Centurion Owners

I have an 03 Elite V Air Warrior. I have only ran it with stock ballast. Im ready for some more weight and looking to add some. How much weight, Where at, what line length and speed?
Also does the extra weight make a big difference? Thanks

in addition to the stock ballast, I put a 250lb sack toward the bow and a 250lb sack in each of the back side storage compartments. plus there are at least 4-5 people and all our other gear. It takes up a lot of room, but the wake is clearly worth it, in my opinion, it has much more pop. I think the speed is of personal preference but I keep the line a bit shorter and find that approx. 18-21 mph is ideal, for me.

Joe that's sounds good, I have a 550 on the floor or 3 one in each locker and one in the bow,
but I think I just might buy 3 250lb becouse the 3x 500lb are toooo much

$$

You factory 1 or 3 tanks?

If one put about 400 on each side of the engine and a 300 or so in the nose VERY VERY clean

If you have the three tanks
Put 200 on top of each tank and a 300 in the nose.
ALL WITH THE PLATE ALL THE WAY UP


Also the 3 5's are def too much IMO Any more than stated and the wake started to crumble for us
It worked for us very well with only 3 people, but I now own an 04 Cylone and just run the factory Its knee high

(Message edited by r3612 on June 10, 2005)

i run 350 on each side and 400 in front. plus i have my trim tab at about 55% and four people in the boat. i ride at 22.5 and 70 feet and i love the wake. i feel it is as good if not better then my buddies super air nautique.

Have only have one stock ballast. Sounds like 300-400 in the back sides and one 300-400 in the nose will be the way to go. Ive never used the sacs before. Can you leave them full for a couple days or do you need to drain after every use. Is trailering a concern with all the extra weight?

it take 5min to drain unless you want to tow extra 100lb

where i need a better understanding is in using the wake plate. Can someone expand on which positions have which effect on the wake when riding and also when just cruising with no fat sacs and no filled ballast. I notice when I'm going full throttle, when we're not riding but just cruising across the lake, i notice the boat does not easily plane out, it make long up-and-down strides even in flat water??

To help the boat plane out faster lower the wake plate. That will also reduce or eliminate the porposeing when running at higher speeds.

Joe I’m a little fuzzy on the wake plate myself, but here are a couple of observations and a little speculation. First off my setup is a Centurion Lightning with stock center, stock side ballast, and a crew of three to five. I think the ballast on the Lightning is 400 lbs, not sure.

At Wake Surfing Speeds:
We’ve tried wake surfing a few times with an old Skurfer, kneeboard, and wakeboards, at speeds ranging from 7 to 11 mph. We haven’t had much luck going without the rope. I think you want the wake plate up for wake surfing but heck I can’t tell. We should probably try a larger board and more ballast.

At Wake Boarding Speeds:
We tow at 18.5 to 19.5 on PP at 65 ft, I think we’re going a little slow and will probably go to 70 ft soon. Increasing the wake plate setting above 0% makes the wake less steep, more rounded at the top and mellow – harder to pop off of the wake. So for stock ballast we set the wake plate to 0% - ALWAYS.

At Slightly Higher Speeds:
We have an old “Skurfer” with the sandal bindings removed. We kind of slalom-surf ride it at about 22 to 23 mph. We rarely cross the wake on the Skurfer and just carve the heck out of it. At that speed we set the wake plate to 50% to 75% to keep the boat from porpoising. Alternatively we could put a passenger in the bow to keep the boat from porpoising.

At Slalom Speeds and Higher:
For slalom skiing from about 28 to 34 mph we set the wake plate to 100%. The same for higher speeds. The boat tends to porpoise if the wake plate isn’t set pretty high. The wake is definitely recreational – tough on the knees.

Power Start:
If you have an especially heavy load in your boat, it will come on plane faster with the wake plate set well above 0%. This technique might be handy for a boat with a lot of ballast, but once your up and running you might need to reset the trim closer to 0%.

Fore to Aft Weight Imbalance Correction:
If the nose of your boat is high the edge of the wake will get foamy nearer to the boat and if the nose is down then the wake will get foamy further from the boat. If you can find a way to put too much ballast in the aft the nose will go up. Setting the wake plate above 0% will bring the nose down and move the foam back (I think). If I were to replace my two side hard tanks with some fat sacks I could probably add 200 to 300 lbs of weight in the aft. If I made this change I’m guessing that I might want to set the wake plate above 0% or also add weight to the bow.

I’d love to hear if these wakeplate notions hold with the WW community.

Edward & George,
Thanks for the rundown. I will experiment with these different wake plate positions to see if I can get not only the boat to plane out better but to also get the wake steeper like you were describing. The only problem is that it's a biotch to change the wake plate positioning with the boat in the water as you go from boarding, to slalom to just cruising. I guess I'd just have to deal with swiming below the swim deck to change it several times throughout a day on the lake. You guys have manually adjusting wake plates too right? Do there exist automatically adjusted wake plates these days, I don't know?

I set mine a few turns away from all the way up. This seems to give my wake a clean shape and prevent the boat from porposing. All the way down is best to prevent porposing but IMO the wake is washed out.

"Do there exist automatically adjusted wake plates these days, I don't know?"

Yes the bennet trim tab is an option and IMHO and necessity on the Lightning

I have the hydraulic wake plate, bennet trim tab - adjust from the console.

If you have manual adjust you will have to settle for a setting that fits most of your needs and put-up with the other situations. I would optimize the wakeboarding wake.

I agree with Kevin. I have the Bennet Trim Tab on my Lightning and do use it to tweek the wake but don't expect big changes with it. The only time I use it is when someone wants a pull at around 18 mph, but to be honest the best set up I have found is center ballast wake plate all the way up and 70' at about 22.5 mph.

Joe, I've got a Bennett trim tab on my wake plate so adjustment is a simple flip of a switch. Manual adjustment will be a lot of work.