Help me clean up my wake on my RZ4

[robert theisen]

We had a great Saturday and Sunday on the lake! Saturday was Aquapalooza at Honeycomb, Lake Guntersville and there were so many boats, we only surfed - way too rough for wakeboarding.
But today was awesome!! We took off our center fins. I'm running about 19 mph now and getting most of my surface 180's down! I'm getting air and making about 3/4 of the way across the wake, and it's really wide at 60 ft (which is as short as my rope will go unless I want to tie a knot in it). Rest of family is improving too!! Only bummer thing that happened today was we lost a pin in the swim platform (thankfully at the end of the day - though it did cut us out of about an hour of boating time . The wake still has some white wash, but we're improving it! I'll work with the front ballast some! Thanks for all of ya'lls help!

If you speed up to 21 mph it will clean up your wake.At 60 foot 20 to 20.5 might even be enough.Also as you speeed up the board rotates easier.

[adamsjstt]

bahaha.. ok I like Robert. He's got a bitchin sense of humor.
May have to plan a West Coast Tige get together at the houseboat... whatcha think, Flat?

Sounds interesting......how is pine flat lake?

[auburntigegal]

Went out Wednesday and Thursday. Pulled my cousin at 22 mph. He rode at 65 ft and the wake was beautiful. Very clean! Looked awesome! He clears it! Gets great air! It was late afternoon - I was driving, husband took pics, but he had the setting all wrong on the camera - so no good pics. Thanks again for the advice!! I am sore today from getting pulled so many times past 2 days! Boat has 180 hours on it now!

[auburntigegal]

Found 3 decent pics from Wednesday. My cousin riding at 22 mph with the crappy pic settings, but you can see the wake pretty good and how it cleaned up. Last is me at 20 mph - white wash on the right and clean on the left (of course I can only jump right to left right now - but I'm workin on it!)

[Fiveflat]

180hrs already? when I was boat shopping last year I couldn't believe all the 8-10 year old boat with less than 200 hrs on them How does that happen? I bought a 12 year old boat with only 180 hours on it. I just don't get it.

In those wake pics, whats your ballast setup like? Particularly for your cousin?


(PS: you need a little more weight on your starboard side in that first pic of your cousin - unless he was cutting like crazy but I don't think that was the case)

[auburntigegal]

Yep! We're die hard, lol! We go out every Wednesday and Thursday, most Saturday afternoons and all day Sundays!!
We had 50% full in the front, empty back, taps on 1, only me and my husband in boat! My husband moved back and forth on the back seat to get that last little white wash out as my cousin rode back and forth.
Any more advice?

[Fiveflat]

Speed is all that's killin' you. My son is 9 yrs old and he rides at 22.5MPH. At that speed, it's just barely cleaning up and I'm barely weighted for him. (400lbs in bow and empty in the back).

[auburntigegal]

Thanks Five.
My husband is the hard head and is scared to speed up with me and my kids (ages 10 and 11). I keep tellin him to go faster, but he wants to work us towards that. He's afraid we're gonna get hurt!! My cousin tells him it hurts just as bad at 20 mph as it does at 22 and to just speed up, but what can you tell a hard headed man!!

[auburntigegal]

189 hours now Five!

Whole family is getting our surface 180's down!
Water today was rough!! Had to be at least 100 tubers out today. We surfed mostly. My 10 yr old daughter did about 30 ollies . She's so excited.

Five, we started our season at end of April with wetsuits on. We got the boat in September, but was able to suit up and was out until almost end of October too!

We're lucky that our work schedule allows us 4 days every week if the weather works with us to go out! Every morning as we out, someone yells as we are loading up, "I'm surfing first!", then someone else, "I'm wakeboarding first!" The boat runs constantly once we are on it. The hours have just racked up somehow !

My cousin that's in all my pics swears by Mastercraft (though he's been pulled more on my boat this year that his - WAY more!). We had went to his Mastercraft dealer, Lex in Hazel Green, AL. He was very nice and the Mastercraft's were beautiful - our fav was the X-45 - but he talked to Joey (cousin) and was like, "man i hate i didn't sale them that boat". Joey told him, "Don't worry, they'll have it wore out in 2-3 years and will need another one!" lol!

We've always been on the lake, just new to the inboard boat and surfingand wakeboarding! Bets the heck out of tubing!!

If anyone's ever near Huntsville, AL give us a shout!

[auburntigegal]

Update on our wake - it cleans good at 22-23. We have really gotten in some good sets lately!
Here's pics from today!
The wake still has some white wash on the starboard side, my husband pulled me at 20.6 today - woohoo!! That's as fast as he would go....
But I got some good air, landed it about 3/4 of the way across, crossed on over, made my surface 180 (Yeah!!), then got a little air right foot forward (my weak side!).
It was so fun today! Great water!

[robert theisen]

Sounds like your husband doesn't want you to show him up.LOL

[pzbilly]

the wake shape is now good from the last picture. U should go for 21, and set the tap at level 3 with rope distance at around 64ft plus set the front ballast at 75% rear with 50% loaded .

[auburntigegal]

You are right about that RT!
We keep playing with the ballast.... I'll try your setup pz!
Maybe the hubby will work me on up to 21 or 22 this weekend!!
It's like in that old Chevy Chase movie - "You Bastard!" "Did he say Go Faster?"
Except I'm behind the boat sayin "Go Faster!" - maybe hubby doesn't understand...

[CountryDMan]

Hey auburntigegal, did you ever get that wake dialed in? I have just recently purchased an RZ4 and am having the same difficulties you mentioned earlier in this thread. I can ride at 22 and the wake is pretty clean, but any slower it is washed out. From reading this thread it seems that faster speed would fix most of the issues (just gonna have to get my buddies convinced to ride/crash that fast). Would be nice to get a clean wake for my buddies at 19mph.

[jmhatchett]

IMO if you have NO WEIGHT on the boat and put the rope at 55' or max 60' then you MIGHT be able to get a decently clean wake at 20. Taps at 1 maybe and no weight.

I personally ride at 80' rope, with about 2500 lbs ballast, then usually 8-10 people. I set speed at 24 and play with taps to clean up wake face. It really is amazing how an extra 1 mph can help lengthen the clean face of the wake.