Accuski??

[rodltg2]

I have an older boat ( 1993 Califnornia Skier) and havent used it yet to ski behind other than a quick set. I would like to use it this summer instead of the club boat so I need to add speed control. Given that its an older boat that I probably will upgrade soon, I rather not spend the $$ on a new PP system. I've kept my eye out for used PP since March till now with no luck. Anyhow, there is an Acccuski system for sale on ski-it-again and I also saw it posted on the nichols site. Would this be a good alternative? It looks like it may be a bit more complex to install. I very familiar with installing PP as I have done it 3 times now, but have no experience with Accuski.

BTW, I dont ski tournaments so I don't care about ZO simalarites. Just want a decent pull.

Thanks

[6balls]

That's a great little boat...spring for the PP and hang onto her for a while.

[rodltg2]

It is a great boat! I bought it in March , but never used it on the course. I used the club boat the few times a I made it out this year. I did take the family out on public lake a few times and it was a blast. A bit cramped for a family of four though. I will probably spring for PP come spring time if I cant find a decent used system by then.

[Steven_Haines]

I talked to centralkentuckyinboards off of ski it again about upgrading my pp system to stargazer. He said with trade of my old unit I could be set up with brand new components for around $650.00. You might want to contact them as it seems that they might have what you need. They'll have my equipment as son as I can get around to taking it out.

[Steven_Haines]

Rico, ya that's the deal, I need the multi line along with everything else that's involved in the swap. I think my unit was the 5.0 version. Is that $650.00 still a good deal? And no, it doesn't really mater if its new or not just sounded like a pretty good deal to me. I'm open to suggestions.

[Steven_Haines]

Thanks for the info Rico

[mac]

Also, $649 on http://skiertoskier.com/

[Steven_Haines]

Thanks Mac I'll check that out. I'm assuming that's a purchase price without having to swap out my old equipment.

[Dirt]

Rod, we had Accuski in our boat for years. I always thought it had a better pull than PP. It has a foot pedal that you step on to pull the skier up out of the water and into the slalom course. If the driver lets their foot off the pedal at all, it goes to idle. If it is cheap enough, it may be worth buying.

[Ham_Wallace]

AccUSki is a great system. Easy install.

[Not_The_Pug]

Rod, something to think about with Accuski is that it needs a magnet at the 55's to work right. At least the one boat that has it at our lake has to have that. Then finding someone to drive with it is an issue, because most haven't used it. The owner of the boat usually spends about 15 min of their set trying to explain how to pull some one up with it before they ski. The time savings in just having someone jump in and drive you might be worth the extra dollars. But Accuski does have a nice slalom pull.

[rodltg2]

@Krlee, actually that was one of my concerns I forgot to mention. I doubt anyone I will ski with will know how to use it. I guess I will pass on it , seller wants $500 so not really worth it.

 

If anyone finds a used system for sale , please let me know. I need the entire mechanical set up. Any version from single line classic to Stargazer will work for me.

[Steven_Haines]

When is that z box available? Is there anymore skier feed back a guy could read on it? That's the main reason that I want to up grade to stargazer

[Steven_Haines]

Me too. Mac suggested skier to skier. That's probably the best buy. The place I mentioned requires that you trade in your older equipment to get the same price. With me being gone with work asl of the time it makes swapping a bit of a pia.

[DW]

Not sure I would be quite as harsh on the Accuski as some, it does provide a very good pull, but as noted does not operate the same as PP. The display IMO is fine and easy to read, one advantage is you can store 10 different settings if you want for each discipline (slalom/jump/trick). Yes, you need magnets for times, but if you set them up the system will give you all the segment times and total at the end of each run and if out of tolerance will highlight by how much. Another added flexibility is you can choose any speed up to 40 mph, no limitations on that (basically in 1 mph increments but also with an adjustable RPM factor to fine tune to finer increments). You can also dial in many of the settings such as how soft the pull is, how hard the gate pull is and how the pull up is from rest. The display will also read speed and RPM while engaged.

