New To Tige and Totally New to Boating!

[chpthril]

The lake we were on was maybe 5' deep most of the time.

This is a huge contributor to a poor wake

My taps system is not functioning and is stuck flat

Going to be hard to clean the wake with an inop TAPS

[mdk681]

When my TAPS pump was not working, I literally could not even get a decent surf wave. It's crazy just how much it effects the wave. I think you will be very pleased once you get it working.

And like chp said, shallow water like that is very tough for surfing. We ride in some areas that go from 15' to about 8' and while riding or watching the wave I know exactly when we are in that spot and when we pass it. Any other deeper areas of your lake you can venture off to?


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[Wakeman22]

Personally I would never take my boat in that lake. It is too shallow to safely boat with a V-drive. Many have damaged their boat at that lake. Ask around and you will find the horror stories. Plus you really need about 15 foot of deep water to get the best wake for surfing. Get the taps working and it will help a lot.

[UNSTUCK]

Personally I would never take my boat in that lake. It is too shallow to safely boat with a V-drive. Many have damaged their boat at that lake. Ask around and you will find the horror stories. Plus you really need about 15 foot of deep water to get the best wake for surfing. Get the taps working and it will help a lot.

Yeah, this was the part of our Saturday I left out. The marina was lower than it was last week. We had no issues last week at all. This time out we hit our prop after backing away from the trailer about 10 feet. I bet if we had had 1 inch less draft we would have been fine. Didn't notice any vibration or performance loss while out.
One thing I did notice is that the prop shaft coming out of the hull is off center of the hole to the left side of the boat and just a bit under the center line. Is this normal? I can spin the prop by hand and it feels stiff, but not binding in any spot.

We are lucky and have several places to boat within an hour of us. We won't be going back there this year.

This week I will work on getting the TAPS fixed and also checking out the batteries. The gauge shows 14 volts while the engine is running, but when placed on battery 2 the engine wont start. Just clicks. On batter 1 it starts fine, but the new cruise control system I installed wont function on it. When the switch is on both, everything works. I guess I need to run on both to charge battery 2?

[laserfish]

Welcome! Others are correct that water depth has a tremendous effect on the wave. At that depth it will never clean up. Our weighting depends on goofy or regular. Both get a 400 in the rear. Goofy gets a 200 in the locker behind the driver. Regular gets a 200 in the ski locker and a person or 200 in the center of the bow. Plus move your people to the side of the rider. This gets our rub rail in the water which is a must. You will easily get a wireless wave.
If your controller is still working, you are lucky. Replaced mine with a fuse block and rocker switches. As for the tower, never had a problem with mine till I hit an over hang with it, then it got replaced thanks to insurance. Keep the bolts tight and it is not bad remembering it is a first generation attempt. These boats are built like tanks and take rough water extremely well. As nice as the new ones are, I love my paid off boat. Here is a link so you can see our wave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0XJ6VGbacw
You and your family will have a blast with this boat. Post up some pictures, we love pictures.

[UNSTUCK]

Nice video. It's cool to see the same boat as mine with a better wave. Most of us ride goofy, so I wish I could have seen that wave, but it gives me some hope. I know not to expect the same wave out of this boat compared to one with a 1 in front of the price tag. Hard to believe you can have that much more fun in one of those boats.
Heading home now to work on the TAPS for this weekend!

[laserfish]

Get the taps working. We run ours at 7 and our goofy side is actually better than the regular side. You will have a better wave than most of the boats on the water.

[UNSTUCK]

I taps is working good, or so it seems. The right side trim tab cylinder is leaking where the rod comes out. I took it apart and found one semi hard o-ring. There is a second groove on the piston that did not have an o-ring in it. It matches the groove that had the o-ring. I wonder if there should be two o-rings? At least I think I will try it with two and see if that stops the leak. Any ideas?

[laserfish]

Never taken one apart but I would use 2. Have you gone to the Bennett website to see if they have an exploded diagram?

