X-Star set up

I recently picked up a 2008 X-star 40th Anniversary edition from a fellow wakeworlder. Since this is my first x-star I was curious how people have the weight set up in their boats. Any nuances of what this boat likes in terms of placement would be very helpful. Although it is hard to tell, but I believe it has the stock ballast but is plumbed for the BFI Pro Ballast System (whatever that means).

I don't know how to weight an x star properly but damn that is one sexy boat!

We have the same year, not the 40th Anniversary though, LY6. If it is just me, my brother, and a couple of non-beginner riders, we generally run stock, with a 750 in each of the rear lockers. We will then put 125 under each of the front seats, but you may not be able to fill them all of the way. Sometimes we'll put a sack (I think it is an old 450 lb) through the walkway. I think we may add some lead this year.

You may want to check out the fuel pump. Ours was bad and had to be replaced, and I think that is a common occurrence in that year.

Lot's of weight in the back, homie..... Work from there. We run a 400 sac in each locker on top of 150/side in lead. 600lbs of lead in the nose under the seats and you've got a good start, then add a bunch of people or lead in the center of the boat and another 500 sac 12" back of the nose if you don't have anyone sitting up there. That'll build it up mackin'. Add another thousand or so pounds of stereo and batteries and you're all dialed. Oh, and a re-prop. I think it's a 14.25X14.75 that works the magic.

We run the stock ballast, plus a 550 in each rear locker and a 300 under each of the front seats (they don't fill all the way, so probably more realistically 200lbs per side) and 400lbs of lead in the middle of the boat.

BFI is the Barefoot International pro tour upgrade from FlyHigh. http://fatsac.com/flyhigh/FATSACS.bifh

Surprisingly, this boat likes front weight. It gets a little sketchy for taking on water, but weighting it 60/40 front or 50/50 is better than the 40/60 people talk of.

^I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

Just hit the fill, done! the stock plus the bags in the rear make it awful darn good. Add a few friends and it's all you'll ever need. Nice boat by the way.

Do whatever the CIE guys do. The pictures of that wake are ridiculous.

This is great advice. Thank you fellas. Any tricks to setting up a good surf wake?

Jason,

Port side- 11.4 port ballast and bag filled

Starboards- 9.4 port ballast and bag filled

either setup move folks to that side/corner of the boat and have 2-3 people on that side in the bow

I completely disagree on the front weight. I guess it depends how fast and how long of a line you ride. At 80-85' and 25-ish you want that thing HEAVY in the rear. When it starts steering funny you know you've got it right. If it tracks straight without you paying attention, then it's too light in the back. Too much front weight and the wake is wide, soft and has no kick. We even notice a difference between the glass swim step and the wood one. The glass step is heavy and puts the weight right where you want it. As for taking water over the nose.... Almost never. The boat is long and doesn't dip the nose much over rollers. A lot of that will be weight set-up, too.

As for the surf wake... I've got nothing. We've never surfed behind ours.

Have fun man. Beautiful boat.

Our set-up sounds very similar to WakeboardSTL, but we run more lead and they run more water. With the lead we still keep some storage under the front seats and get a true 600lbs up there. Same with the rear lockers. We get a real 550 in there with 150 of it lead. You can still store your gear in those compartments. All of our ballast is concealed except the 500 sac in the walk through. If we're out with lots of people we'll leave that bag out. It's a pain to walk over/around, anyway.

I did a lot of research on this and Jason you will not need to add a thing, it came set up

As far as surf wake, we're not big surfers, but we found a set-up that works okay.
(Keep in mind, for some reason, we're all left-foot forward)

Port ballast full. Center ballast full. 750 in the Port locker. ~400 across the back seat. Move everyone to the port side. It won't be the greatest surf wake, but it will work, and we were too lazy to experiment further after we set it up like this.

I also have an 08 x-star. Beautiful boat and congrats!

As you can see, there are many opinions on how to weight a modern X-star. I believe the difference is due to differences in desired wake shape and differences in riding speed. The X-star has a wide wake. Some folks therefore ride at a faster speed to narrow the wake and this mellows the lip. Add more weight to the back and you get more lip.

