jpwhit

@jeidmann The short answer to your question on engine reactivity is that Zero Off does not accomplish that. It unclear, to me at least, if that's eControls intention with Zero Off and they just haven't been able to succeed, or if they really aren't trying to accomplish that objective.

I have to jump on the @perfski customer service band wagon too. Just ordered a new high end ski and other accessories from them. Over 3 different order in the past few weeks they've gone above and beyond to make it a perfect experience. I'd be hard pressed to order ski stuff from anywhere else at this point!

I made the switch from double bindings to RTP 5 years ago after skiing the double setup for 30 years. At first, I felt like I was literally going to fall off the ski and it took me quite a while to adapt. Then a couple of years ago, I switched to a reflex front hard shell binding. That took a little time as well, but really a pretty quick transition compared to the RTP transition. I was struggling to keep my weight centered on the ski, and the RTP transition made a huge improvement for me. I've progressed more since the switch than I had in the last 15 years before the switch. I still believe it's a personal preference thing, but for me the switch really paid dividends. I also had some rear foot cramping issues at time in the full rear, it's so nice to ski now in complete comfort.

Nice write-up. If you do end back up in the Raleigh area there are lots of really great places to ski the course. Feel free to reach out and I can hook you up with skiing opportunities.

I've had snap in carpets on just about all of the boats I've owned starting in 96. Never had any trouble with shrinkage. I wouldn't consider any other option. It gives you a finished gel coat surface which works ok when you know you're going to be in really wet weather. I just remove the carpets in that case and it makes the boat really easy to deal with in the rain. If the carpets do get soaked, it's easy to hang them up to dry. They dry 10 times quicker hung up because most of the water drains out in about an hour. It also makes them really easy to clean out of the boat. Never had any trouble with durability. I had my 96 boat for 20 years and the original snap in carpets still were in great shape.

@Cnewbert that pretty close. But with fuel management turned on the physical gauge on the dash no longer shows simply what the in-tank fuel sender is reporting. On all the newer boats, all the "manual" gauges are 100% controlled by the computer. With fuel management turned off, the computer simply reads the signal from the fuel tank sensor and tell the gauge to display that info in raw form. With fuel management turned on, the computer tell the gauge what to show based on the algorithms I described above. So with the experiment you describe, I wouldn't expect the gauge to change much immediately after adding fuel. The part that would be interesting, is what does the gauge show after that as you use up the fuel in the tank. If it simply goes down as the computer thinks you've used up 6 gallons and shows empty when there are really 10 gallons left, then I'm wrong and the algorithm is very simple and not that similar to what is implemented in most modern cars. If the algorithm is more sophisticated, then what I expect may happen, is it won't go down much as you use the 6 gallons and may actually go up some as the computer analyzes all the input data it collects over time. But in the end, it may show empty in the ballpark of when you've used up 16 gallons total.

@darinmontgomery I have to disagree on the build quality between Nautique and MC. And this is coming from someone that is historically a "Nautique Guy" I've owned two different different years of 200s. There are plenty of little details on the 200 at least, this isn't any better and arguably worse than the latest Mastercrafts. Here are a couple of examples that I bet many 200 owners will recognize. The rubber gaskets on the side trunks never stay glued in place and come loose after a couple of years. The gasket on the engine box clam shell does the same thing. I haven't had any of these minor annoyances on the Mastercraft I have now. My view currently, is that Nautique and Mastercraft build quality is at least equal at the moment and if tilted one way I would say it's slightly towards Mastercraft. I do think your point about it's the only current boat that really addresses all 3-event equally well is a valid point.

