VLX cavitating on right turns

I bought a 2002 Wakesetter VLX this year and it cavitates when I make right turns. Even when I'm just doing a regular button hook turn(not a tight turn), it cavitates.

The boat turns fine to the left. I have a stainless four blade prop. Not sure of the size. There is no noticable vibration. It cavitates regardless if I'm weighted down or not.

Is there a solution to my problem?

I have a vlx also. It does nothing like that.. You may have a bent fin or your rudder may be bent also.... I would have it looked at. WHen you are going straight does the boat pull one way ?

Yes, it pulls just slightly to the right. I thought that a slight pull was typical.

It is most likely a prop issue. It does not take much to get it to cavitate when presented with a turn if there are dings or a blade just a bit out. Acme spends a lot of time testing various props on boats to determine which design performs better under various performance characteristics.

A slight pull is typical due to the rotation of the prop and the distrubed water passing over the rudder.

Check the prop endge for slight dings or abrasions. File smooth with the very LEAST amount of material removal to preserve balance.

If I can hook you up, let me know. I'll send a prop for you to try. If it does't solve the problem, send it back to me and you are only out the shipping.

I did file some tiny dings out of the prop when I first got the boat. The previous owner obviously hit something, so a blade must be slightly out of allignment.

Thanks for the offer, Karl. Unfortunately, money is a little tight right now. I'll probably take you up on that offer down the road.

I have a vlx also. It does nothing like that.. You may have a bent fin or your rudder may be bent also.... I would have it looked at. WHen you are going straight does the boat pull one way ?

Is it cavitation, or is it the transmission slipping? If the previous owner has hit something, you should definitely have the entire drive train checked including the shaft, strut and tranny as well as alignement. Very small variations can cause the problem you have. I don't think I would call it normal.

It's not the tranny slipping. If it were, there would be an awful lot of noise since it's a constant meshed gear tranny. Slipping isn't possible without serious damage.

I do have another theory. My temp sensor and depth sounder would be directly ahead of the prop in a right hand turn. The depth sounder is just slightly crooked in the hole in which it's supposed to be flush. The temp. sensor has a stainless cover that bumps out 1/4 inch and is 1/2 inch long. They are both located on the left side of the boat, just behind the v-drive. They could be causing turbulence.

Is this where these things are typically located?

I just bought an '04 VLX and the guy we bought it from said that it was typical for V-Drive to do that because of the way the prop turns and the water hits the rudder. My boat's prop and rudder weren't dinged at all. (at the time that we were curious about it) it had under 15 hours on it. Now we have about 50 and it still does it, not any worse or less. That's got me curious now, could it be that after a certain year they started building it differently or something? I know that sounds stupid, but I'm a little worried now that some people don't have that happen. And yea, when I let go of the wheel, the boat slowly starts to turn right, then progressively gets worse, until it ends up turning so sharp as if someone jerked the wheel to the right as far and as fast as they could.

(Message edited by stoked27 on June 28, 2004)

Torque steer is normal for boats. As stated above, it's due to the rotation of the prop wash hitting the rudder - not a big deal.

The other issue of cavitation is really probably an issue of ventilation (pulling a bit of air under the hull and into the prop stream). It'll feel like loosing grip or like the tranny slipping. It'll occur sometimes in a tight turn when the boat pitches over and the back of the boat is effectively going sideways a bit. The fact that this only occurs on some boats can be attributed to something as simple as weight placement or how rought the water is. I believe with more weight up front in a tight turn, it's more typical to happen.