New 87' Supra thread!

Ok so no more 5 min. load times! I have a little bit of a battery question. Mine seems to get drained when I have the boat off not completley just enough not to get it started. So I'm thinking that I need to just un-hook the batt. after every time out but thats a pain in the butt! So I bought a new battery to see if it was just my batt.....anyone else have this problem?

If it's not the battery, then something is drawing current with the boat off. This could be anything from equipment to a bad connection somewhere in the boat. Take a multimeter and measure current from the battery, if you get current flow it most likely is not your battery but something drawing amperage. If no current flow then measure voltage. If voltage keeps dropping (may take a while) with no current flow, then you have a bad battery.

If it is drawing current and you can't find the source, install a disconnect switch on the battery leads so you don't have to unscrew them from the posts everytime. Good luck.

Edit - make sure the multimeter is set to DC when measuring the current and voltage.

(Message edited by andytr32 on June 13, 2008)

Sooooo much better and just in case anyone needs it for reference here's the old thread http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/560359.html

Dennis, you could get a perko switch for it even if you're only running one battery I think you can still use it as an on/off for the battery and then later when you want to add a 2nd battery you'll already be all setup for it

by the way have any of you done any led installs on your sunsports ? I'll post up some pics of mine I replaced all the interior lights with blue leds they're not super bright but they're bright enough to see everything in the boat at night and not attract bugs. I'm also getting ready to do the platform I have 16 leds going under it, it should be pretty cool

Awesome Monty!!! I am so focused on ballast for now!!! Can you tell me how you connected your lines to the holes in the sacs? What kind of fitting did you use? Also what brands of sacs you using again? Fly High X?

Monty, I haven't installed any LEDs yet, but definitely planning on it. I don't think we have any interior lights in our boat. If we are going to install some, they would be in all brand new locations for our boat, but definitely will happen, maybe this winter. What type are you using for under the swim platform?
Yes, please inform us about the fat sacs. I know I could plumb all of ours together, but it would be a combination of throwing valves to make it all work smoothly.

Yeah I used the Fly High X series sacs and I used http://www.wakeside.com/product/boat/ballast/ballast_fittings/fly+high+pro+x+1%22+quick+release+connector.do and http://www.wakeside.com/product/boat/ballast/ballast_fittings/fly+high+pro+x+1%22+elbow+quick+connect.do for the inlets and http://www.wakeside.com/product/boat/ballast/ballast_fittings/fly+high+pro+x+3-4%22+quick+release+connector.do and http://www.wakeside.com/product/boat/ballast/ballast_fittings/fly+high+pro+x+3-4%22+elbow+quick+connect.do for the vent/overflow

I found this dude on ebay that was selling some water proof leds for dirt cheap I picked up 32 (4 packs of 8) for under $30 and they are perfect . . . So far I have 16 of them in the boat and will soon be putting 16 under the platform

I have this in the rear locker - http://www.wakeside.com/product/boat/ballast/ballast_bags/fly+high+pro+x+series+tube+sac.do
and this under the playpen - http://www.wakeside.com/product/boat/ballast/ballast_bags/fly+high+pro+x+series+open+bow+sac.do

Thanks Monty! I am gonna make one last check for everything I need and get goin! The pump is here and it looks high quality. I'm going to use the fly high tube sac for the locker and the fly high seat sac for under the rear seat.

I've been thinking about replacing my locker sac with the rear seat sac

Monty Monty Sorry to keep asking you all these questions but our setups are so close to each other I really wanna learn from you!

So I guess I don't really NEED to try and fit a seat sac in the rear locker if I'm gonna put one under the rear seat too...but it sounds like a good idea! I will have to remeasure and see if that will work. I'm very close to getting the sacs and fittings.