[UNSTUCK]

So I called Bennett on the orings. They said that it only needed one and that the other groove is just a filler for fluid. They even offered to send me new orings, which I accepted happily. Then he told me what size they were so I just went over to the local hardware store and grabbed them for about a buck. Problem solved.

Yesterday was a GREAT day on the water. I think it could have only been better if the wind would have calmed down. We went to a different lake, and that seemed to make a huge difference. I put both of my 250 poundish bags in the goofy side and then played with the taps. By the time I got to 3 it was nice and clean. We rode it at that point. I should have continued to play with it, but we were happy. I was able to toss the rope back in the boat and ride for a few seconds.... I know....Rookie. But I'm hooked. After that my daughter and I both got up on the board together. That was a hoot! She loved it. We hung on the rope the whole time. It was a good day.

My next area of clean up on the boat is the two batteries. I've been reading about the "start" and "house" batteries. I believe my system is stock, but I hope not. I can't believe that Tige would wire a batter like the house battery is wired up. There is the main two cable, the ground from the start battery, and then 5-6 other power and ground wire coming off of it. I have major OCD when it comes to wiring. I just finished wiring an LS2 into a 67 Camaro show car. Wiring should be hidden, and when its not it should be beautiful. What's the point of the Perko switch if everything is wired right to the house battery? This will all need to be cleaned up and redone. Plus the house battery is junk. Wont hold a charge anymore.
More to come on this.

[UNSTUCK]

One other thing I though of that I'm not sure if it's normal, the throttle lever. As soon as I move it forward I can hear/feel it go into forward gear, but then it stays at idle speed until I have moved it forward almost 90*. Just past 90* is full throttle so there is a very small window of throttle. Just wondering if this is normal?

[BurnMac42]

One other thing I though of that I'm not sure if it's normal, the throttle lever. As soon as I move it forward I can hear/feel it go into forward gear, but then it stays at idle speed until I have moved it forward almost 90*. Just past 90* is full throttle so there is a very small window of throttle. Just wondering if this is normal?

90 degrees isn't normal. On my 21v I move the throttle into idle forward (not sure if that's the correct term) but you can "feel/hear" the change in the engine as the transmission engages...then I can use my thumb to inch the throttle forward and the boat will start to idle forward....I rarely if ever have my throttle 90* down...only when I'm pulling someone heavy out of the water and even then I'll back the throttle off once they are up so the PP can catch our selected speed without "surging" too much before settling on the set speed...

[BurnMac42]

Edit

[UNSTUCK]

Something else that caught my eye on Saturday, as we wiped down the boat after the day was over I noticed on the back of the boat that there were once some Fox Racing stickers there. I could just see the impression of the stickers that had been removed. I looked it up and it appears that there was a Fox Racing 21v. I'm assuming that it was just a graphics change, or is this boat somehow different than a non Fox 21v?

What's the deal with the "transom shower"? My boat has it and I can't figure out why/when anyone would ever use it. The wiring and hoses are tangled around my start battery and makes it a huge pain to get to the battery (my next project). I'm leaning towards ripping it all out. Can you guys talk me into or out of this idea? Has anyone bought or not bought a boat because of it? I have no idea if it even works. I asked my wife about taking a "shower" with it and I think it grossed her out, like "if I need to I'll just jump in the lake".

[UNSTUCK]

Time for a couple of pictures, I guess. I was very surprised by our first real attempt at a surf wave. With a DEEP lake, taps working, and maybe around 500 pounds in the rear locker, this is what we got. It was good enough that a rookie like myself was able to toss the rope. I only lasted a few seconds each time before I got tossed out the back. I think that had more to do with not knowing the surfing technique than the wave...I hope. I was also using a Jobe Fade board which I'm thinking is a junk board. All that being said, I'm hooked!

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So it took my oldest daughter and I a few attempts to get up, but when we did it was awesome! I haven't heard screams of joy from her in a long time. She was having a blast! Our driver was in constant left turn the whole time we were up so our wave was junk. I'm looking forward to trying this again with her and my two other kids.

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