Got my new Z3, ready to play!

[GoVols]

I'm in the same situation now. I have a paid-for 2014 Regal 1900ES that's a gorgeous boat, but has no wake tower. We bought the boat to serve as a tender boat to our 69' houseboat, which served as our entertainment source on the lake. Well, we sold the houseboat last year (for a handsome profit!) and now only have the 19' boat left. My kids are 8 & 10 and very active in sports. They love tubing and are getting better at knee boarding, but that's it. I want to upgrade to a wake boat to open up the entertainment options, but the wife isn't having any of it. There's an incredible deal on a '16 leftover R20 at my local dealer too, which makes it that much more difficult for me. The boat has everything i'd equip it with if i were to order it.

So, I've told my wife we'll go to some of the dealer's demo days this summer and try out some surfing and wake boarding to see if we all like doing it (none of us have ever done it before). I've also introduced my kids to some wake boarding and surfing videos on youtube, which they're eating up now. I told my wife that if the kids get into this over the next boating season, I'm buying a Tige with or without her permission. In the end, I'm trying to spark a fun hobby with my kids that the whole family will enjoy, how is that selfish?! I figure, there's only 8 more boating seasons left before the 1st kid goes to college - that makes me incredibly sad.

[ChrisBarnes05-12-84]

GoVols is starting to grow a backbone!! I already told you in another thread to just go rogue and buy one anyway. I seriously doubt your wife will leave you if you go buy a Tige. You may sleep in it a couple nights at first, but as me and bakes5 said in this thread they are very comfy!

[Bakes5]

Also....no need to buy new. Seriously, you can get into an extremely nice, 3yr old boat for $50-60k. It may not be a newer Z3 but really almost anything will be an upgrade over a 19' runabout. You could probably come out almost even if you went back to 06-07 models.

[bsreid]

As said above I would look used.
Personally I think a 2014 is way nicer and higher end than a 2016, in 2016 they made the interior a little more economical. Our family went from an I/O similar to yours into a 2014 tige r20 and absolutely love it. I would seriously consider looking at a used z1, rzr or rz2. You will probably think the r20 is huge coming from the regal but after a few seasons something bigger will be wanted. Where are you located?

[GoVols]

I'm in Nashville. My wife was actually disappointed in the interior of the R20 vs. our current Regal 1900ES. In her opinion, the Regal has more storage room, which I think is BS. The dash on the '16+ R20s with only the touch screen does look a bit cheap, but not nearly as bad as the 20' Axis boats. What's most appealing to me about the '16+ R20s are the presets on the touch screen system for setting up the boat for different sports or cruising. I've heard you can waste a ton of time learning how to properly set up and adjust the ballast bags and trim tabs. Any opinions on this matter?

[UNSTUCK]

I think everyone that bought last year or the year before did all the homework for you. Use what they learned and then your boat will only require minor adjustments from there.

[bsreid]

The first few outings will probably be a little bit of trial and error with finding the preferred ballast settings but you'll have to do that with the touch screen version as well. Basically all we do is fill the surf side rear and both fronts all the way and go 10.8 and adjust the taps as needed, so it's really quite simple once you figure it out. If we were to have touchscreen I would have it set at either 100% or 0 ballast. I don't think we ever go in between, and that's not because it's a pain. Have you seen a 2015 or older? Or even better a z1 which would give you the options and space.

[TigeFamily]

Hey Chpthril...I see I am not that far from you and that you do custom sacs and other things. Seems on Z3 research that best wave comes from adding ballast to rear (1100 is now in each rear corner and would like to look into raising that number). I am not sure if my PM messages are going thru and would like to talk to you about some upgrades. Not sure about lead bags for weight as it seems like a pain to always have to move it around since I will be trailering everywhere I go and an extra 800lbs of lead sitting at back of trailer may cause handling issues when towing. I don't know what others experience is on water vs lead ballast for extra weight?.... but can you send me some contact info so I can talk to you about options this week sometime? Drew at ERX247 dot com.