No prob that's what it's all about trying to have fun and helping each other out so everyone can have fun . . . It's all about the love of the sport I was going to do the same and add a sac under my seat but with the 2 existing sacs taking up the playpen storage and locker storage, the pumps taking up the storage under the rear middle seat, 2 batteries under the spotter seat, the amps taking up most of the room in the passenger side dry storage , and the sub under the driver side console I'm damn near out of storage space . . . . And I LOVE IT ! ! ! !

by the way I'm almost done with my winch and I'm F-ing Stoked I can't wait to try it out

We had the ballast in ours filled all weekend. Once we got past seven people in the boat, plus the ballast, it seemed as if the wake got worse. Have any of you guys experienced that yet? Oh yeah, here is a new picture of "The Black Pearl."

when you get that much weight in there you have to play with the wakeplate to make the wake better

Monty where did you get so much ambition!! A winch too? What did you make it out of? Dang bro where do you live?

Where did you place your pumps for the rear sacs again? Does it matter if I use 3/4" hose or is there a reason you went bigger? I don't suppose you know the approximate dimensions of your rear ski locker do you?

wes, ya gotta stay balanced front to back. no wakeplate on my boat, so that may have something to do with it.

I get bored quickly and am always looking for something new to try . . . . And of course save a $h|t ton of money on gas I mounted my pumps under the rear bench in the middle. The only reason I used 1" for the fill/drain line is because by god I'm a man and bigger is better lol no but really I talked to a lot of people and everyone told me the 1" will dramatically decrease the fill/drain time over the 3/4" . . . . But that's just what I was told. I've also talked to a lot of people that use 3/4" for all of it and they have no problems with it. By the way on my setup I ran 1 1/2" hose from the water intake to the ballast pump manifold

not the greatest day out.....got my rope in the prop...and to top it off my swim platform ripped off!!! so looks like I'm busy for the next few days. But none of that is too bad, I've had a lot worse days on the river!

Ripped off ?!?! Like broken fiberglass ? Dude that sucks man sorry to hear that

no not broken fiberglass....the screws just pulled out on one of the supports and half way out on another the the hole thing fell into the water....but it floats!haha So I was left with two small screw holes that were under the water line. We didn't back it up and head in when that happened we just ran the pump more than usual.

Hope to see it at the Supra reunion in Fox Lake, IL in July--

Never herd of it....tell me more!

Dennis, good good that would've really sucked balls

Dennis - What river? I'm on the Mississippi and it's really high. Aren't we all. Lots of floating debris and deadheads. Not bad if you keep an eye out.

I ran over my friggin rope too! Don't really know how we were just at near-idle and there was a knot in the rope so we pulled it in to untie and BAM took about a second. Turned the boat off real quick and I dove under but couldn't untangle it.

Meanwhile we're about a mile from going over a dam with a river current about 7-10 mph so do the math. But we have an anchor. So we were near shore holding a tree branch and we pulled over to an empty dock at someones house. Had to sneak on their boatlift, raise my boat up, and go under to unwrap it. FKKK that was difficult!! Not fun. Took about an hour.

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3320/593030.html?1213990455

I'm on the Illinois River....a little high but only a foot or two, current is a little fast but not much faster than normal. Not to much debris just about the normal for the river...going to try to get it fixed rite meow and go out! wish me luck!

Let me know if you get the swim platform fixed. I get off work at 6:45 tomorrow morning, and can be there to help if you need. We (Alex and Kristen)are going out tomorrow with Joe and his fam. You gonna be out again? When does Chapman get back?
Let me know how the progress is going.

wakemikey,
I think I found the answer to the hard starting issue after running the boat a bit. The ignition resistor. Mine was really corroded and broke while i was cleaning it. I have a new one on the way. May chaeck that out if you havent already fixed your prob. From the pics it looks you have the ford 351 so your may be in the front of the motor. Follow the purple wire from the coil and youll find it. Its white and rectangle.

Adam, got it back on around 11:30 yesterday and went out for a few hours but it was super choppy! Put a few boards in to support it and some fiber glass and silicone. stood on it out of water and it seems all good. I leave for Memphis tomarrow, be back sat.

