Moomba XLV weighting

Tantrum2FacePlant · Newbie Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 4

I have lurked for a while but maybe someone can help me with the best weighting for the XLV.

I have an XLV with the GG bags. I have noticed that this boat seems to be very sensitive to the amount and placement of weight. It seems that with the GG bags full and many people in the boat, it can get too heavy, no matter where the people are sitting (wake begins to curl and break down).

The best luck that I have had is with the center bag full and the rears 3/4 full with the wake plate down a quarter. The wake is quite large but not quite as firm as I would like.

How do you XLV owners weight yours to get the best of size, cleaness and firmness?

SEATTLE · Criminal Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 92 City: Seattle

Reduce your weight in the back to about 1/2 full. If you've got more than four people in the boat, I would reduce the front sack about to about 3/4. The XLV only needs about 1500lbs of ballast and two people to put out a nice hard wake. If you want to run more weight than that, you should plan on increasing your speed about a half a mile and hour for every additional 200lbs you've got in the boat.

Jon · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 1176

SEATTLE hit it on the head. You can not run full gravity ballast plus over 4 people. Weight it just as seattle has told you.

Tantrum2FacePlant · Newbie Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 4

I guess that is cool however the XLV was supposedly the first Moomba line boat that was designed from the ground up with wakeboarding in mind (including hull design). It seems very odd that you can't load this down to get a massive wake. I know with most other boats, including the Moomba LSV, can handle 2000+ pounds plus occupants and then some.

Also, being a bigger boat, it takes more weight to really sink. Can someone explain why this boat can't been loaded down? It's a bit disappointing since it does have a nice wake but I had no idea that it would break down after 2000 lbs and there was no way to determine this from test drives due to the stock ballast being less than that.

Tantrum2FacePlant · Newbie Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 4

On a side note, any recommendations of speed and wake plate position with those recommendations? I know putting the wake plate down cleans it up but to my experience, it also softens the wake.

Currently running around 22mph and wakeplate 1/4 down.

mcook77 · Criminal Joined: 05 Sep 2003 Posts: 78 City: Dallas

I run full GG ballast with driver/third in boat. Wakeplate is always at 1/2 when rider is up and speed at around 23 or 23.2.

I get no complaints.

If I have like 6 people in the boat, I do just as stated above - reduce rear sacks to half and front to 3/4 or so.

DJew Jake · Posted: Oct 22, 2004 7:59 am Post subject:

tsf if u go around 25mph you can get alot mor ein her

vette74 · Posted: Oct 22, 2004 8:02 am Post subject:

I have a friend who rides with the GG bags full plus 600-800 lbs of tractor weights with people. But he has to ride 26.5 mph to do it Shocked

Jon · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 1176

Tantrum2FacePlant,

Thats the thing about the XLV, it doesn't need the GG bags to have a world class wake. If it needed all that weight to weight the big boat down and make a great wake, it would come like that from the factory. Have you seen the wake with no ballast, all I can say is wow. If it were me and I had the Gravity Bags, I would do it like this:

rear bags 1/2 full, front bag full. Put 4-5 of my friends in the mid area plus 1 or 2 up front. Run the wakeplate 3/4 of the way up.

riverside · Posted: Oct 22, 2004 2:14 pm Post subject:

we have struggled i full day with this boat to create a good wake but we didn,t get it right.best result was factory rear ballast full and 500 lead up front 11 people at 25 miles.below 22 the wake washes out.wakeplate at 2/3 up..the boat handled like a cargo ship Wink

we needed the wakeplate fully down just to get up in plane.
well i guess we needed more time.for a better setup...wake was pretty impressive though.

DJew Jake · Posted: Oct 22, 2004 2:21 pm Post subject:

riverside, It will handle like stuff with like 4000lbs in it lol, but the wake musta been awsome.

SEATTLE · Criminal Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 92 City: Seattle

Riverside,

Does that boat have PP?

What line length are you riding at?

If you have 11 people, what are you doing with lead in the boat?

With that many people in the boat, I wouldn't even think about filling the back sacks just the center, half full if that.

Although my boat is smaller and lighter, the surface area of the boat is almost exactly the same, and the wakes are just about identical.

