be sure ballast tanks are drained. Park on a steep incline with the ass end down and run the pumps until nothing comes out. This will get enough water out to safely store it. When storing your boat be sure to lower the tongue to keep any water left in the tanks towards the bow of the boat. This will keep water out of the outlet pumps.

Basically that is it. These closed cooled systems are really quite simple and require no antifreeze to be ran through the raw water lines. This saves a ton of time! Hope this helps some of you out.

Nic, I'm not sure you have to do step 2.
I think that's just in case step 3 doesn't work.
Joe