Snippy - Thanks for your advice. For now, though my problem was solved by purchasing a nice new battery and new terminal clips. Soldered them on, and used a wrench on the thumbscrews to get as tight as possible. The boat still has some slight issue with a rough low idle, but I think a carb tuneup may be all I need. Thanks for your help and I will keep that in mind if it doesn't tune up!

ok everyone who has plumbed in your rear locker or rear seat I need your help!

-I need to know how to get my line (fill and drain in one) from underneith the rear seat into the rear ski locker! Where should I drill, do I need to remove the rear seat to find the spot?

-I need to get the dang dividers out from under the rear seat!! My dividers are made from HARD plywood, it is very sturdy and probably glued into place w/ the rest of the seatbox. I guess I will just have to use some sort of saw tool (jigsaw? suggesstions?) to cut a large hole and try and get most of the divider out. I really hoped they would be easy to remove without much premanent modidication, but maybe not.

To review my system: water intake at engine, up to pump under spotters seat. Back down and under engine/floor to rear of boat. Up under steering/prop shaft access hold under middle section of rear seat. Over to one side of boat, then up and through the back of rear seat, through wall of rear ski locker. Line is tee'd, then one side goes to rear locker sac, one to under seat sac. Both sacs will share an overflow line that will drain to bilge?

wakemikey you might want to check out my other thread.

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/594635.html?1214530695

I had to rebuild my back seat to fit a sac under there.

You don't want to drain to the bilge put a through port on your boat.

Jason,
Why don't you want to drain through your bilge? If you have it all T'd in wouldn't it still be okay to run your bilge whenever needed and empty your sacs when the time calls?

If you boat started taking on water from an accident or mechanical failure and you need to get it out of the water quick. The last thing you want to do is add more water to the bilge.

Well I know that an overflow through the hull is the most common. I may go that route eventually but for now I'm thinking KISS. So far I am planning zero through hulls. If it doesn't work well enough, I will make changes. I know it may even sound silly or that I'm not serious enough. But I think it is silly to run six pumps and put 10 holes in the hull. No offense of course, there are a lot of different ways to do it. I can always make changes or upgrades to selective parts of the system. All easy to access and upgrade.

I know that it would be nice to hear an audible sound when my sacs are full. I would NEVER drain the sacs through the bilge!! This is only the overflow line. Just a liter or so of overflow water that I can bilge out immediatly, not a lot or anything. And I can just bilge it out. Someday I could even have auto bilge... Similarly I can always add a second pump when I plumb the bow. Expandable.

Hey Vette I saw your threar the second you posted it! I am still absorbing it...but I'm honestly hoping not to have to make as many custom modifications. I am lucky enough to have areas to fit the standard fly high locker sac in rear ski locker and another under rear seat if I can get the dang dividers out.

I was hoping to find someone else with a rear seat constructed like mine, but it seems everyone's is different!! I don't think my rear seat pulls completly out very easily... I will probably just have to cut out the dividers as they aren't really structural.

(Message edited by wakemikey on June 27, 2008)

(Message edited by wakemikey on June 27, 2008)

Post pics of your back seat with the cushions out I might be able to help you.

I am back from a day working on car (crazy car an 89 Merkur (german ford import) xr4ti small turbo) and ballast install work.

I took all the screws out on the rear bench seat and low and behold the whole seat-top lifted up! So we removed the bench seat bottom and took it to the garage to modify. We cut out the dividers, restapled the carpet, and tomorrow we'll plumb the tubing before putting the seat back in.

I had a bit of inspiriation and have decided to run the main fill/drain line through the gunwhale all the way back.

Pics to come as soon as I can compress them enough to load grrrrr the bulletin boatd should do that automatically.

Nice can't wait to see the pics of your ballast project

Okay I made some progress this weekend but there are still some major decisions to be made on the ballast.

I wish I would've gotten a pump that was safe to be in the bilge!!! It would be so much easier...oh well I'll figure it out.

Here is the rear ski locker. After I removed the rear seat I could see how easy it will be to run plumbing behind the rear seat and drill into the ski locker as well as the rear seat for the fill/drain line.



