new RZ2 owner needing help

[///AIRDAM]

a friend of mine just ordered a 2009 RZ2 pictured below






we both are new to wakeboarding and are trying to learn. he bought the best boat he could find and wanted to try and learn behind the best.+
well it seems to be a bit harder than we imagined, obviously if you dont know and have never done it, its not a walk in the park.

my first question is, what setting should the TAPS plate be on while wakeboarding, it obviously makes a bigger and prettier wake at 0-1 and a smaller wake at 6-7

second question is, when you are starting off do you set the speedset cruise and just go full throttle and let the cpeedset catch you? or do you actually play with the throttle while getting up and set the cruise only after the rider is up?

-- we have tried both ways, and trying to manually control the throttle, it seems to outrun us and get carried away and go faster than we like before we can catch it and back the throttle down.

third question is, what speed do we as beginners need to try and pull? we've heard everything from 15-22 and at 15 i cant seem to keep the slack out of the rope and at 22 i feel like i'm about to die


new owners wanting to ride some wake, just need a few pointers from folks who know. thank you for your help guys

[Tanner]

First off, tell your buddy that his boat is SICK!!!! I know of a certain owner of a certain speaker company that just might agree. Can we get a side shot of it?

TAPS is adjustable to your particular set-up and liking. You use taps to adjust the wake, and clean it up, or make it more rampy or more vertical. Just play with it and see what you like best! No one can tell you what you like best. The wake will be bigger at 8 than at 1. It will also be more vertical at 8, and more rampy at 1. At 8, the wake tends to curl on me though, and the lip is soft if it's not curling. The more ballast you run, the lower your gonna want to drop it. With stock ballast, it's normally pretty nice with taps around 3 or 4.

As for speed, that's personal preference again. I guess if 22 is to fast, try 19.5. I personally like 22.5. Your speedo could be off too, so getting a GPS to check it would be nice.

The way I do speed-set is to manually try and hover around the speed your wanting until speed set locks in, then when it does u can drop the throttle. I don't like how speed set shoots wayyyy past your set speed at first, so that's why I manually do it till it locks. Unless your an experienced driver it's prob. best to just let speed-set do it's thing from the beginning though, or else you may be jerking your rider around.

What I would do is get you and whomever your gonna have in the boat while pulling, and try to play w/ the taps until you get the wake that you want. Just try and keep the wake from washing over to where it looks real clean. Don't worry about the rampiness or verticalness for right now. As you improve, you'll figure out what you like better.

[dingleberry]

Tanner - I think Tige has adjusted Speed Set so that it doesn't have that initial speed overshoot anymore. Mine starts to back off the throttle before it hits the set speed, so it pretty much nails the set speed right away.

[///AIRDAM]

yeah tanner i'll get some pix up soon.

as for the speedset, it does ork almost flawlessly. you can set the speed, and it will come out of the hole hard and start backing out of the throttle about 3mph before your set speed and almost just stick the speed right away. we played with it alot this weekend and it wont overshoot the speed at all. we just couldn't figure out if you were supposed to be pulled up by it or not.

as for the taps and ballasts, i do not know of said ballasts. does the boat have a ballast that is hidden in the compartments or under something?


(we are typical guys) we haven't read the instruction manual yet

[skyski_tige]

Nice boat! Are you going to put that boat in the Mississippi River?

I set mine when speedcontrol it gets to the right speed. Then just adjust based on the rider preference. My mph is reading about 1 mph fast.

My 11yo wakeboards at 20mph. IMO Beginner should be at 17-19.

On a side note... Is "Top of the River" still in business? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm All you can eat catfish and coleslaw...

[Timmy!]

For beginners we usually run 17-19 depending on their preference with Taps at 1, sometimes 2 to clean up the wake as necessary. I'm an intermediate rider and I like to ride at 22 with taps at 4 with the v-drive sacs at about 1/2 full, it makes a nice clean wake that seems to give me pretty solid pop.

[da.bell]

yeah tanner i'll get some pix up soon.

as for the speedset, it does ork almost flawlessly. you can set the speed, and it will come out of the hole hard and start backing out of the throttle about 3mph before your set speed and almost just stick the speed right away. we played with it alot this weekend and it wont overshoot the speed at all. we just couldn't figure out if you were supposed to be pulled up by it or not.

as for the taps and ballasts, i do not know of said ballasts. does the boat have a ballast that is hidden in the compartments or under something?