Other than using it on my Mastercraft and watching how it behaves, I don't have any inside info on exactly how Mastercraft implements their fuel management algorithms. I do have experience with how automobile companies implement it and suspect there are similarities. In the automotive world, the algorithms are much more sophisticated than what folks describe here. I suspect this is also the case for the Mastercraft implementation. Typically, the algorithm does rely on data from the in-tank fuel sender as well info related to how much gas has been added. In automobiles, it's very rare to prompt the user asking how much fuel was added. That's because people typically completely fill their cars pretty often. Therefore there is no need to ask the end customer if they added fuel. The computer simply watches the in-tank fuel sender and when it goes from something below full to something very close to full, the computer notices that event and decides that the tank was filled. This lets the computer automatically re-calibrate the fuel quantity based on knowing the capacity of the tank. This is how modern cars show data like "distance to empty" fairly accurately. If you think they are doing that from the in-tank fuel sender, that is not the case. The sender simply isn't accurate enough. And if you're curious how the engine ECM calculated fuel usage, that is pretty easy and accurate on a fuel injected engine. It's derived by summing injector open times along with estimations of the injector flow rates from the algorithms and injector maps that keep the fuel/air ratio accurate. In a boat, where there are certainly use cases where the user often doesn't fill the boat regularly, I suspect they felt the need to ask the user how much fuel was added. But like in automobiles, I suspect the computer still does pay attention to the fuel sender input. It just doesn't use that input alone to decide what to display on the fuel gauge. But I bet it does use that input to help keep the system somewhat calibrated. The advantage the computer has in watching that fuel sender input, is that it can watch it all the time, keep a history of the values, and apply analysis to that data. We all know that the fuel sender data jumps around a lot based on motion of the boat. As a user that only glances at the gauge now and then, it can be difficult to interpret that data accurately. Using computer-based fuel management, the computer can do a good job of interpreting the fuel sender input, the computer's internal tally of how many gallons it thinks is in the tank based on user input or detecting a fill-up, as well as the fuel usage reported by the engine ECM. Then it can display a much more consistent and fairly accurate fuel level. If someone is really dying to know how sophisticated the Mastercraft algorithm is then I think it's possible to figure it out through experimentation. Just bring a small gas can along and tell the computer bad data about how much gas you added over a period of time. If I'm right, it'll handle that scenario better than you may think. If I'm not, then oh well now you know. Personally, I'm pretty much on the same page as Horton. I tell it how much fuel I added, and it just seems to work pretty well. Therefore, I don't worry about fuel level and I just focus on skiing....

The slow turn over speed and the drop in voltage is due to the battery placement in the 2014-2020 ProStar. The main power cables run from the battery in the very back of the boat all the way up to the power cutoff switch on the right side of the passage to the bow. Then the power to the starter comes from more cables from the power panel back to the engine box. With current flows of 100+ amps during starting, there is no way around 2-3 volts of drop in that much cable. I think the simple fix is to move the battery to the storage compartment right in front of the ski pylon. This should also increase the life of the starter, because when the voltage drops the current goes up even higher which shortens the life of the starter. The even simpler fix, or harder depending on your point of view, is to buy a 2021 ProStar.

I'll offer this since I was just in the market and have a deal pending on a boat. I did have both of these boats on my short list, but ultimately picked a newer Prostar with lower hours (<75) and many years of warranty remaining. Net, the price difference between 200s of this age and a newer Prostar didn't make the 200s attractive for me at the moment. And I know color is a very individual thing, but I didn't love the color of either of these. There were lots of used Prostars on the market with many color choices that I liked, and more importantly that my wife loved.... And just so folks don't think this is a brand issue, my last 2 boats were 200s and I started my search under the assumption that I wanted another 200. I'll also continue to ski and be part owner of a 200 at my ski club.

We're having the exact same issue as described in the original post on our club boat. Powering everything off does fix the issue ... typically for the rest of the session. Assuming Zero Off uses the standard Garmin firmware on the pucks, there were recent updates by Garmin that appears to address issues that could be causing this..... --------------------------------------- GPS 18x 5Hz software version 4.30 as of August 27, 2019 Download (1.16 MB) Change History Changes made from version 4.20 to 4.30: Fixed satellite tracking bug affecting GPS sensors used before April 6, 2019 Changes made from version 4.00 to 4.20: Fixed GPS week number rollover. Improved PPS (pulse per second) reliability.