Here is the rear seat bench after lifting the seat top. The seat is hinged and folds up over the sundeck when you take out all the screws on the top of the seat-bottom.

Here you can clearly see the bilge valley access and in the rear port side of the boat you can see where the gunwhale ends. Either spot would work for access.

I was going to instal my pump near the battery but that may be too much line to pump/suck through so I'm trying to put it in the back. No room under rear seat. MAYBE room in ski locker. Don't want it too near the gas tank...



Here is our remade rear seat bench. The dividers were held in place with long staples. We managed to cut out the dividers and them pull almost all of the staples. Restaples the carpet. Honestly this space isn't that big but I need it. A locker sac will be not quite full.

Nice . . Just be patient and take your time

Well the ole tranny finally took a $h|t on me last weekend so she's in the shop getting her insides played with hopefully I'll be back on the water with her by next weekend

Let us know what the exact problem was and how much it cost ya to fix. Ours seems a little sketchy throwing it into reverse.

at the beginning of the season it ran perfectly and the it started not wanting to go into gear but it still worked pretty good. Last weekend it started slipping really bad I'd been driving and all of a sudden it would just wind up like it was in neutral and then slam back into gear . . . . Good thing I got my winch finished so I can still wakeskate

I won a wakesurf board from Inland Surfer!!! Hahahahaha how sweet is that it's the Black 4'5" Skim. Just found out yesterday! Updates ASAP!

We have put 35 hours on the boat. Using about 5 gallons an hour of pure riding with one sac and 4-5 people. Still confident it is a winner. Have been surfing a TON. Great wave!

Ordered all the fat sacs and fittings, also have hose and the pump. Also bought a tower mirror for a great price right here on WW through OnlyInboards.com.

The river is getting lowwwwerrrr..... Cross your fingers no rocks no rocks no whammy.

Mikey, that's badass glad you're enjoying your new ride I love these boats and I'm pretty sure everyone that owns one absolutely loves em and it's awesome

ive got a quick question..... when we have to much weight the wake gets small and sloppy..... where should the wakeplate be set at???

When I have a lot of weight I put the plate down quite a bit

Mikey, any ballast install updates ? ? ? I can't e-mail you at work I'm guessing your firewall blocks e-mail from certain places

Hey all. SAaturday morning, time to get it goin! Big plans for me this weekend.

Well okay time for a rant where to start? I have been pulled over by sherriff two times now midride while surfing. I posted this over in surf forum too. They do not like it very much when we have people sitting on the gunwhale or the sun platform. Grr! They are nice enough and claim they know about the boat and what we're doing... Pretty annoying, we're only going 10mph sheesh.

Also got corrected on registration in MN...I READ the freaking rule book it says you have 90 days to register if buying from out of state. Cops said no that's only if you are visiting from out of state...whatever. So they say I have 15 days. Doh!

Once I get registered I'm gonna order some of those nice vinyl drip letters, but from ebay for only $35 instead of $100.

Tower mirror is in and I will get to try it out today.

Got the two locker sacs from a real nice local ship Midwest Mastercraft at waterskis.com. Fitting are not cheap! Also picked up Puck Process and a the Drew Surf Instructional. Hehe.

NEw Chrome throttle knob from rexmarine.com for only $15 shipped.

The ballast I haven't gotten to yet. With the river level dropping we had to push the boat lift and dock out AGAIN so annoying. So I would really like get crackin on the ballast today. We'll see how the weather turns out.

Haven't seen the Inland Surfer board yet since it's prolly shipping ground from CA. But if you go to their website it says my name on the homepage! Too kewl.

Boardracks piss me off. They are so freakin expensive. I really want another two board rack and another two surf rack. But good lord that is a lotta money for a board shelf basically. But I'd love to get those off the damn floor...

Also havne't gotten to fixing the hydrolic wakeplate yet! Geesh I really wanna do that soon.
Simon I was reading around and everyone puts their wakeplate down more as the weight level goes up especially weight in back of boat. I read that anything over 1000lbs needs wakeplate down 25-50%. But no personal experience there.

