I/O wake?

[matt1808]

Right now I don't have any extra weight in my I/O and the wake is really wide and washed out at around 20 mph, so I have to ride at faster speeds to hit the wake in a good spot. If I add a fat sac in front and one in the back, right in front of the seat, then will it make the wake more narrow? If that won't make the wake narrower then I will just spend the extra on trim tabs and get fat sacs later this summer.

[wakeboard139]

to get a decent wake for outboards or i/o its all about the trim. adding weight will basically just affect the size. where you put the weight in the boat might change the transition of the wake a little bit, but to solve the washed out wake problem, usually trimming up a bit will make a crisp lip at the top. every boat is different though so experimenting is key, try weighting in different areas with different trim positions. in my bayliner i have the outboard trimmed up 1.5 to 2 inches and a 590 lb sac in the bow to optimize the wake, and ride 65 feet of rope.
what length rope are you using? you might want to experiment with adjusting the length of rope you ride as well.
if you want to ride at 20 mph but the wake is too wide to clear just shorten the rope. once you get the size/shape of the wake perfect at the speed you are comfortable riding you will clearly see how long your rope needs to be behind the boat.
hope this helps

[matt1808]

yea I guess I just need to keep experimenting. My parents got a new boat recently and it is completely different from what we used to have so I haven't found the perfect setup for it.

At slow speeds the bow is to high and the wake is wide and washed. I am thinking to start I will get some trim tabs that should narrow the wake and lower the bow a lil. The I'll add some weight to the front to increase the wake and bring the bow down more. I was looking for a little input though.

[Alan C]

ya i used to have an I/O and adding weight didnt change the width of the wake at all... just made it bigger... it was still all soft and washy too... trim helped a lot more tho

[r3612]

Buddy of minebought my bro's i/o and his wake is pretty compareable to some inboards. Trim is key to a good wake in an i/o just as much as weight is. I/o's take more weight in front than inboards. The key is to weight down the bow so you can plane with the trim up about 1/4-1/2 to clear the wite wash. another thing is prop you definately need a good 4 or five blade he uses a four and the thing holds speed great and even without his perfect pass.

He has about 1600lbs in his boat though. I'm going to look in the archives for his pics of it, but his wake is sweet. He's got a 21ft I/O with a tower racks speakers ballast and this thing rocks. The wake is almost knee high with a great transition. The only main difference is he rides at 70ft.

The archive posts are "i/o wake" and "inboard vs I/O" look at the pics of his wake it's sweet it can be achieved( i'm the author so look for my id). I would never complain about riding behind his boat and I own a V-drive.

[T&T]

It all depends on the shape of the hull. A deep-V hull will create a wake that is tough to adjust and typically the wake washes out at less distance, but creates a huge wake at closer distances.
I recommend using a Hydrofoil on all I/O's. It makes the wake bigger, and easier to control.
I've had a d-drive ski boat and an I/O with a shallow hull. The I/O was easier to create a huge wake without weight, simply adjust the trim, but the wake starts to wash with rope length greater than 70'. Add weight to the bow and the boat becomes easier to control with trim and the wake gets bigger. My I/O held 20 perfectly with a 15pitch 3blade, it all depends on pitch of prop and motor size.
I actually think the I/O wake was stronger, rampier and easier to approach than my buddies Tige with the Taps down and 600lbs. (I'll take photos this weekend to compare).

[KurtInCincy]

Trim tabs are way more expensive that one of those dol-fins that bolts to the lower unit. And they do the same job. Unless your boat is like a 23 footer or more, then go for the trim tabs

[T&T]

Kurt,
You said to go with trim tabs??? I don't think that is what you meant is it? Explain.
Thanks.

[jbelson]

T&T, I was told that the hydrofoil kills your wake. Thats why I haven't put one on yet. It definately helps performance and planing.

[salmon_tacos]

jbelson,

It depends on the hydrofoil. I know the SE 300 made my wake a little smaller but that wasn't the biggest issue. The biggest problem was the fact that it caused the prop to cavitate really badly in turns.

I know someone with a Doel-Fin on his old 19' foot I/O and trimming up with that thing actually makes his wake huge (we're talking moderately-weighted Nautique here) with no weight (ridiculous bow rise but he doesn't even have weight in the bow). I know that's not typical--there must be something weird about the height of his outdrive or something--but the point is that it has the extreme opposite affect of killing the wake.