Having said that, I also run about 60% in the back and 40% up front, even at a relatively slow riding speed for an X-star.

I have one suggestion, try not filling the rear ballast tanks. They are centered relatively forward. Instead, place 500 lbs of ballast in each rear locker, fill the center built in ballast and place 200lbs under each front seat. This gives a good sized wake with an excellent shape.

Congrats on your purchase... I got the same boat but with the mcx

CIE guys know a lot about wieght in the boat and setup.

I oddly run the flyhigh rears and then a 440 in the walkway and a 200 laying ontop of the bow seats

I dont have any weighting advice for you. But holy smokes thats a great looking boat. Congrats..

Jason, I'll help you hook it up. I've got 3 - 500lb sacks and 300lbs of pop bags. Let me know when you want to go out and I'll bring my weight. In my buddies X-Star with a big block we just fill the stock ballast. Typically we have about 6 people in the boat. It's damn good just like that, so yours just needs a couple hundred extra pounds in the back to make up for the difference in motor weight. Once we get it dialed I can probably get you the extra bags for less than you will find them anywhere else.

Obviously the CIE guys are weighting these boats to pro-level wakes and I am guessing that's not going to be you. I've seen the CIE boats and I don't think you are going to want that much weight for your needs.

;-)

Slam the back, add to the rear to get her on plane, and boom!

You have to slam the rear if you want to get a tall, lippy wake out of the star.

1.Start Putting weight in the back then put weight in the front...
If still not big enough refer to number 1

Dave, here are a couple wake pics:

Second pic we had a couple more people and it was at a lake vs. the Delta. For some reason the lake wake kicks up a bit nicer than even the deep parts of the delta. I'm kinda standing in the middle of the transition on the first pic and you can see the kick is a bit steeper. It's a super fun wake. Huge, but it still has a nice kick. Lot's of transition to land on.

wow unreal Nice wake forsure

I particularly like the socks

I really appreciate all the help guys. I guess I will ask Mikeski to bring the weight on board and we can start throwing it around. I can't wait for it to warm up around here so I can really check out this wake.....

You're going to dig it. Give it a few rides to really get used to it. When I first rode the new X-star hull I thought it was terrible. Now it's by far my favorite wake.

Ive never been a fan of the metal flake.....I think Ive just been converted...droooooooool

Also keep in mind that this boat will have +/-1000lbs of stereo and battery equipment so that's in the mix too.

Let's see 200lbs of subwoofers, 200lb of tower speakers, 200lbs of amplifiers, 400lbs of batteries, 100lbs of copper cabling, 100lbs of electrical/electronics... Some of the girls I expect to see on this boat are bit top heavy too. Might just be fine with stock ballast LOL.!

Any of you guys that are running full flyhigh or around 4000 lbs (however you get there) running it with an MXC? I run my flyhigh full and have an additional 250lbs dry weight in front with an OJ 14.75x13 and I struggle to get on plan, if I have 4 people in the boat I have to let some out of the back, prolly 25%, or send someone to the front.

Wakes great, time to get up sucks tho.

O yeah surfing I run -

Port rear full - stock and flyhigh
Starboard rear - stock full, flyhigh 25%
550 on rear seat towards port side
550 on port wrap seat towards passenger seat.
Nothing in the front.

Thats about the best I could find and I did play around with it a lot. The wave is big but washy at the top because the swim platform cuts into it.

Jason, the MCX will get the job done, but you're finding it's limitations. Even with the 6.0 and a re-prop we've gotten to the point, on occasion, that we have to let some weight out of the boat. The only motor that got the job done with no question was the 8.1. The boat could be sinking and it'd still get on plane.

Mike, the top heavy ballast is my favorite kind, but the stereo kind is a pre-requisite as you need to be able to drown out what the top heavy ballast is saying. Just smile and nod. Only problem is that they drink up my other favorite kind of ballast.... Beer!