RZR Surf Flap Mounting

[shawndoggy]

Whiteflash, I would seriously consider cutting down those U-bolts to be flush with the nut. The mat will float up and when people are hanging around the back of the boat swimming, someone will inevitably get gouged. I used a vise and hacksaw and filed the burs off. Yes, it was the biggest pain in the tail of the entire install. But worth it for safety.

Bet you coulda done it in 10% of the time with a dremmel and a cutting wheel...

[Cotige]

I'm really curious to see what your results are RZRCO. We just got our RZR late last year and only got it out 3 times before winter hit. Can't wait to get out again as soon as it warms up a bit.

[Z3CO23]

Finished the install this afternoon. I got my mat from Home Depot. It was a 4x3 sheet 5/8". I used some 10mil tape I found that is water resistant and noncorrosive when in contact with metals. I had a hard time getting a grommet to work inside of my bracket hole because of using the 1/2 galvanized steel rod. I wrapped the tape around the rod until I had just a small amount of play (I would guess it's about 1/16" all the way around) in the hole so it would still rotate. I put rubber grommets on the outside of platform brackets to ensure there was no moving and clanking from the galvanized cap. The ubolt's are snug to the bar. I measured the flat part of my transom and it was 21 1/2 inches. I cut the flat part of the mat at 22" and then cut up to where the mat extends 3" past my swim platform. My guess is Ill end up reshaping the map but I'm gonna play with it in the water first before I do. I have the lip on my swim platform so I'm gonna need overlap.... I'm sure I wont need 3 inches all the way across but I'm gonna start from there and change as needed.

[whiteflash watersports]

That looks really good. I thought about cutting it like that but the other poster let extra fold under the swim platform so we went that route. I have trimmed the ubolts with a cut off wheel and then coated in rubber. I am not into welding rods and doing a whole lot to make it stiff. Our mat floats as soon as the boat hit the water. We noticed no impact on driving characteristics at all in forward and reverse. The wakeboard wake had no chnage whcih was also a plus. The 3/8" rod is a little week and I may switch to 1/2" but other than all is well.

Here are the results. We were very pleased with the wave as all the spray we normally get in our faces was eliminated. The wave had a nice clean face and we anticpiate the lip will be clean when we go in the lake. We were in the intracoastal (brackish) so there is alot of foam. I could see the lip of the flap just past the edge of the swimplatform while I was riding and the water just flowed off very smoothly.

So overall we are very pleased with this mod. I would recomend to anybody. My daughter is the hard core rider with no wetsuit as the water was a balmy 63. First pic is the before and then the after.


photo_1.PNGphoto_2.PNGphoto_3.PNG

[Duncan]

I thought about cutting it like that but the other poster let extra fold under the swim platform so we went that route. ... We were very pleased with the wave as all the spray we normally get in our faces was eliminated. The wave had a nice clean face and we anticpiate the lip will be clean when we go in the lake. ... I would recomend to anybody.

Looks great! I let material fold up under swim platform so there was no chance of water coming up over the gap.

Also, when I cut my mat, I made "ears" that extended all the way to the rear corner that digs into the wake. One design feature I will correct this season is that I had a 90 degree cut from just past the bracket to the outside edge of the platform -- by the end of the season, this 90 degreee cut was tearing. So I cut a smoother arc and had no issues. I plan on changing out the material to tweak the shape a bit.

Elimination of spray was the greatest immediate benefit of our flap too. Amazing what a difference it makes. I suspect that Duffy's stiff downward design has better wave shaping characteristics, but I am with you Whiteflash in preferring to avoid the extra welding etc. I think the benefits I got from the "floppy" surf flap to be more than sufficient to justify the cost and effort.

[Stingreye]

I think Duffy surf flap fans are growing! How long have you been running one Duffy? At least since 2011....

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=787204
His first one looks flappy like this design. I bet flappy is less of an issue if you have a large swim deck that holds the flap in place too (vs a smaller deck that doesn't touch the wave).

Either way, count me in the camp of it just works. It made a huge difference for me when there was a cross wind. I had some spray that was not much of a factor until the wind blew across and the surfer was constantly sprayed. I don't think the spray has hit a surfer since this mod. And since two of my surfers are age 4 and 2, even spray at knee level would be in their face and not fun.

I have been wanting to try a longer flap but just haven't had the time.

[duffymahoney]

Thanks guys! Yeah something like 20011. Stiff mat is amazing. Do that if you can. Great and cheap mod. I love having a perfectly clean wave. It's fun to look at as well as surf

[jmoore15]

I have posted these in other threads over the past couple of years but thought I would repost here for those that have not seen. Pretty easy to build and extremely effective. I am planning on building one for my Z3 to see how it compares to my VX. This was on my Z1 which has (older version) the same beam as the RZR.

[duffymahoney]

I never got that much spray, I wonder what it would do to my hull? Very cool invention!

[Stingreye]

Jmoore thats awesome! How many different versions did you go through?

[jmoore15]

Duff, seems like the narrower beam boats have a lot more problems with the spray. I'm sure though the same approach would work on yours (I also think it will work on my Z3).

Stingreye, the pick above I really my third version. Here are the other two (the steel is pretty close to the above and the stainless I made to test if a different pitch matter (the more it hung down the more it flattened the wave).

[duffymahoney]

I was going to make a hydraulic vx system, well before Tige annonced it. I just got happy with my wave

[houstonshark]

How stiff does the surf flap need to be? It seems like you want it to have some flex in it so that it naturally cleans the wake vs shaping it.

I thought about laminating some thin ABS plastic to the flap to stiffen it in certain areas.

I'm also planning on some sort of way to stow it up underneath the swim platform for towing and possibly for wakeboarding if it affects the wake. It might be as simple as integrating some snaps into the flap and underneath the swim platform.

[duffymahoney]

If you use my design its fine for towing and wakeboarding. It doesn't flap around unless it has water pressure on it. The one on the bar might flap around, but probably not too bad. The horse stall mats are stiff, but water pressure moves them just fine.

[whiteflash watersports]

Our's also did not effect the wakeboard wake at all. Driving in reverse and around the dock was also not impacted. This was very important to me as we launch at a double ramp in the intracoastal with a tidal impact of about 4ft up/down - so very heavy current.

We used the 1/2" horse mat and it is very stiff and just rides on top of the water when underway and smotths the wave out nicely. I have towed with it on and have not had any issues.

Check out our before and after pics and you can see how smooth it made our wave. We are very pleased.