 

The biggest difference is how it operates, basically the inverse of PP, you throttle up to less than the desired speed and press the foot pedal for 1 second to get it to engage, or you can engage at idle just after you put in gear and it will pull the skier up and accelerate up to the chosen speed. To disengage, you push the foot pedal or pull back on the throttle. Not hard, but certainly different than PP, which would be the one disadvantage it would have since there are so few of them or you will probably be the only boat using it rather than PP. So the downside is your driver(s) will have to learn how to use it over and above a PP system. There are more steps involved starting from idle and heading down the course, basically that of engaging the system, I feel the setup is similar if you know both systems (really only picking your saved setting, which I think is needed for either system).

 

If you don't want to have people learn a different system, go with PP, if cost is the key Accuski will do the "same" job as PP. Replacement parts will obviously be harder to get for Accuski and there is nobody other than forum junkies to get any information from to troubleshoot although supposedly one of the two key people are still around and have helped out. Hope this is helpful!

[mac]

@ haines...As far as I know the skier to skier price does not require any equipment trade in.

 

DW gives a great description of Accuski...my ski buddy's boat has Accuski and I have SG in my MC; we swap boats everytime we ski. Comparing with SG, Accuski is a little more challenging to use...it requires crew weight, skier weight settings which can be saved, as DW describes above, as long as you remember to change the settings btwn skiers. You also have to adjust the RPM setting for each pass based on the winds that day to get accurate course times. Even though I drive this system alot, I will occasionally forget to press the foot to engage it. Also, as DW mentioned, parts are sometimes challenging to get since the system is no longer produced, but the previous company owner lives in central Florida and does his best to help you out.

 

Accuski does provide a good pull, but I believe SG is more accurate time wise from segment to segment in the course if I understand how both systems work. SG is definitely easier to use and requires no inputs as far crew wt, skier wt, winds, etc, just turn it on and go...perfect times every time!

[DW]

Yes, two things to do to activate, button press then foot pedal. Something is amiss on your unit, should not need to hold down on the foot button to keep the boat running. I have thought that perhaps the foot button / pedal would be more convienient as a steering wheel button.

[scuppers]

Guy Haggard from Orlando/Windermere made the accuski.

There was a model/series that you had to maintain pressure on the foot pedal to keep it engaged. It was a PIA. He changed it on the later models.

[DW]

That does sound like a PIA. I would think it would be pretty easy to change it, perhaps not within the software but perhaps by using a different type of switch (more like a light switch where you turn on / turn off the switch). A steering wheel switch might make that easier yet. There are push on / push off button type switches available (the NASCAR ignition kill switch is like that which is a button on the wheel) that could work.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

From the skier's end of the rope, Accuski is a far better pull than perfectpass. From the driver's end, it takes a handful of passes to get use to the foot switch and how to match up the throttle at the end of the pass, after that its a non-issue. The ability to store up to 10 skiers in memory is much faster than changing skier weight, crew weight, Kx, Px between skiers. It also stores the times for the last 10 passes so you know if the driver was being nice or not:)

 

I have an Accuski system that I no longer use, but it needs a new button on the display module to get started. Probably a $2 part, but I haven't messed with it. Make an offer.

[Gar]

Can anyone hook me up with someone (Guy Haggard Perhaps) that can help trouble shoot an Acccuski? The system will not engage with the foot pedal for some reason. It did engage one time after accelerating with the throttle.

[liquid d]

Sue somebody. He's a lawyer in Orlando, and while talking about your lawsuit, you can bring up the accuski! He's a super nice guy!

[block]

Accusing is a great skiing system. You need to get use to the foot petal engagement . Some people would say that it has safety issues, I have driven it in many tournaments in the past years , no issues at all.

[RAWSki]

I agree with @block, Accuski gave a great pull for an RPM based speed control. It was different but worked well.

Many people didn't like it because of the foot pedal used to engage the system (it wasn't needed to shut down but could be used as well OR pulling back on the throttle just like PP). I never understood the complainers of the foot pedal because they all got in their cars at the end of the day and used gas and brake pedals to get home...