How to enhance a wake in an I/O?

Unfortunately, my family does not have a wakeboard boat yet. My sons would like to ride a bigger wake but I do not have the budget for a new ride. I have already invested in a tower for my 19ft I/O. What can I do to enhace the wake? Trim Tabs? Water sacks? Placement of weight: transom or bow? Slow Boat down? Shorter rope?

My family needs some advice.

I hear you i have a 26ftI/O and havent gotten a tower YET, My wake is all washy and i need to find a way to clean it up also it seems so wide maybe shorter rope will help that. I have trim tabs but dont know if they will help.

more wieght a little trim tabs and deffintely placement do not putt all you weight in the back it should be 60% in back and 40% in front. You know what u shuold pick up this months issue of Wakebording magazine its a really good issue! it hass all of this in it! hope that helps
-Adam}

if you use a couple of sacs, trim your drive up after your rider is up, have rope just in front of wash and run 20-22, your kids will like it.

my friend are using a nautiques hull with a I/O engine.... what we do is 6 people in the boat, shorter rope, the wake dont get huge but it s clean enough to ride..

How much do these trim tabs help out with wake size? We have an I/O that I weight down, and I also have a universal pylon setup. Maybe Im just confused on what they are. We are able to adjust the trim on our motor, and we do so as we take off to get up on a plane. And it's usually a different trim setting depending on how much weight is in the boat. So are these trim tabs only used on boats that you are unable to adjust the trim on.

I'm with all of you, I've got an older I/O. What exactly is Trim tabs?

I have a 18ft i/o Bayliner 4.3L. This is the best set-up on my boat. I have a monster tower that i'm about to install so this will help with some hang time.

I have a dolphin fin ( see link: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=91580) this helps with gettting on plane faster and able to plane at low speeds 12-15mph.

I have four sacs totaling 1000lbs. Yes this exceeds the uscg limits for my boat so becareful when you do weigh your boat down. When weighted I'm not going faster than 25mph.

300lbs in bow, 400lbs in ski locker, and 150lbs on each side under the rear seats.
I usually ride with five people including myself.

Once rider is up I trim my drive 1/4 up. This helps make the wake bigger and rampier. I run my line @ 65ft.. no wash just wake!

I'm pretty happy how my set-up is so far.

Again this is what works best for my boat.

I'm sorry but I don't have any pictures. As soon as I get some pics I will post them up.

I hope this info helps.

I personally am a fan of the I/O setup. Yeah, wakeboard boats obviously throw a little nicer wake, but my family likes to hotrod around some too (when it doesn't kill us on gas that is), so I'm more of a fan of the versatility of an I/O. Yeah, it's unrecommended to surf behind it, but that's no big deal. Weight the boat down (EVENLY and not just slapping two sacs in the very back) and with some proper placement of people and good trim tabs, you'll have a nice wake in notime.

p.s. the bigger your boat is, the less I recommend weighting it, because that'll get to be too much to keep it on plane and at proper speed. We have a 26ft and run no ballast and it puts out a decent wake. (I used to think it was a great wake until the thread "Post Your Wake Pics" came along).

Lloyd, my boat is a 26 and weighs 4500. I have trim tabs also, i do not have a tower yet. Last season i started and only got to ride 5 times. My wake was completely washed out. I was only at 18mph. I didnt run the tabs down at all and the drive was all the way down. Would burrying the bow with the tabs and trimming the drive up clean it up at all?

I used to have a 20’6”, 4.3L I/O. I didn’t have sacs, trim tabs, or a tower. To pull a rider out of the water I set the trim all the way down. Once the rider is up I set the trim up about 1/8th.

The key thing I look for on the trim is the rooster tail. At wakeboard speeds with the trim all the way down my I/O shot up a rooster tail of water just behind the boat and several feet above the wake. I set the trim up until the rooster almost disappeared. We had no problem going wake to wake.

Setting the trim up higher improved the wake too a limit, but that setting made my I/O really difficult to maintain at wakeboard speeds. With the trim too high it was easy to increase speed from 20 mph to 26 mph in no time, or to fall from 20 mph to 12 mph. Recovery time to 20 mph took along time.

We also used a fairly short rope, about 45 to 50 foot. I think most riders behind d-drives and v-drives are at 75 to 85 feet.

I think, but don’t know that trim tabs might be handy if you have too much weight in the aft, otherwise I don’t think it would help. It seems like setting a trim tab on one side might be good for wake surfing, causing the boat to list to one side. However I would strongly advise against wakesurfing behind an I/O see picture that Rich posted, that would stop me, see the link: http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87668/216958.html?1113323730

The hydrofoils (like the dolphin) seem like they would work against adding weight. A hydrofoil will lift the aft of your boat out of the water which is great for starting and getting on plane, but afterwards you want the boat to sit more deeply in the water, so again that might not help.

Good luck

My wake seems like it is also as wide as a football field. I think i have a 70 foot rope, but i have no tower so that is 70 feet off the transom.

Chris, yeah I would suggest shortening up your rope a little. As far as speed goes, pick it up a little, and the wake will clean up. We ride right about 20-21mph with a 60 foot rope, but I am lengthening it up to about 65 feet next time out. Also, I would strongly recommend getting a pylon or tower, because that will help your riding progress sooooooo much more. Also, last season we rode with the outdrive all the way in (down) to the last pinhole, but this year I want to ride with the pin in the 2nd to last hole, making the wake a little bigger while still letting it ride nicely on plane. As far as trim tabs go, I don't like them being used because it makes the wake more narrow, a little smaller, and kicks up a small rooster tail of prop wash. We only use them when I want to ride on a day we have the outdrive pinned all the way out and we're getting the boat up onto plane. After that, I don't like them used, but that's just my opinion on my boat. Basically, just speed up the boat to around 20 at least, shorten up the rope, invest or make a pylon, and get out on that water more than 5 times in an entire summer.