So I am having minor starter issues now it makes a high pitched spinning noice but doesn't engage to crank engine over. We will try some easy fixes first. Grease up flywheel, then try repairing solenoid. Hopefully...

Monty I really hope I don't install 3/4 and then wish I hadn't! I will be taking pictures but won't post a lot until I try it a few times. So far I am excited at how easy it should be. Only two small holes to drill on INTERIOR of boat (through inside gunwhale wall, through sundeck storage wall near bottom). I hope it works, but I can always modify parts of system.

Tell me this isn't a damn straight Monster Tower install. I just love it. Really brings the boat together.

Uugg I'm so sick of resizing images for this site!

You should be fine with 3/4" I mean you wont be winning any contests for the fastest ballast fill but you should be fine

wakemikey,
Get your starter rebuilt. I had mine checked out last year before my trip and it was toast. New solenoid and starter rebuild was like 70 bucks.

Here is a pic of mine. Hopefully tower comes next spring.

Snippy nice boat!!

Windy as all hell this weekend in MN but we were out anyways. The lower front canopy helped keep a lot of wind out!

The tower mirror kind of pisses me off. It doesn't adjust at the right point for mounting on a Monster Tower. I think I got it by putting it on the passenger side. Hope it doesn't look weird. Also, it doesn't have any plastic sleeve to protect the tower! Scrated my shix all up! Grrrrr.....

We took the starter apart and it was toast. The design isn't very good on the PCM as the starter is pretty low and can actually get submerged in water if the bilge gets full enough! It was all rusted out inside. We got a new one and it works great.

I am still having engine issues after surfing. It runs real rich, backfires sometimes and dies often. Has a hard time holding neutral or low idle. When I drop the hammer it dies. I have to feather it (very light up-and-down motion) to keep it running. Thinking maybe new spark plugs and then we'll examine the carb float level.

The ballast system is almost installed! Ran out of hose. Doh! We ran all three sacks in back yesterday with only three people in the boat and wake was huge.

Hey I also got my hydrolic wake plate to work! Woohoo! The last owner just never filled it w/ oil! Haha! Took 5 mins. Works perfect.

So when the plate is down all the way the boat doesn't nose up AT ALL when I drop the hammer even with over 1500lbs in it! Not at all! And it SHOOTS outta the hole. With the plate down it is VERY easy to hold speed and can drive VERY slow 12-15mph and the boat will stay on plane even w/ weight!

Unfortunatly the wake dissappears. I will try tonight with just putting it down a TEEEENY bit and see it it helps at all.

Man is surfing fun! I do that now more than board! For now...

Mikey, ever tried Wakeskating ?

You probably have the largest wake boat bimini ever. Keep it. We were talked to twice by authority this weekend. One by the local cops at Perkins because they said we drove too close to shore, but actually we were just ollieing their buoys. The second one I got a little close to a fishing boat, didn't see them, and they were trolling in our line we had been running for the previous 15 minutes, so they had a legit reason to call us in, but the Sherriff was tight and just asked to see if we had enough life jackets. He watched us for about 1/2 an hour.

Yeah I didn't wanna be the 1st to say it but DAMN ! ! ! ! That thing is F-ing huge. I have never seen one like that but it's pretty damn cool

Wakemikey,
That topper has got 2 go.

Hahahaha I knew you guys would love those camper cover shots! Isn't that thing nuts? It's almost 7' tall in back! It also has clear plastic windows that zip on and seal up the sides so the ENTIRE boat behind the windshield is covered!

Unfortunatly you can't drive at speed w/ it up. There is nowhere really to store it either except on top the sundeck. The inside of my boat has two metal tracks along either gunwhale - that's what it's for!

Monty I used to wakeskate and love it. I put traction pads on my 2nd wakeboard a liquid force free 135 (their FIRST ever board, btw hehe). Never rode a ply board. I like it but I can't do any skateboard tricks or really jump the wake. So to me that's like surfing! I can do a few tricks on a skatboard, but not shoves or kicks, so to me I don't see the point. But it is fun and I LOVE surfin! I also think winching some crazy water spillways would be AWESOME on a wakeboard...

