jpwhit

That sounds like the transmission pump squealing to me. Pretty hard for seals or a bearing to make that kind of noise that loud. I suspect it's time for a transmission rebuild.

Can you post a link to the other thread?

Take both boats to a truck stop and weight them. If the trailer's aren't the same, use the same trailer.

I'm pretty sure you can send your current one to Livorsi for rebuild / repair. That may be the easiest and cheapest option. I'd give them a call. (877-548-5900)

Does anyone have a good picture of the 2014-2020 ski racks.

@Laz there is only one spring.

The PTM 140 is best wide mirror IMO.

My dock has those. A friend that's building a new house and dock saw mine and wanted some for his new dock. So far he hasn't been able to locate a source. So if you do find a source, my friend would like to know.

I've never had a course in a river, so I can't offer much help with dealing with the current. But I've maintained a couple of courses on a public lake for years. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of individually anchoring the turn balls, but using a traditional mainline for the pre-gates, gates, and boat guides. Even in a lake w/o any current, I think keeping the individually anchored turn balls in alignment with an anchored mainline is going to be a nightmare and time consuming.

I helped a long time family friend buy a "general use" boat 2 years ago to go with their new lake house. We ended up settling on an XT22. We are over there using the boat fairly often so I have first hand knowledge of how it performs. It surfs pretty well, and the ski wake is acceptable for recreational skiing if you're not very picky.

 

I should set some context for my earlier post in this thread. Since this site is very slalom specific, and the majority of people here do ski the course, that was the context for my earlier statement. A lot of people here when they talk about crossover, they are looking for a boat like the Sunsetter LXI, which is certainly slalom course capable. I don't think a crossover boat that is slalom course capable and can surf at a reasonable level is practical.

 

I don’t think crossover boats are practical now that surfing has become so dominant. When it was mainly skiing and wakeboarding you could bridge the gap with weight in the form of ballast. Now modern boats in both disciplines are relying on very specific hull designs. Sure you can throw a bunch of weight and a shaper on a ski boat and “surf”. But compared to a modern surf boat that would be about the same as telling a course skier they should be happy running the course using an I/O.

 

I gave up on the notion of a crossover long ago. If you want to ski the course and surf at a descent level. The practical option is 2 boats.

Boat marketing is irrelevant imo. They don't put any real money into it, otherwise you'd see national media advertising. If anything it's to sway people between brands, people already know what they're interested in doing before they come to any of this material.

If you're not being towed in gear at idle before the pull-up, you should try that. I have to be very careful on the deep water starts to keep my lower back happy. I find that a 2-step start, "in gear" followed by "Pull" once I'm moving pretty well makes a big difference. I also intentionally let the boat pull me far forward on the ski during the pull-up rather than resisting the pull. Just to the point of almost going over the front of the ski. Really reduces the stress on the deep water starts.

Coble Ski School in Lillington, NC.

 

https://cobleskischool.com/

On one of my submerged courses, I made my PVC booms instead of using standard insta-slalom collapsible PVC booms. They are nearly completely sealed. Just a couple of small holes drilled into the PVC to let air out and water in. A very small section in the middle with a sealed air chamber to keep the middle of the PVC from sagging. Stays in the lake year round and on the bottom for more than 6 months of the year. No issue with muck getting into the PVC.

 

@75Tique I have my pull-up lines going to the pre-gates. I never have to mess with the anchors. Saves a bunch of time. Some of my pull up lines are 500ft of vinyl covered SS cable. I'd happily go longer if needed to keep from having to mess with the anchors or hook the course with a grapple.

I mentioned feeling like falling off the ski in my post. I think that's what you're talking about. That completely goes away after a little while of getting use to the RTP. I don't think it really means that much other than the feeling is just different than how a double boots feel.

I have two courses in a public lake at my lake house. I don't have to take the balls off very often, but I do switch between the courses based on water level. In my experience, keeping the mainline and PVC pipes is actually helpful. What I do is attach pull-up lines at each Pre-Gate diamond. I use stainless steel cable for this for a couple of reasons. One, it sinks very well without having to have weights so there is less chance of it being snagged by boats and fishermen where it goes into shallow water. Second, it's also a color that doesn't stand out like yellow poly rope often used to make courses. I run these pull-up lines up onto shore and around a tree. If you don't know where they are, you'll never see them.

 

The fastest way to raise the course is 2 people with fins, masks, snorkels, and a ball storage line. The ball storage line has loops where half of the course balls are clipped to the loops in the correct order. I use stainless steel d-rings for ball attachment. I keep the d-rings on the balls so that I can use them to attach to the storage line. The storage line also has a section at one end that the swimmer can clip around their waist, and then another few feet of line with another d-ring that you clip to the mainline so you don't lose it if you happen to drop it.