I, myself, switched from an SE 300 hydrofoil to a home-made 3/8" stainless plate and my wake is actually moderately larger with the plate and some trim. The planing speed with the trim all the way down is still FAR superior to without the plate.

Just by looking at the things and know intuitively how they work, I would rank the different stabilizers as follows, in order from least to most lift in a typical application.

1. Home-made
2. Cobra
3. Doel-Fin
4. Tigershark
5. Stingray
6. SE Sport

[matt1808]

okay but here is my biggest problem. If I go about 24 or 25 mph without triming up then the wake is good for a deep-V I/O. It is still a little washed out but it's good. The only problem then is the bow is too high to see good so my dad doesn't like to trim up. That is really what I want to fix then I'll add some weight to make the wake bigger.

Also whe have the stingray hydrofoil on there from our old boat but that doesn't fix the problem, that's why I am thinking about the trim tabs.

[salmon_tacos]

Trim tabs will pretty much just raise stern, drop the bow, AND make the wake smaller.

All boats are different obviously. Mine has no problem with bow rise when I trim up with a 750lb. sack along the rear bench but it sounds to me like you really need to throw a sack up front in yours. I wouldn't bother with the trim tabs.

What kind of boat do you have anyway? What are the dimensions, i.e. length, beam, and deadrise?

OH...AND...you should get a GPS to check your speed or calibrate it some other way. Those speedos can be WAY off. I know mine read 26 at a real speed of about 22 when I first got my boat.

Going too slow makes a washy wide wake. The only way to really narrow your wake is to go faster (or to get a narrower hull). So my theory is that your speedo is off and you're really going a lot slower than you think you are.

[DJew Jake]

I would say the best solution here is to speed up abit 20mph is to slow to advanced nicley great for a beginner but once u start w2w jumps you should be atleast at 21mph, probabley at 23-24 it will m ake you progress quicker, and narrow and crispen the wake.

[sktw8]

What is trim and how do you get it. I have a bayliner if that helps.

[T&T]

Sorry in advance if this is too basic, not sure how much you know.

Your boat is an Inboard/Outboard. Means Motor is inside the hull, and the Drive is outside the hull. When you adjust the drive from up (out of the water) to down (into the water), that is your tilt or trim. Trim is your fine adjustment of the outdrive. If you adjust the trim up a couple of degrees, the result is the nose of the boat will rise and back of the boat will dip down into the water. Too much and the boat nose will bob up and down (that's too much trim).

Make sense?

[matt1808]

aFramer, I am an advanced rider now but I have started riding sliders recently and I like to go a little slower when riding sliders. Mainly when I use a towable slider I made over the winter. My normal speed is about 24 or 25 mph.

salmon_tacos, I haven't tested it with a GPS to get a exact reading yet but before we sold our old boat we checked the new one with it, and it was professionally calibrated. After doing that we found out it reads about 5 mph faster. Also it is 21' long, 100" wide and I don't know the exact measurements but it is deep. One thing I have noticed with it is it is supposed to have a special hull for a smoother ride but it seems to create a lot of drag. Will that have something to do with it?

[salmon_tacos]

I don't know about your special hull. What make/model of boat is it? Are you talking about a stepped and/or ventilated hull? Whatever it is, I can't really say anything about its effect on the wake except that I could certainly imagine that contributing wash.

Anyway, a 100" beam will definitely tend to give you a wider wake which will be exacerbated by lower speeds. The only remedies for that will be to go faster, use a shorter rope, or GO BIGGER!

[matt1808]

It's a 2002 tahoe Q7 and the hull is stepped. We got it brand new at the end of last summer. Also I have decided to not go with the trim tabs because we are supposed to be getting a new inboard, since our old nautique died a few years ago.

[matt1808]

Also could anybody with I/O wake pics post them. I am not that familiar with I/O so maybe I am expecting too much, well thats what my dad seems to think.

[holiday13]

OK, I have a 19' Maxum IO that with no weight and the trim all the way down has a real nice transition wake that is real clean at the right distance for w2w, I just bought a tower and want to get some bags as well, would you guys suggest balancing the weight front to back to maintain wake integrity making it bigger or just the front, just the back? Thanks

[T&T]

Weight up front will keep the bow from bobbing, and allow more trim. You mentioned that you are all the way down, try trimming up to force the stern down. That is usually how to clean-up the wake.