I just did this between SC and NC. Net, it all depends on the rules of all the states involved. I called both the NC and SC DMVs to figure out the process in my case. At the same time, also figure out the rules for transferring the trailer title. It's really important to know the ins and outs of that before you make the purchase. For the SC->NC case, there is no way around getting the trailer titled in SC before you buy the boat. The seller had to do that. SC optionally titles trailers, which is about the worse case scenario. NC will only accept a title from states that optionally titles trailers. For some states, you can have a bill of sale + a bill of sale showing the seller legally bought the trailer, but that won't work SC->NC. For the plate, SC issued me a 30 day tag for the trailer in my name. All they needed for that was to see a copy of the bill of sale and proof of insurance. Then I had to get a NC tag issued before the 30 days ran out to be legal in NC. The title for the boat is another case. Luckily in my case both SC and NC require boats to be titled. That makes it pretty easy. But this it typically handled by each states Wildlife Resource Commission. Some sellers will loan you their plates and some won't. Quite frankly it's a risk for them to do so....

Thanks, this is exactly the info I was looking for....

The nylon support straps for our club's 200 are wearing out. I've seen an upgraded bimini tops that have solid support bars instead of nylon straps. Does anyone have any info on if it's possible to upgrade and where to get the parts.

Talk to your state's DMV about the requirements for getting a title for an out of state boat trailer. Some states optionally title trailers. If your state requires trailers to be titled, and you're buying a boat from a state that optionally titles trailers. Your state may require the seller to get the trailer titled in their state before selling it to you. It's not uncommon in that case, that a bill of sale for the trailer won't be enough to get it registered in your state. It's also not uncommon if your state accepts a bill of sale, they may require both the bill of sale when the previous owner acquired the trailer, and the bill of sale showing you now own the trailer. The same is true for the boat itself, but that seems less common than it use too. Seems like most states title boats these days.

I recently fixed a similar issue to your original overheating issue. When the boat overheats at idle, but not when it's rev'ed up. And the impeller has been checked and is good, then it typically means there is air getting into the cooling system on the input side of the raw water pump. The input side of the raw water pump operates at a vacuum. At idle you end up with almost all air coming in if there is a leak, but at higher RPMs the raw water pump is spinning fast enough to pull in enough water to cool the engine. That kind of issue can be really hard to diagnose I found it by literally taking apart the entire cooling system. In my case, the problem turned out to be a cracked fitting under one of the clamps. The clamp was over tightened to the point that it cracked the fitting. If your engine overheated a number of times, then one possible explanation for the loss of power now is engine damage due to the overheating. Yes, if you had the engine overheat enough to generate a warning, there should be a fault code stored. It seems pretty clear your dealer doesn't know what they are doing....

Stage 1 means the coolant temp is a little high. You should get a stage 2 warning if it goes up further. I think you're fine as long as you don't get the stage 2 warning until your next service.

I can't remember the exact details now, it's been too long. But I had a late 90's boat that had a similar issue. It turned out to be the main circulating pump mounted on the front of the engine. Apparently, there was an issue with some number of marine circulating pumps from that era where the metal impeller would start randomly slipping on the shaft. Pump would run smoothly, but wouldn't circulate adequate water around the closed loop part of the cooling system when it was slipping. Would cause erratic temp fluctuation. I replaced the pump and problem was fixed. What I was told, is that many of those marine circulating pumps for the GM 5.7 engine all came from the same supplier. So the problem happened with a lot boats with that engine independent from the boat company or the company that setup the engine for marine use. My particular boat had Volvo Penta engine. So I'm not even sure if this engine is a GM block, or it this is your issue, but thought it's something you may want to check into. I bet the folks at somewhere like skidim.com may remember more about this issue.

@Chef23 Yes, I live in Cary.