Need advice on the ballast! I got everything installed! Yaaay! It works!! Yaay! But it's not quite right..

Okay, I have the two rear sacs, one under rear seat, one under sundeck. They fill and drain using one line near bottom of sac. The issue is that since one is a foot higher than the other, the bottom sac fills first and the top sac only gets 1/3 full. Then when I drain, the top sac empties and the pump sucks air without draining the bottom sac. DOH! Please help!

hmm well it might suck to do it but it sounds like you might need to add a couple on/off valves for the 2 separate sacs back there. They're plumbed together right ? Are they piggybacked ? Like this

or like this ?

like the 2nd except the tee is pretty close to the opening on the sacs. I was thinking I should raised the height of the tee to be as high as the highest point on either sac. And the higher sac is a bit higher, like 1.5' higher than the low sac.

hmmmm you could add 2 on/off valves but then it wouldn't be so automatic you'd actually have to switch the valves while pumping so they'd both fill and drain all the way

Yes I get that bored during the day

I also get bored at work hah! Have some down time, then emergencies as I ship medical devices at work.

I will put a valve on 'em for now so I can wake. But I want it to work! I have a lil experience in lawn irrigation so I think I can do it. I will try and get some pictures today!

Anyone know where I can locally buy the blue waterbed fitting?

lowes/home depot used to keep those

A little off topic but who has the line on cheap raw water pumps? Also nice to see the sunsports repp-n around here.

Shane I saw your other thread too bad to hear about the pump. Can you tell exactly where it is leaking? Or else maybe remove it and hook up to a fake-a-lake so you can tell how good the flow rate is? Just thinking...

I have never looked for that part, but my first places to search would be skidm.com, iboats.com or onlyimboards.com. Or else call Skiers Choice! I've heard they are very helpful.

=-=-

Mont I raised the level on the main fill/drain line and it helped but did not solve the problem. Grr! So I guess I will put a valve on each bag and hook 'em up and be happy for the season. Maybe try some more things in the fall.

Wakemikey, the previous owner took it off to change the impellar and never re-installed it, That led to it sitting out and it seized up. Thanks though I have a line on one. I was hoping somebody knew of a cheaper place.

Does anyone know where I can find a one-way check valve for 3/4" tube?

How about 3/4" through-hull chrome fitting for above waterline vent-line?

COME ON Inland Surfer get to my house already geeeeeshhhhhhhh!

"Does anyone know where I can find a one-way check valve for 3/4" tube?"
. . . . I got mine at Lowes

"How about 3/4" through-hull chrome fitting for above waterline vent-line?"
. . . . . Westmarine.com

WakeMikey, you might also try

Overtons.com

Boatersworld.com also

Thanks guys. Well I hooked up valves to each sac today and it worked like a champ. Easy to fill and drain all three sacs. About 5 mines per sac. The verdict is in, with the three sacs the surf wave is great and it doesn't really matter (a WHOLE lot) where people sit at that point. Still no IS board yet. Sigh. I'll try and post up a couple pics tomorrow morning before we go out.

Today we got rained on again. And it was windy in the morning too wtf sheesh.

I'm kinda confused by the overflow line. The sac fills up the compartment pretty fully. There's not really room for the hard valve poking up. It would be better if it were flat there and if the overflow came out of an end of the bag....I dunno about that one.

I was going to have the bags overflow into the bilge until I get the proper thru-hull fittings, but it creates that dang siphon effect again and tries to drain too much.

OK time to vent about the STUPID tower mirror. It doesn't adjust at the right point, it doesn't have a plastic sleeve to protect the tower (scratches it A LOT) and today the mirror pane shattered. Yeah. It bumped against the other tower arm while putting the tower down. Could probably be replaced but overall not happy with it at all.

Turbo poster! Hope yall don't mind if I just keep postin pics. I would encourage you all to do the same they really make the thread interesting.

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