Z-box/Stargazer on Malibu Response's

[TSki]

Hey everyone,

 

Just wondering about the Perfect Pass gps-based systems on Malibu Responses. I have skied a few early 2000's Malibu Responses and every one of them struggles with maintaining the correct speed. The usual problem is the boat will come into the couse slow and at 3 ball will go ballistic and speed up to make up for lost time. It's very annoyning as a skier and driver.

 

The Response owners I know have talked with Perfect Pass several times about how to 'fix' the issue but nothing I've seen really cures the issue for good. I've taken to just putting the system in 'classic' mode when I get behind a Malibu/Stargazer combo, but that's not acceptable when you have Z-box and the whole point is to mimic the feel of Zero Off. I was just wondering if anyone here has had this problem and been able to resolve it?

 

One hypothesis is that the boat isn't able to settle in if the lake has a short set-up, so it may not be an issue in a bigger lake. Anyone know if there is any truth to that?

 

Thank you.

[Marco]

I have an '01 Response with the Z-Box, and ski on a 2000' lake with turn islands. The problems that I encountered was when the system engaged while in the turn behind the island, the GPS would sense the slow speed, and add RPM's, causing an extremely hot first segment an a slow 2nd. PP sent me a new chip that delayed the engagement point, which really helped. Now my times are +/- 100th for the most part at 32, 34, and 36. At 30 and below, I can't prevent Stargazer from engaging behind the island because I need that many RPM's to get the skier up, so when I pull at slower speeds, I use classic.

 

Be sure to ease the speed up (while going srtaight, not in a turn) until it engages and don't overshoot. Also, you want to be sure that the tach is in the "inverted" setting on the Malibu's.

 

FWIW- When driven correctly, the feel of the pull is very similar to ZO through all the settings, at least on my boat.

[Deke]

@Marco FWIW the oscillation from the short turnaround on Z-Box sounds the same as for regular Stargazer. As you know, our course has a long, straight in setup (depending on water level) so this is not normally a problem unless we spin. Even still, there is enough distance to even things out. However, with low water and a short setup our problems are the same as yours. At one point Perfect Pass thought they might change something to keep the control RPM based while in the turnaround by way of the accelerometer, then go back to GPS on a delay once out of the turn. I guess this didn't work.

[jackski]

The Response hull is quite slippery ( good fuel economy) but that make it harder for the speed control to maintain exact speeds.

Coming in slow ? Do you mean below 55 at no load into the pregates ?

My 95 Response was surging a little after ball ,1 so I set ball 1 to be .01 fast. Now I have no surge. Times usually come in -.01, +.01, -.02, -.01, +.01 at 16.95 so the last ball must be +.02. All at 32 to 35 off.

Having a fast segment seems to slow down the next.

 

[bishop8950]

@Tski - I have a 2000 LX and have the same problems, surging and segment times that are +/- 0.1-0.5. I worked a lot with PP but never got it sorted. They gave up and offered to refund. I have played with all the settings and run "inverted" which helped but still isn't working acceptably. Strangely when I run in Classic I can hear the Zbox engage under load, which I don't think its supposed to do, and I get good times. So I am running classic+Zbox and quit investigating. My module is old but PP says it shouldn't be the problem. If I did anything else I would get a new module but I don't ski behind my boat that much and no matter what I do it will never be ZO.

[Marco]

@Deke- The upgraded chip they gave me just changed the RPM's it takes to engage the GPS. I can't remember the #'s exactly, but I think Mark at PP said that normally Stargazer engages at 500 RPM below the set baseline. For my condition, they reduced that to 250 RPM's below baseline, giving me another 250 RPM cushion before it engages. If you are haveing the same problem as I was, add 250 to your baseline and that should delay the engagement accordingly. I know it is opposite of what other people are saying, but it might help you out with a short set up. Might be worth a try. It is still not enough for speeds below 32 mph though...