(we are typical guys) we haven't read the instruction manual yet

You have tha option of including an under the under-floor ballast system. Not entirely sure if your friend got it.

BTW, SIC arse boat.

[///AIRDAM]

negative on the ballasts, he did not include any ballasts when he ordered the boat. that was the only option he did not get, thinking they would not be necessary. we got it last week and have had it out all weekend trying to get used to it, and i did notice that on the right side it seemed to make a beautiful rolling wake and about 75 feet back it crested and on the left side it was a crested white capped wake all the way back. so the ballasts and sacks are so you can even the weight out in the boat and make both sides of the wake perfect? i guess the two rear side ballasts are how you even out the weight i nthe boat to make both side of the wake match?


also, when loading the boat, on a perfectly calm lake with no current, why does the back of the boat always kick out to the right? you can be perfectly ligned up with the trailer, coming in at idle, and the back drift out to the right for no reason. does the taps plate need to be all the way up out of the way? we had a time one day last week trying to load it on the trailer. it would get going perfectly straight headed directly for the trailer then just drift to the right. any tips or tricks for loading? should we keep the trailer mostly submerged and drive the boat up the runners? or completely submerge the trailer and let the boat float up to the front and center bumper?

[da.bell]

You will need to rearrange people to meet the needs of the wake in the boat unless you purchase lead or Fatsac's. If the wake is curling over, you need to add weight to that side of the boat.

Going back and to the right is a "feature" of any inboard boat. Just plan ahead and expect that it will not purfectly back up straight.

The trailer should be submerged to the top of the fenders to allow the boat to get onto the trailer.

[///AIRDAM]

Nice boat! Are you going to put that boat in the Mississippi River?


On a side note... Is "Top of the River" still in business? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm All you can eat catfish and coleslaw...

we do not plan on putting it in the river at this time white the river is so high. with the water being up and everything being flooded, you can sit up over the river and watch whole trees and parts of houses floating down the river. the water is up so high right now that there are houses floating and being carried away up river and if we put the tige out i nthe river i can almost guarantee you, we'd end up being pulled home without a rudder and/or prop. there s so much trash in the river right now, its not a good idea to put a john boat in.


i do not know the "top of the river" i even googled it to see what you were talking about. i dont know of any resturaunts in the area by that name. we have a rowdys catfish shack here in vicksburg that does the all you can eat catfish and its by far the best fish around.

[///AIRDAM]

You will need to rearrange people to meet the needs of the wake in the boat unless you purchase lead or Fatsac's. If the wake is curling over, you need to add weight to that side of the boat.

Going back and to the right is a "feature" of any inboard boat. Just plan ahead and expect that it will not purfectly back up straight.

The trailer should be submerged to the top of the fenders to allow the boat to get onto the trailer.

thank you for your pennies worth of knowledge. they mean alot. we're trying to learn and hearing things from people who know helps alot

[zad0030]

Any time you put the boat in reverse the back will pull to the right. It has to do with the rotation of the prop. I'll save you the details.

When coming into trailer you want to be as slow as possible, "bump" the throttle in and out of gear. Make small corrections, and dont panic or oversteer. Use reverse sparingly because on approach reverse can easily get you all outa wack, especially if you havnt gotten the hang of the pull to the right.

But the pull to the right can be nice for docking as well once you have had some practice with slow speed maneuvering.

[Timmy!]

You'll get the loading on to the trailer figured out after a few times of doing it. I come in slow and just kind of get the nose seated on the trailer and then kill the throttle and let it settle. Once it's settled, I then throttle it on to the trailer the rest of the way.

[da.bell]

You'll get the loading on to the trailer figured out after a few times of doing it. I come in slow and just kind of get the nose seated on the trailer and then kill the throttle and let it settle. Once it's settled, I then throttle it on to the trailer the rest of the way.

ditto!!!!!

[skyski_tige]

we do not plan on putting it in the river at this time white the river is so high. with the water being up and everything being flooded, you can sit up over the river and watch whole trees and parts of houses floating down the river. the water is up so high right now that there are houses floating and being carried away up river and if we put the tige out i nthe river i can almost guarantee you, we'd end up being pulled home without a rudder and/or prop. there s so much trash in the river right now, its not a good idea to put a john boat in.


i do not know the "top of the river" i even googled it to see what you were talking about. i dont know of any resturaunts in the area by that name. we have a rowdys catfish shack here in vicksburg that does the all you can eat catfish and its by far the best fish around.

It was right on the Mississippi river on the Northside of I-20. It has been since 1992 since I have eaten there -