I have experience with both the WakeEye XT-One and Ski Doc Orbit. There are definite pro and cons to both. The pro to the Orbit is it's lower price and extreme durability. The con is it doesn't track as well as the WakeEye. It basically doesn't swing the camera all the way out to the ball very well. It works fine if you're using a wide-angle camera, but it's pretty much unusable from my experience if you are trying to get a zoomed in view. Which is what I'm doing since I record with a camcorder. If I were happy with somewhat wide angle video, I would use the Orbit as my day to day camera mount. The Pro to the WakeEye is they have a feature where you can adjust the pivot point of the camera mount to be offset from the center of the pylon. going back to your high school geometry, that gives you the ability to have the camera turn at a greater angle as the skier moves out to the ball. With a zoomed in camera, it lets you keep the skier in the frame out at the ball to get a good view of the turn. The con of the WakeEye, in my experience, is durability. The WakeEye guys are pretty good about replacing broken parts, but having to ship stuff from Australia to the US makes it a fairly painful process. Net, I'm constantly working on the WakeEye to keep it working. And I essentially have a machine shop in my basement. My WakeEye has been modified and reinforced pretty extensively at this point. The really weak part is the attachment points at both end of the carbon tracking boom. I also use a heavily modified camcorder for my recordings with my own electronic controls to auto start and stop the video based on GPS location in the course, and it controls camera zoom automatically based on line length. I have no experience with the new WakeEye Cylon and haven't decided if I'm going to try it or not. I already have a lot of time and money invested in my current setup, and am not sure if I'm willing to invest more time in money in trying out the new one.

Sorry for going on and on, but I keep thinking of additional important points and this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I realize this is not practical for many families, but I put huge time and effort into making both skiing and mountain biking activities the whole family was interested in doing. I'm lucky that my wife is fairly adventurous and athletic, but had no background in boating, skiing, or biking when we got married. Through very careful planning, to make sure all the early experiences with both activities were stress free and a lot of run, she really took to both. Then when our daughters were born, it was pretty easy to get them very involved in both from an early age. They were slaloming by age 5 and I think they were 10 when they entered their first MTB race and smoked all the boys. And that was a big motivator for them.....beating the boys. And they skied competitively in college and that was an awesomely fun experience for them. It's pretty cool to have your own self-contained 4-person 24-hour MTB race team when 24 hour racing was a big thing in the early 2000s. Lots of great family memories at weekend 24 hour races up and down the east coast.

And I forget to mention that most serious mountain bikers really need some form of strength training. And for folks like me that really can't get motivated to spend time in the weight room, skiing helps fill the role for some level of strength training.

I've been skiing since I was 4 years old and have been a serious mountain biker for the last 28 years. I haven't found any exercise that completely keeps you in shape for skiing, other than skiing, but MTBing seems to come very close especially if you ride rocky technical trails because there is so much upper body involved in addition to lower body. @Chef23 question is very relevant IMO because I find that people that have easy access to trails tend to be much more likely to stick with Mountain Biking. I'm very fortunate because I can ride my bike out of my basement door and have access to over 100 miles of trails without getting in a car. That's fairly rare given that I don't live out in a rural area. But then I again, I did buy my house based on the proximity to great trails. And it's a pretty unique area where we have a large state park and a very large section of airport buffer land within a metro area. For skiing, I have to drive 25 minutes to our ski clubs private lake. That drive doesn't really bother me and I ski 3 times a week from March - November. It also doesn't hurt that we have truly world-class mountain bike trails 3-4 hours to the West in Pisgah national forest. As well as some truly awesome and even less well known riding to the north west in western Va and Wv. The part that's surprised me lately is that our ski club has opening and we haven't been able to keep the membership roster filled. If I sound like I'm trying to sell the region, I guess I do think it's a pretty nice area. Pretty much everybody works in the Research Triangle Park, which has been called the Silicon Valley of the East, and it certainly doesn't hurt that we have 3 major universities in the area. And some folks really like having very nice beaches 3 hours to the east.

@UWSkier, I doubt the differences between various model of the boats is due to differences in ECU programming. I would think they all have similar algorithms to protect the engine when certain conditions are reached such as high intake air temperature. I suspect the difference is more related to the design of the various version of the engine boxes and venting. If the input air temp to the engine never gets above the limit, then the power derating would never happen on the earlier models even though the same algorithms are implemented in the ECU software.

@LeonL, Having a lot of experience w/ embedded software in the auto and industrial space, the way I would interpret "a high level guy at Malibu told me they haven't received a decent level of support from PCM on the problem" is that Malibu is unhappy that PCM won't code around Malibu's design issue by changing the engine power derating algorithms in the ECU. There are good reasons the ECU derates power when intake air temp is too high related to engine durability. A software workaround is always the most economical solution to a design issue like this, but in this case Malibu needs to fix their engine box cooling issues. If I owned one of these boats, I'd be worried about the long term effects on engine durability in addition to the power issues.