Rz2 Wakeboard Ballast Review

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Spring for Iowa struck super early and we were fortunate to get out super early, earliest to date which was in March. Our regular season starts a week after the ice goes out and goes into the better part of September or mid October depending how busy we all get with school. This year we've been doing a lot of small test of additional weight in the Rz2 with simply adding people for the time being to be able to move weight around a lot more efficiently, and along with that keeping track of the general weight of each person that comes on that particular day. The reason I used people to do testing other than easier to move around is I can find where I will want to add weight then keep in mind people will always be onto of this weight from here on this was a general starting point for me to add later on in the season.

Day 1 of testing in March.
Stock 2,000lbs (which I believe is filling over that by a little)
7 People according to my calculations total weight around 1050
Total ballast: 3,050
Taps 3
Speed 23.6
All the people I had in the rear so only 800lbs in the bow for weight giving us a 2,250 in the rear which is close to a 30/70 split of weight.
here's a couple pictures of the wake


Day 2 in April now
2k stock
total people 12 weight: 1920
Total weight: 3920
Once again all the people in the rear! so around a 20/80 split of weight
Taps 3
Speed 23.8



Last day
Stock 2K
4 People -600 lbs
I then added a 200lbs in the rear along the floor against the back seats
Also added a 300lbs sac across the front seats sideways (pictured)
total weight : 3100
Bow weight - 1100
Rear weight - 2400

The last was my favorite set up out of all of them! The wake was super mellow and had the kick the others had the wake had a super smooth transition one of the smoothest I found with the trial and error over the past couple weeks. This wake was a lot more forgiving although it wrecked me hard (rider error). I have always seemed to have very tall peaky ramp style wakes however this had a lip on it just not that sudden snap to it like all the others I had previously set my boats up attached are a few pictures.


All these set ups were tested in the same portion of lake therefore depth had no change in the wake.
So when I go to add weight to the existing ballast I plan to do the following exchange the rear bags to the largest I can get in the rear locker's to fill want to get roughly 2400 in the rear and then 1100 in the bow is my goal all in the existing system and with Pop Bags.

[Bruizza]

If you bias the weight way to the rear like you have been doing you will always get that tall peaky wake. Add weight to the front and it will give it some more ramp like you found out with your last ballast test.

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If you bias the weight way to the rear like you have been doing you will always get that tall peaky wake. Add weight to the front and it will give it some more ramp like you found out with your last ballast test.

Correct add weight to the rear to steep'n the wake and add weight to the bow to mellow it and lengthen the wake. The Rz2's are well lets see not bow weight friendly they don't take kindly to large amounts of bow weight. The bow when slowing with just the stock weight in the bow and the rest in the rear likes to dive under the water when slowing down. When adding the 1100lbs it really liked to go diving had to be very careful on the turnarounds to pick up riders and the rollers that could be coming at all times. I've worked on weight set ups in the Rz4 but those boats just love speed to get the wake out.. hence why i've always chosen the Rz2 the 4. My plan hopefully would be to get my hands on a z3 and do a ton of weight testing this fall and or this year yet... and hopefully add one to the hoist next year...

[Bruizza]

Good info to know. We ordered ours with the pro ballast set up but I have been thinking on those days we want to get crazy throwing in the fat sacs we have. Going to have to be extra careful not to take on a bunch of water. I do want to try riding it with about 3500-4000lbs in it as that is what we ran in our Axis. That wake was downright scary at times.

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Good info to know. We ordered ours with the pro ballast set up but I have been thinking on those days we want to get crazy throwing in the fat sacs we have. Going to have to be extra careful not to take on a bunch of water. I do want to try riding it with about 3500-4000lbs in it as that is what we ran in our Axis. That wake was downright scary at times.

I have had my previous Rz2 right at the 4K mark and it was nuts! had 4 people move from back to front to get it to plan out was before i put the ACME 1235 prop on that boat! it was sick i'll find you a picture of the wake


the Rz2 bows sink into the water a ton and they get real close to waterline which is the problem when it comes to busy days you almost need absolute butter like this to be able to run a substantial amount of bow weight to prevent water from coming over the front.

when stoping to pick the rider up it's slow down to the point the bow is almost down and then gas up to get it back on top and it'll come down again except up on top of the water vs. submerging. definitely gotta pay attention and be careful when doing it. it's a slow down, stop, wait a couple seconds then turn around motor back slowly in old path then continue.

[Duncan]

When adding the 1100lbs it really liked to go diving had to be very careful on the turnarounds to pick up riders and the rollers that could be coming at all times.

Oh lord, the few times I add 800 in the bow of our RZ2, I nearly have an anxiety attack. Don't think I could take driving with 1,000

Lots of Slingshot fans in your crew

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Oh lord, the few times I add 800 in the bow of our RZ2, I nearly have an anxiety attack. Don't think I could take driving with 1,000

Lots of Slingshot fans in your crew

we recently have all switched as we got a good deal on all of them which made it easier to do driving with 1000+ in the bow is very nerve racking at times and takes a lot of awareness but when you get used to it, it's extremely fun and allows creates a lot more forgiving transition on the wakes.