**Built first kicker** PICS*

Here are some pictures of a kicker that we build. Its pretty aweosme. The kicker with the barrels underneath it is 6' tall and without its about 5ish. its 12 feet long and has about a 35 degree slope.

Has it been water tested?

Nice work.

hey thanks for the compliment. Yea...it hassnt been tested YET. were testing it tomrrow in the local pool. were just going to ballast the tanks accordingly and anchor it accordingly.

(Message edited by 2007_x-2 on June 02, 2007)

did you put any coating on the wood? I've never seen wood used as a slideable surface and didn't know/think how it would work, but its worth a shot, let us know how it goes.

Yea. We are going to put something on top of it. We just dont know what. I have heard a lot if things like bath board, Trex (even for a ramp), PVC, Fiberglass coating, plexi-glass. were trying to find a cheaper alternative to these. does anyone have any suggestions to these?

did you get any numbers on the fracture strengths of the plywood? it looks pretty sweet but it looks like you could some more bracing underneath in the centers of the plywood sheets, not just were the joints meet. but again, that looks like a lot of fun.

nope. no numbers or anything. we just got what was cheap enough like 9.96 a sheet for 4x8 and thick enough but not to thick so it could bend the concave. I pretty much just B.S.-ed the whole design. i just made it on what i wanted. yea im hoping its going to be a bunch of fun.

Nice work, looks fun!

its BEAUTIFUL...write on here if it works after u test it w/ a board n boat

My guess is it will float to high in the water. This is no problem if you extend the pvc past the front of the ramp into the water. I like trex for the surface it is the easiest to attach to the kicker by far and it is easy on the boards. As far as bracing, it will be plenty strong once you add a few pieces of trex on the top. The transition and size look good too. Get ready for some hard landings because that is going to boot you. Have fun.

Mike you just use a ballast bump to full up the drums until its at a height in the water that is acceptable.

looks very well built. it might need some cross braces on the side but i don't have any wakeboard kicker knowledge just what i learned fronm build skate and bike ramps

Yea thats what we are going to do. you know of anything cheaper than trex? that stuff costs some pretty pennies. some one told me lanolium(or however you spell it)but that might be to soft. we found this bathboard stuff. that would totally work. but its like 30 bucks for a 4X8 or 5X8 sheet. and we would need three. and yes we are going to extend a plywood plate into the water and cover that too. were just waiting to see how its going to sit in the water. Thanks for all the compliments everyone. just is there any more suggestions for the top?

Fill the barrels all about 1\2 way. That monster won't move a bit. We tried linolium and it is too sticky. Frontflip city!!! I have never tried it but I am sure astro turf would be a pretty good/cheap way to cover it. It would be about 25 dollars to cover the whole thing. It wouldn't hurt the boards at all and it would be pretty slippry if it was wet. Has anybody tried using this before?

Yea, no kidding? astro turf. that would be aweomse if it worked. i have heard of carpet. but not astroturn. humm. astroturf. ill call it the green monster. ha. pretty sweet.

how long about did this take u to build?

That fiberglass idea doesnt sound too bad. Fiberglass cloth is like $6/yard (50" width) and resin is $25/gallon.

fiberglass will scratch your board, break a bone if u hit it, and take a lot of hot, nasty(i know it sounds funny) work

yea true. ive talked to people about astroturf and they said it MIGHT work. im just tentative about hitting the stuff. and it took one person (with a little help form another person holding things) like 6-7 hours. the hard part was just getting the angles right on each of the vertical 2x4's bcuase we didnt use a plywood template. now i know this may sound stupid. but does anyone have an idea on how to transport this to the lake?

open trailor, u may have to rent it (uhaul)...

suggestion:have a friend be the first to hit it since u said "MIGHT" lol

lets see a pic once u decide what to cover it in and it's used

did u add water to the barrels if u tested it yet?

Yea, we dont know if we wanna rent one or not. thats what were debating. haha i like that idea. My firend was the one that built it so we all decided that he was the first to hit it cause he built it. haha. and were testing it tonight. just to check how it sits in the water. we might make some changes to the rail system that hold the barrels to try to get it so that we dont have to ballast the barrels tooo much.

Fill them half full so it doesn't tip over. Trust me it would be a nightmare to try to right it. Don't be afraid to hit it. I would break it in for you if I was close by. Just lean back and absorb the pop the first time. I know for sure you won't come to a dead stop. At the worst it will make you cartwheel over the front. Here are some pics from kickers I built.

Also ratchet strap tie downs are a great way to hold the barrels in place. If one of those barrels comes off it will be a real pain to get it back under it again.

those are awesome kickers. yea thats what we are gunna do. and were re-doing the rail system on the barrels so the ramp sits lower in the water so we dont have to have an extension or ballast the tanks to much.

that sure does look COOL!!! the kickers that water skiers (SP?) use that i have seen are just painted on top. but some platic:real thin in a roll, would work great

i would make one suggestion though...need more support. it will work but im not to sure that it will hold up over time. and with that money already put into it that a little more wont hurt.

Thats what I was thinking Ryan, it doesnt have any cross bracing??What do I know we only built 2 and only one of those lasted 2 weekends as someone burnt one and the other, beieve it or not cause I saw it, sunk eventually after absorbing water. It did not have barrels, just posts driven into the sand.

there is a material you can find at home depot. It is white and comes in 4' x 8' sections. one side is smooth and the other side has some texture.

