Centurion Avalanche owners

I just recently bought an 05 avalanche that has a manual adjusting cavitation plate. The boat either having it loaded with weight or not has a constant bit of white wash on the passenger side wake of the boat or out on the water it would be coming in toe side for regular footed rider. I know there have been tons of posts about avalanche wakes I'm just not seeing any recent. I was wondering what have people done to adjust the plate to clean up the little white wash and can people point me to the previous posts about weighting the avalanche down. I was out this weekend on Shasta and we had nine people in the boat and just a little lead weight in the back and the wake was awesome. Will post some pics.

Pictures were too large so check out

www.wakepics.com/member/skincaid

of course the pics with the most recent dates are behind my boat.

Steve, I have the hydraulic plate, I don't think you will clean-up the wake by adjusting the plate. I would adjust it as high as it can go and then clean the wake with extra weight on the port (passenger) side. It takes alot more weight to clean-up than most people believe. The torque of the prop on the v-shaped hull seems the be the difference compared to other brands. I have about 200 lbs of lead on the passenger side for the torque and driver balance. Depending on other passengers I have to move a 50 - 80lbs back and forth.

Thanks George,

My friends had an 02 avalanche, I can't remember if they put the plate all the way up but they did adjust it and they did the same thing add more weight to the port side and it cleaned up real nice for them. I came upon a post this weekend of people talking about the wash on the port side and everyone seemed pretty angry. Some people fixed the problem and some people didn't and ended up buying another boat which is definitely not an option for me. This last weekend was awesome for wakeboarding and I didn't here that many complaints from my friends that are regular or goofy footed. I think it is something that can totally be fixed but probably take some time getting it dialed in the next 3 or four outings on the water. If people have any pictures of there manual wake plate or the hydraulic I wouldn't mind seeing them.

Also there is a question about weighting, most people that posted about the wake said that the avalanche really doesn't need that much weight in the front and I can see where thats coming from because we had no weight in the front and 9 people in the boat with some lead in the back and the wake was huge. Just wondering if people add a ton of weight to the boat back and front what has worked well for them. I figured a good weight ratio would be 800lbs in the back, 300lbs in the front and the center ballast filled with 3+ people in the boat would be good but maybe not.

Steve, we concluded that weight in the front doesn't help the Avalanche. We exchanged the rear hard tanks for twin 400lb sacs in the rear, and added the lead, total ballast is usually around 1400 lbs. We ride alot with only 3 or 4 people in the boat. I think your plan sounds good experiment with the 300lbs in the front and in the rear until you find what you like the most. I find that most people are really surprised with the pop of the Avalanche wake when they give it a try.

Totally, I love the wake!

I was trying for a 360 this weekend and I took just a slow cut into the wake and focused on generated as much pop as a could, I ended up getting bucked super high missed the handle pass and managed to spin 540 and still have enough time to get into a diving position. I love my avalanche.

For most of the winter we have experimented with weight distribution on my 07 Avy. Because of the deep V, I have found out that you need to put at least 3-400# in the front to offset the twin 400# in the lockers. Pushing the nose down will take out some if not all of the vert (makes it more rampy). This is in addition to the stock center tank and with additional weight on the port (varies with the # of passengers). My trim tab is always up, run 70' of rope and board at 22.5. The wake is not perfect but it is better now compared to our first day out. Sorry, no pics.

Yeah,

I usually ride 75', it helps avoid that little white wash it just means I need to cut a little harder to clear the wake but the avy wake is so big and awesome I have no problems.

Has anyone had issues with their center ballast switch. Mine is kind of quirky and only wants to fill once and a while but will always drain. Any ideas or recommendations. Would like to avoid going through centurion just because they charge a fortune.

ok ill chime in... my personaly favorite way to clean up the wake on a centurion is the ol tried and true method of massaging the tracking fins to the side a bit.. and my favorite tools to aid in this are(see pic)..

I guess it is pretty common for Centurion. My bud has to leave 200 extra lbs in one locker to get the wake cleaned up on that side.

Also which ballast bags do people prefer for the V-drive area. It sounds like 400lbs bags is a good size, but what sac will actually fit in the walk through locker and what will fit in the larger storage compartment. I'm Looking at the pro x series v-drive sacs but not sure if the 400 pounder will fit in the locker at least not all the way filled up I guess.

Mendo, do us all a favor and chime out, we got it the first time.
Steve, congratulations on your Avy. Does your boat take the ballast water in from the rear transom. If so, you will have to put the boat in reverse to prime them, then shut the engine down while it fills. The exhaust creates pockets of air that interfere with the pumps while the boat is running.

"Mendo, do us all a favor and chime out, we got it the first time."

And it wasn't even funny the first time!

its obivously serving its purpose!

Norcalwakejunky, I also found if I hit the fill switches for all three tanks at the same time, it seems to act up more. As Rodney mentioned above, reverse to prime the pump and then idle while filling. It seems to be more consistent when I wait a sec between hitting the fill switch. Good luck

Richard-I got something for you to massage...

Thanks guys,

I had no idea, I will definitely try that. If you are ever at shasta and see an all red avalanche hit me up.

hey,steve i have the same problem with my avalanche. when u figure out the wash problem be sure to let me now. haven't had much time to mess with my wake. the water is 40 in jersey.

...the purpose of making you look like a hater?? Take the advice from your own profile...