Driving While Surfing

[Z3CO23]

I have a 2011 RZR and I am having trouble with straight line driving while surfing. This is what's going on.... I've had two different experiences on 2 different bodies of water here in Colorado over the past two weeks.

2 weeks ago we were surfing at horsetooth reservoir here in Colorado. While driving under normal operation (no ballast) steering wheel is straight boat drives straight. I know that boats never really have a true "straight" but for all intensive purposes, we had no pull either way. Loaded up front 400 and port 600 and surfed regular side in a "straight" line no problem. Never surfed goofy side that day as we had no goofy riders so I have no comparison for the following surf day.

The next weekend we went to chatfield reservoir here in Colorado and under normal driving conditions (no ballast) have to turn wheel somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 left for boat to drive in a "straight line". Filled up front 400 and port 600 and surfed regular, again had to give boat 1/8 to 1/4 turn left in wheel to dive boat straight. Had goofy riders this day so filled up starboard 600, emptied port, surfed the goofy side. Wake was completely surfable but looks awful.... tons of prop wash and totally washed out because the rudder is essentially in a slight left turn position. Turned the wheel to a "straight" position and boat makes right turn and wake cleans up beautifully. I would normally not have an issue with this but park rangers in colorado will hammer you for any little variation to their rules so I cannot just do right turns while surfing goofy. I tried filling opposite rear side with 25% 50%, nothing helps.

I had the same problem with my boat on chatfield when we were out on a previous day as well. When i pulled the boat out of the water I checked the steering wheel position with the rudder position and everything looks great. Steering wheel staight, rudder straight, steering wheel right or left, rudder turns as it should. On all three outings checked rudder condition, tracking fins, prop. No damage to any of it, no bends, chips, cracks or anything.

I know that driving a ballasted boat is going to stress rudder operation so I understand there is going to be a little play this way or that way but I should be able to drive the boat in a relative straight line no matter what side is ballasted. Have driven friends boats ballasted for surf and didn't have this issue. Would different current conditions at different lakes have something to do with it?..... I know this sounds stupid.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

[JohnnieMo]

Was there are current in the water? This would require a constant steering deflection to go straight, and would wreck your wave.

[chpthril]

Between the 2 outing, what was the difference in the number/size of the crew and there placement? Too many/much on one side will list the boat over, just like adding some surf ballast, and the boat will not respond normally while on plane.

[IDBoating]

Also consider the effect of wind, if there was any. A boat has a pretty good sized cross-sectional area and it doesn't take much wind to make it want to "turn".

[Z3CO23]

So, the first outing we had 3 in the boat and a surfer of course. Me driving (i go about 260) and my buddy and his wife on surf side 220lbs and 140lbs. Second outing was pretty similar give or take 150 pounds or so in passangers.

Both bodies of water are small Colorado ponds. The wind certainly picks up in the afternoons which doesn't help with driving in the afternoons but I was having the same issues during calm conditions in the morning. I will play with it on Thursday and give an update.

I know the RZR will not have as good of a wave on the goofy side as the regular side without the vx because of prop roatation/hull etc but Tige prides itself on straight line towing... so ive been a little disappointed.

[skippabcool]

You need to see if you can get squid out with you. Or PM him. His R20 should be about the same and I know he has been on both lakes.

[Ewok]

Is this the first time you have experienced this problem? If it is i'm thinking maybe you picked up some weeds on the rudder or it was just the effect of crosswind. I agree that you should try and get out with Squid, he's done a ton of research on R20/RZR weighting.

[Z3CO23]

I will contact Squid for sure...... he definitely has it dialed in. Ewok, I have only experienced this problem at the second lake...... both times we were out. It's probably the cross wind, hoping it's not a bad cable or something. I'm definitely not a DIYer. Thanks for all the help guys.

[Z3CO23]

Took boat back out again yesterday. Went to another lake to get a different perspective. Regular side was great as usual but goofy side was awful.

Basically, it is impossible to straight line surf on the goofy side. I pulled our goofy riders up using a right turn and then was able to make slight adjustments in steering to the left to get the boat straight line towing but wave has a ton of prop wash and hammers riders in the face. shape is awful if not non existent as well.

I tried everything in reference to ballast, full - 3/4 - 1/2 and 1/4, no weight on opposite, weight on opposite, filled front, and no front. speed from 9.8 to 11.2. 10.8 to 11.2 seemed best but were all lackluster.

During regular non ballasted driving, wheel is slightly to the left but i know this will vary with lake conditions etc. The boat is so far different from side to side I'm up in arms about it really.

I know the goofy side is going to be tough to clean up on the RZR because of physics of the boat but I should be able to straight line drive the boat on either side. I've inspected everything thoroughly, nothing damaged, totally baffled. Going to call the dealer to make sure nothing internally wrong but aggravated.

Any ideas? Thanks again.

[IDBoating]

Re-reading all of your posts in this thread, I'm reminded of when we first tried goofy (starboard) side on our 24Ve. The setup was NOTHING like what we had been doing for the regular (port) side. To drive straight while getting a reasonably clean goofy wave, we ended up with max ballast on starboard, zero on port, max in the bow, and more speed than the regular side ever required. The resulting wave was very tall, tons of push, but not much length. However, it got us started and we have since dialed it in to the point where the goofy side is probably 80% of the quality of the regular side.

The moral of the story is that, at least in our case, we had to really think outside the box - by which I mean presume NOTHING about your regular side experiences and just start from scratch. I realize we have very different boats with very different hulls, but I would start with:

Absolute max ballast starboard, absolutely zero ballast (and passengers) port, about 50% ballast up front, midrange (4-5) on TAPS. Then ramp up the speed while driving straight. Start around 10 MPH, see what it looks like, bump it up 0.2 MPH, look again for 15-30 seconds, repeat until you hit at least 13 MPH. Drive straight the whole time. Then go back to whatever speed gave you the best wave, even if it wasn't all that great, set cruise to hold you there and start moving people around a bit. Send a few forward and see what happens to the wave. Send one port and see what it does. Add or remove bow ballast. Make it as clean as possible at that cruise speed. Finally, tweak with TAPS to clean it up.

I'm sure you have played with all these variables, but I'm suggesting you start well outside what seems reasonable (<10 MPH) and push it until you're beyond reasonable on the other side (>13 MPH). Force yourself to explore the edges of speed, ballast amounts, ballast arrangement, etc. I bet you can make that goofy side work better than it is today, but it may require a combination of variables that doesn't sound sensible right now. You'll never know until you try.

Report back!

[Allan Kendall]

Thanks for the ref Skipp....I PM'ed ya Bobby.

[Timmy!]

Hopefully Squid can help you out, his goofy wake is definitely dialed in!

[Allan Kendall]

Thanks Timmy....we have fun.

[Z3CO23]

Thanks for all the help guys and thanks for the message Squid. Still a work in progress but chipping away at one experiment at a time.

[jstplyn331]

Driving While Surfing

I've never tried goofy at horse tooth with my RZ2 but now you have me wondering, as I have a few people that have not gone out with me but are goofy riders.

My regular wake at carter and horse tooth have been great 1 ballast 1 rider me and 1 other so a total of 3 drives straight and never tracked funny with a great wake.