[holiday13]

Actually, I was playing this weekend, now granted I was alone in the boat not towing a skier but I did not see much difference in the wake as far as size, and the wake stayed clean in the area that I usually ride, now when I add the tower I will end up riding a longer rope and I am sure I will get into a more washed out area, but I have to be honest, I dig the wake my boat puts out for a cheap IO, just need to make it bigger

[T&T]

Do you have a hydrofoil? That combined with some weight will make the wake larger. I usually have 5 people, a 350# Fat sack, and 200# in sand bags (that I keep forgetting about removing), and just added a second battery (these make good ballasts).
The wake is pretty large with that combo.
The problem is that with more than 75' of rope, the wake washes-out at 22mph and is a little better at 25mph. I don't think I can get 80' of rope though.

I hear ya about the cheap I/O. Check out my boat:

http://forums.wakeboarder.com/viewtopic.php?t=25948&sid=69699477480654167ce762b484ab9698

[holiday13]

How hard does your motor work with that much weight in it? I have a 98 and it has the 4.3 Merc (gonna do a tune up this week, hope that gets me a little more). I don't have a hydrofoyl now, really I have been running a "stock" boat and the first mod is the tower, how do you have your weight spread? I was thinking of getting the sack for the ski locker and then a sack between the front two seats, try to get 700 out of those two

[T&T]

Got the Fat Sack in the locker and the sand and batteries in the back.
I give'er full throttle to pull out of the hole. It can be a little sluggish depending on the number of people in the boat, but on a wakeboard, you pop righ up. It would be a tough pull for a slalom skiier. Once I plane, it takes very little throttle and it maintains with problem. I can hold 22 mph very easily. I average about 2 gallons per hour with a day of wakeboarding. That's pretty good IMO.

I also have a composite 4blade prop that you can adjust the pitch. It varies from 15 to 22 pitch (according to the manufacturer), but I think it's wrong because at 15 pitch the boat tops at 25mph, and my aluminum 15p pulls 32mph. At it's lowest setting, it pulls hard, but the top end sucks.

[T&T]

Oh, and with the hydrofoil, you will loose a couple MPH, which may make you step down your prop. I had to go from a 19pitch to a 15 and 17 pitch because I could only pull 3800 rpm and the 17pitch pulls 4200rpm and the 15 pitch pulls 4400rpm.
Also, I have no gear reduction because the boat came from sea-level and most boats in Colorado have a reduced outdrive. I have 1.6 gears and most are coming with 1.8 or 2.0 gears. This will allow a bigger prop (like 21 pitch).

[holiday13]

Prop would probably help, I have a 3 blade and I think it is 18 pitch (but I am going back a couple years in the memory bank here). Thanks for all the input here, looks like we have fairly similar boats and it help having some guidence. Not gonna get to ride till the 26th but that should be here soon enough!

[riverfreak]

holiday- the Maxum i/o is the boat I have I use a 500lb in the bow and have a 5 blade - the wake is huge and clean - I've ridden behind a lot of boats - it is comparable to the 2001 nautique 80s model - which is huge - Maxum is a heavy built boat with a deep hull - the wake is a little rampy but sweet - I'll try to get some pics

A friend of mine has a Mailbu Sunsetter - you have to sack out an inboard 1500+ to have a wake of decent size - I'm good with one in the bow!

+ gas is always a

[holiday13]

riverfreak, thanks for the beta, I always thought it was a good wake and a friend of mine who rides really well (a lot better than me) loved the wake. What pitch prop are you running and how is it out of the hole?

[riverfreak]

I think it is a 19 - I can't remember hole shot is great with a 5 blade - hole shot is great - pulls up 2 boarders no problem

[holiday13]

Excelent, I was gonna order a new prop anyway, I checked mine last night, I knew it was a 3 blade but it is only 14, so that should make a huge difference. Thanks again

[riverfreak]

the 5 blade - definately holds speed better than a 3 blade - it cost me $200 to have mine rebuilt after I hit some concrete - but it is def. a keeper

I've used a 3 blade with lots of diff. pitches - the 5er is the way to go

expensive but worth it -

[SCottman]

I have an 18' FourWinns (see profile) and it's all about the trim. With a locker sack and the trim set about 3/4 up this boat puts out a great wake at 70'. Rode behind wakesetter two weeks ago, nothing like that, but it is enough to throw inverts into the flats no problem...