Also, I've found that a big wake from an I/O boat tends to be pretty abrupt and steep compared to the rampy wakes from most wakeboard specific boats.

"300lbs in bow, 400lbs in ski locker, and 150lbs on each side under the rear seats.
I usually ride with five people including myself." yo JC where do u put all the weight i cand seem to find room in my boat to put ll of that weight

WakeXtreme

The whole open bow area is taking by the 300lbs sack. Part of the ski locker and all of the bottom (in front of the ski locker) bow locker area is taking by the 400lbs sack. I had the rear sacs custom made for my rear seats.

What kind/size boat do you have?

I just boguht a monster tower so that will keep my boards off main area.

Does anyone have anymore info on how a hydo-foil or whale tail effects an I/O wake?

terry mackie

I didn't really notice a differance on the wake. I like the hydro foil. It planes my boat faster at lower speeds. I also feel a differance on maintaing speed.

Although I never tried to weight my boat down without the hydro foil since I installed this before weighing it down. So i won't know what the differance will be when weighted down.

Hope this helps.

(Message edited by kingjaycee on April 18, 2005)

Thanks JC, My friend has a 99 larson 18ft with a 4.3l no tower, no weight and usually 2 in the boat with 1 rider. It holds a plane very well from 18mph on. The wake seems good to me at 18, but shrinks as you aproach 20,21 and it is very difficult to go w/w even with 65 ft of rope. We need a little weight I believe and then will probably need the hydro-foil to keep plane.

Terry Mackie,

Make sure you bring the trim up after the rider is up to about 1/4 up. This will help shape your wake a little. Also more weight will make a differance. Although becareful when you exceed the uscg weight limit. Take is easy and stay undeer 25mph.

The hydro-foil will let you plane @ about 13mph and maintaing speed.

I ride @ 19-21 mph. No problem going w2w.

Shorten your rope if you have too.

I have an 2000 bayliner capri1850 with 4.3l, I have added the doel fin, monster tower, perfect pass, auto ballast(750 in bow, and two 200lb sacs under the back seats), and a 4 blade 18 pitch prop.

each of these additions have done nothing but help. the doel fin does push the back end up, until your trim the outdrive up, so it works to get the boat on plane especially with extra weight and does not effect the wake shape or size.

The prop is maybe the next cheapest improvement, it helps get out of the hole quicker, push the extra weight and maintain the lower speed you want for wakeboarding.

next on my list was a monster tower and racks. Buy far the most convenient improvement I made. The tower is solid as a rock, and the racks get the extra gear out of the boat and leaves room for the riders and keeps the boards off the vinyl.

Perfect pass isn't necassary. I would could hold speed great for everyone else, the problem came when it was my turn. I got tired of unconsistent pulls, so I broke down and got it and don't regret it... another great company to work with!

now the last thing and probally the least necassary is the auto ballast... 3 simer reversible pumps... I can adjust on the fly front to back and left to right. I/Os are sensitive to side to side weight because of the generally deep Vs they have! Just one sack near the front of the boat will return dividends though!

So here is my list based on value and return!
Prop-$100
Tower and Racks $1300
doel fin $30
Fat sack and pump(standard rule pump)$70(ebay)
perfect pass installed 1200

The impact of a new 4 blade prop can't be underestimated. This was the most significant change we made when we were trying to make our Cobalt suitable for wakeboarding. We now ride behind a Malibu 23 LSV.

What type of props are you guys running on the i/o? I have an 18' maxum with a tower, the wake is pretty good but I would love to be able to pull up a bit faster out of the hole. I just have the stock prop on now.

what size is your motor?

I bought a lower pitch prop to help with pulling a couple friends who likes to ski and was surprised that it seemed to increase the wake size. Not a huge difference but for all of us with I/O or outbords we'll take anything. Need to buy some sacks but was a little concerned by the max weight. Any idea how much of a difference a 600 pound ski locker sak will make? The I/O I have is only a 3.0 litre so I'm trying to minimize the strain weight will put on the engine. Pulling wakeboarders up is no problem, skiers is another story. Thinking about the stabilizer as well since it's only $50. Might as well give it a shot. Also, the wife is pretty anal about having a bunch of crud all over the boat and likes to sit in the bow, so any ideas about hiding additional sacs is appreciated. Selling the house and upgrading in the next 6 months, so I'm thinking some of that equity is going to a real boat. I figure i can sell the one I just bought for $15,000 and taking an additional $10K in quity to keep the same payment. Any ideas on a good $25k inboard. Moombas any good. I'm not pro or anything so I'm not going to notice the difference in slight wake variations. Sorry turning this into a 10 subject post, mostly just interested in maximizing the wake on what I've got.

stuey (stuey)

I have a Vensura propeller 4 blad Stainless Steel 19pitch. I bought this on ebay for $200.00

although there are some nice aluminum 4 blade props for $100-150 on ebay. Check with your local dealer to see what is best for your application. good luck!

"Moombas any good?"

Heck yes they are!