I have a decent amount of experience with the 2011 hull, but more with the 05-08 hull. One thing I can tell you is the 2011 vlx hull is heavily influenced by the power wedge. Much more so than my 2008 hull. The wake without power wedge on the 2011 tends to be flat and long, but I'm sure with 4,000lbs or so in the boat with no wedge, the wake would be substantial. It would ride totally different vs. the wedge down - not so much straight up pop. Another issue is coming out of the hole with that much weight, even with the wedge up. Basically, your going to be limited with the 1235 prop. My friend's 2010 vlx has the base 340hp motor and the 1235 prop, 4 ballast tank factory option. With 6 to 8 people in the boat and wedge down, its a major struggle to get on speed. I have found you can manipulate the "auto wedge" feature that automatically puts the wedge in power mode for you to help planing times. Keep wedge all the way down until your 22mph+, then engage power mode. It seems auto wedge wants to start engaging around 18mph which is much too early IMO.
If your dead set on keeping the current prop and running the wedge, try a 750lb sack in the bow walkway area, scooted back to where the end of the sack is between the drivers and passengers seats and the front of the sack runs up towards the bow. This will give the hull some belly/forward weight. You CANNOT add weight to the rear of a vlx (using power wedge) unless there is an equal or additional amount of weight forward the drivers seat. It becomes too tail heavy, hard/impossible to plane out. That 750lb sack could then be moved to one of the rear lockers when you wanted to wakesurf.
As far as a pnp system (750lb in each rear locker) forget running the wedge unless you only slightly filled those rear sacs. You would need a ton of weight up front as mentioned. Your still looking at throwing a pump over the side for any weight up front, so the only real benefit of pnp is flip of the switch for the rear lockers for surfing, or for the no wedge scenario.
For reference I'm running right at 4,000lbs + 4-5 people in my 2008 vlx, not using power wedge, LCR 320hp base motor with an Acme 2315 15" 12 pitch prop. The 2315 is a major improvement vs. the 1235 for holeshot. I lost right at 3mph top end, but makes towing out of the whole much more enjoyable.
|