It is made from fiberglass, and costs about $30 per sheet.

slides GREAT. perfect for your kicker.

you should seal the wood before dropping it. Ours sucked up water and got real soft.


http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/1/447629.html

Looks nice! Wakeviolator & I might be talking about the same stuff, but we used "bath board" from Home Depot ~$25/sheet, but I think it was some sort of plastic.

yup. it is the stuff you put on your walls in bathrooms. Put the textured side up. It will be "faster" with less friction (less surface area contact with board).

mike hillard, what did u use to keep urs floating?

or were they touchin the bottom

you could use apoxy paint for the top

(Message edited by nautiquerider27 on June 04, 2007)

I'm with Mike on this one, that thing is going to float too high in the water. Even if you do put a bunch of water in the barrels you want the lip to go down at least 6 inches into the water. Every one i've ever seen has had the barrels tucked into the frame a fair bit more. Good luck, with the size/angle of that thing you are gonna get hucked up there pretty good. Looks fun!!

(Message edited by stephan on June 04, 2007)

just sayin this so u know but it does say some where in all the writing that he is extending the wood into the water once he tests it and all that

are you gonna use pbc on top of the wood?

Built a few ski jumps over the years...

a very slick surface would be fiberglass, one layer of random mat, one layer of cross weave, resin color to choice, my preferance was always a red ramp. It will wear the boards slightly but not too bad, spray it down before you hit it or you will go out the front.

The stuff wake violator describes looks pretty interesting but I would be careful of cracking, the plywood is going to flex.

ur killin me...did u test it yet? lol
i'm gonna attempt to build one if it works

Ok. so heres the deal. we realizd that we made the barrels WAY to high out of the water. so what my friend did was widen up the skis that hold the barrels and make a box around them so the barrels sit like 8 inched INTO the frame of the jump. then we'll ballast from there. Thanks for all your help with the ideas for the surfacing. and about the angle. we also agree that it going to be pretty steep. so when we test it, if its too steep we'll just cut it to the wood post and that should be OK. And another thing about the surfacing, so any of you know how much it would cost to do the fiberglass thing or anyother alternatives? Thanks for all your help. ill get pictures on here with the improvements, and we'll have hopefully tested it in the water by next week. Thanks again.

we realizd that we made the barrels WAY to high out of the water.


I WAS GOING TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THAT...

sorry about the caps

you could add another 6 feet to the approach, and the kicker would be mint...

yea like i said we redid the whole rail system so it will sit 7.5 inches into the frame on the back and 8.5 inches in the front to compensate for the weight respectively. hopefully it will all go to plan nicely.

puck board would work quite well as a slideable surface... and you could probably get it pretty cheap... take a swing by the local hockey rinks and see if they have any old stuff lying around

that sounds good. ill check one of these days. if not at a rink, do you know where we can actaully buy it?

anyone need any of the drums that are under the kicker??. I have a line on them

nearly every rail, kicker and funbox here in australia use teflon it is white comes in sheets like ply and wont breakdown lasts for ever and is what they used in the bent felix rails.

When it's all done you need to fire up a cigar and say,"I love it when a plan comes together."

did you ever decide what kind of surface your going to put on it? it looks real sick to hit.

me and my buddys built a kicker two summers ago. For the surface we used a dry erase board. It work great for the summer, but it didnt last to the next summer. It was stationary so we left it the whole winter and it ended up rotting.

I would like to see the finshed product and what you used as the surface. you guys have fun with your new toy.

did u test it yet?

Regarding the barrels being too low: I would recommend a combination of raising the barrels a bit and ballast. Sand would work great but even letting a little water in should work pretty good. Adding weight will make the entire structure more stable.

I second Ryan's suggestion about cross bracing. You are going to have ~200 lbs hitting that thing at 25 MPH, the latteral force will be significant. As you hit it over and over the joints will start to flex, and pretty soon that thing could just collapse like a cardboard box with both ends opened.

As far as moving it: back of a long bed truck or just about any trailer. I am guessing it's 4 feet wide (width of standard plywood sheet). If you can come up with an old boat trailer (minus the boat) it would work great.

Anchoring: What I don't see is where you intend to tie the anchor lines. You will need at least two, but I would recommend three or four. Ideally you would want the anchor lines on the landing side to lead off to the side rather than being in line as you wouldn't want the rider to fall onto the anchor line.

The anchor lines might get some signifcant pulls on them so you need a sturdy point to fasten too.

What lake do you intend to put this on? I would expect that any federal, state or county lake would not allow you to set that up.

I bet that this rig won't tow through the water well at all so it might take half a day to get it out to a spot you want to use it and set up. I have tried to tow similar shaped things and they tend to act like a kite, taking off at sharp angles to the direction you want to go.

Good luck!

Rod

that stuff they use for barriers at the ice rinks is called Plexie Glass i think it is like PVC plastic or Perspecs??? that is what i used and it is perfect!!!!

how much did that cost you?

rod said it would be hard to tow so u may want to put it on top of a deck boat to get it out there if you know someone who has a deck boat

so did u test this yet?