When I ride with two other people in the boat, my speed is between 21.5-22.5 at 75-80 out. If I add two or more people to the boat, I will usually add .5-1mph on the perfect pass, and reduce my sacks as I mentioned in the previous post. Also, when I'm riding with a full boat A will usally ride at 80 feet.

The thing about these boats is, you don't need a billion pounds of weight to put out a great wake. Shocked

DJew Jake · Posted: Oct 22, 2004 9:56 pm Post subject:

SEATTLE, Everyones def of a big wake is diff......

He wants that much weight because he likes it huge and i also prefer a big wake where i don't have to cut very hard. I can, but why work hard if you don't have to, When we ride the ls or lsv with 3000 lbs you can do wake to flats rolls and even ts flips way into the flats with like 5 foot cuts at 75 or 80 feet.

riverside · Posted: Oct 23, 2004 12:13 am Post subject:

SEATTLE,
my first time boarding behind that xlv was very dissapointing while my buddy went nuts about it.
like aFramer said...Everyones def of a big wake is diff......

we did get it about right that day..and yes the boat had PP.we used the lead to get a more rampy wake.But i think 21/22 there is no wake with a heavy LOADED XLV just alot of foam and whitewash.23 and up that wake was pretty massive.line lenght 60 -75

Broccoli B · Posted: Oct 23, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject:

If you guys need that much weight are you severly lacking in the skill department? A good technique is much more important than a huge wake.

I use the factory 900 pound ballast in my LSV with a driver and a spotter and have no problem going big, and taking jumps 5 to 10 feet into the flats?

Jon · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 1176

Brocolli B,

I think for some people a wake can never be too big. The stock ballast in the LSV and XLV is plenty enough for me. I just tell people, yeah, most any rider can get 5-7 feet behind a boat with 3000 lbs of ballast. Only a good rider can get the same height with stock ballast.

riverside · Posted: Oct 23, 2004 3:51 pm Post subject:

personally i like to throw my tricks with little effort and land soft right in the transit of the wake...my knees are not the youngest anymore Evil or Very Mad

Brocolli B,
i,m with you on the technique comment,...but some people prefer massive wakes even if they have a good technique,tricks look much smoother that way.

DJew Jake · Posted: Oct 23, 2004 10:09 pm Post subject:

Jon, I can go just as high with less weight but it is more fun to be able to go even higher or not work as hard. As well you can hit some nar d-ups.

Pros run near 4000 pounds, why? to make life easier and go huge. They could throw most of their tricks behind a jcraft...

Tantrum2FacePlant · Newbie Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 4

Thanks everyone. I want to clarify somethings:

This is an excellent boat and it does put out an excellent, large and firm wake when weighted properly. I went out yesterday to play around with the above suggestions and they are pretty much right on.

Too much weight in the back will lose the firmness and put too much of a lip on the wake that it begins to break down (unless going too fast).

Taking the above suggestions, I can get a nice clean wake at about 21/22mph with the front GG bag filled (1000lbs) and the rears at 3/4 (about 1200lbs). When there are only a couple people in the boat, I can fill the backs completely (1600lbs) if I step up to 22/23 mph. The wake is clean to at least 75 ft (total length of the line that I have).

I in no way was knocking the boat as I love it, but whenever a new line of boat comes out, it takes some combined efforts to figure out how the boat likes to be weighted.

A buddy of mine has a Malibu and he was initially frustrated in trying to get the wake to his liking. More weight in the nose solved his problem but it only came after a lot of experimentation.

Anyway, like any boat, too much weight can be a bad thing and too much weight in the wrong areas could be even worse. While some boats can handle more weight from a weight perspective, the engine might not be able to take it (unless you like waiting forever to plane).

Anyway, I have ridden in other boats comparable to the XLV (i.e. Tige 24V and Malibu LSV), both of those boats put out nice wakes and I know the Tige can handle a lot of weight but the wake wasn't much better, if any. On the other hand, both of those boats run up to 20K more than this (granted, fit and finish is nicer but not THAT much nicer). The XLV is an excellent wake especially for the buck. My boat has been completely reliable.

So, to sum it up. Thanks for the advice as it is definitely right on. I will post some pics of the wake with this fine tunings if I get a chance before the season is over. Sad