No Ballast Needed Sales Pitch

[scoot18]

Get the ballast! Better to have it now, than down the road wish you had and not have it at all. If you and your family are learning and desiring to progress with the boarding or surfing you will definately need it. IMHO I don't think the wake is that impressive with my ballast system filled and just me driving and my son riding. We still add lots of people, sand bags in the back and have extra sacs to bring in more poundage. Then again, my son is competeing and it seems as if the wake is never big enough for him. When we go to competitions the group organizers are always weighing down the boat with as many people as they can fit on the boat to bring the wake up..............and it usually gets huge! So we need as much weight as possible to duplicate competition conditions.

I met another fellow tige' owner at Lake Gaston this year and he has an 06 24Ve w/out ballast. His boys just started boarding in the past two years and they have now progressed to needing/wanting bigger wakes and he wishes he had gotten the factory ballast.

Deck the boat out, get the ballast. If you want the storage room, move up to the 22 or 24

[spenchey2]

i'm doing inverts and takeing all my grabs tower height on my 06 22v WITH NO BALLAST. sure its not the biggest wake i've ever seen but it works. if your going to get heavy into surfing you will want the ballast, don't need it but it helps alot.

[talltigeguy]

You will want, not need the ballast for surfing. You will want, not need the ballast for wakeboarding.

Well said. There was a toy show here last week and my buddy was talking to the Tige sales guy who gave the no ballast pitch. Although we pretty much always put 400 up front nowadays. There are usually only 2-3 in the boat. When we feel manly, we put 400 in each locker too for 1200 total.

I rode for a while without ballast and it was fine, but more is better, plain and simple. You can do any trick you are capable of behind a Tige without ballast. If you can't do something, it is because of your capabilities, not the wake. Having said that, you can do it bigger with more ballast.

I think that from a philosophical standpoint, if Tige admits that ballast is good, then their ballast system gets compared to others' ballast systems. That would expose a huge shortcoming, and the every other manufacturer could then eat Tige for lunch. Tige avoids losing the fight by not fighting. Once Tige can get 1200 pounds or more under the floor, then sales guys will be saying that having ballast in your Tige is good.

[spenchey2]

and when tige gets 1200 pounds under the floor and out of the way i will order my tige with ballast.

[marco]

No ballast needed sales pitch

forgot to add another option is an 07 rz2 with ballast for 56000

[third timer]

Sales is slow to catch on

when I bought my 20V in august, I told my dealer that to a serious wakeboarder it's not how big of a wake do you need, but rather, how big of a wake can you get. The point is that while the rocker hull des and taps are great tools to help create a better wake, ballast will always make it bigger which will always be what you want for wakeboarding. I have a 12 year old who is good enough to need all the wake I can get so I went ahead and had the dealer install a rival system with 2 pumps for each direction with 2 sacs
in the rear lockers. The details of exactly what to get and how to install them are all over this forumm and a must read before you do anything. Thesae guys have blazed the trail for us newbees. One thing I wish I had done was to integrate a pump for front sacs as well, because you have to add at least 60% of your rear ballast to the front or the front of the boat will bob like a cork in the ocean. My system is 900lb's in the rear compartment and I have an old sac I sandwitch inbetween the seats up front that puts 550lb's forward to help balance. The wake is great, My sone can easily get the height to do tantrums and any inverts or 540's. The double ups are incredible!
My kids are just starting to get into the advanced stages of the sport and the 20V can give them what they need as they improve.

[third timer]

Winter discussions

I can personally guarantee that The top managment at Tige will get this philosophy presented to them vigerously This fall.

[dogbert]

I say get the ballast. I got to ride in the 22 Ve prototype that they brought to the Austin Tige Owners Reunion back in July 2005. The product manager was driving us all around and we got to talking about what's new in the boat. I asked about ballast and he said we probably didn't need it, but that you could order the factory system that had about 900 lbs. Then my son got to go wakeboarding. The wake was pretty good (we had a few people in the boat...see my gallery), but he immediately said I'd probably want to opt for the ballast.

My neighbor's got a brand new Bu 23 LSV and they gave him the same spiel about the wedge. He and I talk a lot and he seriously considered a 24Ve, but it was more money. We both feel that both the wedge and the TAPS system are more wake shaping devices than a substitute for ballast. The big advantage for Tige, IMHO, is their Convex V hull because it accentuates the effect of the boat attitude on the size of your wake.

[third timer]

wedge vs taps

I've done alot of research on both systems, and one thing that is clear to me is that the main function of the wedge is to actually pull the transomm of the boat down into the water to increase dipacement, while the taps will not pull the transom down it will push the bow down. When taps is in the up or # 8 position it is doing little if anything, and the dynamics of the hull are acting on their own. The wedge will make the boat drive very poorly and can't be run at high speed, it only sucks the backof the boat down and doesn't help in any other way. Taps on the other hand doesn't pull the back of the boat down but can tune the attitude of the hull at any speed. But as I said it can only do this by pushing the bow down. I made a personal decission that the taps system was better for me and that I would ad ballast to my 20V for wake size and use taps to modify shape and make my boat more adjustable to the different needs of my family fun.

[chpthril]

It's all about perspective and expectations. Here is my

Our boat was ordered by the dealer, with out ballast, for the spring 06 show. We were very impressed with the non-ballast wake and rode that way til this June when it became apparent that ballast was a must for surfing. I went ahead and got a bow sac, v-drives, and a surf sac, that will be plumbed in this winter.

I will have ballast in my next boat as I will order it as I want. I will seriously consider getting the stock ballast and daisy-chaining in a surf sac as apposed to complete custom system.

[dogbert]

I've done alot of research on both systems, and one thing that is clear to me is that the main function of the wedge is to actually pull the transomm of the boat down into the water to increase dipacement, while the taps will not pull the transom down it will push the bow down. When taps is in the up or # 8 position it is doing little if anything, and the dynamics of the hull are acting on their own. The wedge will make the boat drive very poorly and can't be run at high speed, it only sucks the backof the boat down and doesn't help in any other way. Taps on the other hand doesn't pull the back of the boat down but can tune the attitude of the hull at any speed. But as I said it can only do this by pushing the bow down. I made a personal decission that the taps system was better for me and that I would ad ballast to my 20V for wake size and use taps to modify shape and make my boat more adjustable to the different needs of my family fun.

My neighbor's got the power wedge and uses it like those dorsal fins on the outboards. So he can adjust his wakeshape. I do agree the TAPS system is much more flexible.

[third timer]

old study

Yep, I'm only referring to the static setup. When I was researching this they didn't have an articulating wedge.

[talltigeguy]

My neighbor's got a brand new Bu 23 LSV and they gave him the same spiel about the wedge. He and I talk a lot and he seriously considered a 24Ve, but it was more money.

I thought an LSV would cost more money than a comparably equipped Tige 24Ve.

[laketime]

get the ballast. you will want it later. it does have a great shaped wake without, (but so does every other wake boat out there without full ballast) but you will eventually want it bigger

[Paublo]

third timer
I agree with your assessment of the wedge and TAPS, with one exception. With the TAPS down it doesn't push the bow down, but pushes the transom up. The bow dropping is the result of the transom going up. The end result is the same, just the reason why.

And with the TAPS up, the transom of the Convex hull will sit deeper in the water.

It amazes me that so many non Tige owners don't really understand the TAPS and Convex hull combination.