 

We drop each swimmer at the pull-up lines at each end of the course. They both work towards the middle, pulling themselves along the mainline. Having fins and being able to pull along the mainline really speeds the process up. We can have the course up and ready to ski in 10 minutes w/o the swimmers being exhausted. Taking the balls off and letting the course drop is done in reverse. But it's very helpful if the swimmers attach the balls in the right order as they take them off.

 

We've tried to find and attach balls to individual anchors. In practice, we find it time consuming and much more frustrating.

I understood the question, but since it's asked in the context of keeping OffCourse in calibration as you change passengers in the boat, it's not really the most important question. The answer to the question is the angle will change between sitting still and moving. But that amount of change will be most consistent if the boat is level and balanced when sitting still. Consistency is what matters for OffCourse. If the boat was level and balanced during the initial OffCourse calibration, then that initial calibration includes any dynamic tilt at speed. Then as long as there is consistency in the tilt, OffCourse will stay accurate. The amount of change in tilt at speed will potentially be speed dependent, but I don't think it'll change enough with speed to matter very much.

If the boat is truly level sitting still, it'll be at the same tilt at speed. But this is only true if it's actually level. If it's level, then the weight distribution is even. And an evenly weighted boat will be at the same level of tilt at speed. That's because any tilt at speed due to hull hydrodynamics and prop torque, will always be the same for an evenly weighted boat. This does assume the mass of the boat doesn't change significantly. So assuming you not going from a couple of people to 10 people in the boat.

Hydrofoil and other changes to boat are not likely to make much difference. Not with a lightweight aluminum boat. Motor height on transom may make some difference on top speed, but very little on out-of-the hole, unless it's too high and the prop is caveating. Rope length won't matter for getting up per se, but longer may be better for letting the boat do the maneuvers described above without impacting the skier much. Trim may make a very slight difference. All the way down is typically optimal for getting up. If the nose of the boat rises a lot on take-off, then moving weigh forward, such as the helm may make some difference.

 

A prop with less pitch can make a fair amount of difference, but that depends a lot on how the motor is currently prop'ed and what RPMs it's turning. You don't need a stainless steel prop. A good condition used aluminum prop with one step less pitch may make a significant difference if the motor isn't already turning high RPM. For example if you current prop is a 15" pitch, a 13" pitch may help. Pitch typically changes in 2" increments on boat props.

 

Motor rebuild could help if the motor isn't running well currently. But instead of rebuilding that motor, look around for something like a 50hp outboard that needs work. I have a friend that goes to lots of auctions. He's picked up many old boats with 50ish HP engines for a few hundred dollars that needed a little work. Often, he'd but the whole boat to get the motor, fix up the boat itself a little and re-sale that for a profit.

 

Skier technique will make the biggest difference. If there any chance someone with more HP can pull you to re-learn how to get up, then you'd have a much better chance of getting up behind your boat.

 

If you're having any trouble keeping the skis together, tie a cord between the skis right in front of the boots so the skis can't spread apart more than 4-6 inches. The cord has very little effect once you're up, but will make you much more stable on the get-up.

@ironhorse you need to add a Hobie Cat and a Pontoon. We use the Hobie when it’s too windy to ski or surf, and we use the pontoon as our floating dock out at the course complete with grill for cooking out. Pontoon is also invaluable for course maintenance.

@GregHind, that was our experience as well on our Nautique 200 club boat. We didn't realize how much the pull on our dual puck ZO had deteriorated until after I updated the firmware on the pucks. And since my ProStar at my lake house is the new single puck, it made the club boat and my other boat feel much closer to the same.

The pucks are not brand specific. The new single puck for ZO is made by ECI for ZO. ZO then provide the same ZO hardware to all boat manufacturers.

The symptoms you describe is exactly how ZO behaves when using pucks that suffer from the GPS week rollover bug in the Garmin 18x puck firmware. The rollover that impacts the original ZO dual puck system happened on April 6 2019.

I made the switch about 5 years ago after 30 years of skiing with double boots. I learned with a toe plate and skied that way for the first 5 years. I didn't do it for health reasons, I switched because I was convinced it would help my skiing and I was tired of constantly dealing with cramps in my rear foot. Shortly after I switched, I also switched to a reflex front binding. I had too many cases of falls where I felt like I came close to injuring my front leg. Haven't had a single case of that with the releasable reflex in the front.

 

I'll have to say it wasn't the easiest transition. But I'm glad I stuck with it and feel like it's paid pretty significant dividends now. When I first switched I felt so insecure on the ski. I literally felt like I was going to fall off the ski.