jhughes

The other day I was going down a major tristate tollway in IL and noticed a big bass boat on a tandem trailer- one of the wheels seemed cockeyed a bit. As I got closer the reason was obvious- one of the wheel hubs was riding directly on the axle spindle, metal on metal, zero bearing left whatsoever. So much so that the entire wheel was riding at an angle on the spindle, entire rim was dark from the heat, it was totally insane. The guy was probably going 80MPH, oblivious. I wonder how far he eventually made it. I had to pull off at an exit anyway before being able to warn him. So, check your bearings too, at every stop. Full re-grease every couple years depending on amount of dips in the water.

To be clear- the shock tube doesn't prevent the handle from coming back hard, it just makes it maybe slightly less likely to go around the drivers neck, right? If it does prevent the handle from coming back hard into the boat the I just don't understand the physics in that case.

Been there. I've had 32 off passes that look like I'm being electrocuted and controlled by a voodoo doll the whole time and made them, for sure. It's possible! ZO would punish this a bit more I think. This video looks pretty good. Ultimately it's about redefining how you move right and left in the course and stand on the ski. Working on this right now. It's 100% mental and not complicated. You can move left correctly in the move-out. Maybe try that out of 135. Ski seems to work fine as far as turning both sides, but I ski a lot less buoys than Horton. Good move out width and glide, this buys you a lot of goodwill in the rest of the course.

Agreed, it skis pretty well at 34.2. Tracking is a bar of soap compared to a 200 but still generally ok, perhaps that's a bad comparison. Fundamentally the hull seems to have a lot of lift and you can feel that.

A change in speed is a change in like 10 variables because the boat is providing all the energy in the sport. I don't get it, personally. Still, I set my ego aside and tried some soft 33/34 mph passes this year, trying to build consistency at the green loop. So different. Soft boat feel, soft water, ability to get away with so much more at and out of the buoy. Not helpful to me. There are strong opinions on this out there. For me it's not an ego thing- it just isn't helpful to me to basically change the physics of the sport on multiple planes. In snow skiing it would be like changing the mountain tilt, gravity, and snow type at the same time.

For anyone curious about the NRG R2 but looking for a used or cheaper option I'll also mention that the R1 is a PHENOMENAL ski as well. It's kinda slipped away into history but the people that have it and know, KNOW.

NRG series is the incredibly tolerant of blatant body alignment issues on both sides, that is for sure. As such they work great for me as I learn to fix this stuff.

Just bring the strut into a Napa store and they can match it up to something similar.

@chrislandy I'll withdraw my TBI comment then, makes sense. I remember them being troublesome in the past but it's gotta be a pretty simple system in theory.

How much footing are you doing? A mid-90's Malibu Response/Echelon, Sportster, Sunsetter will have the best footing wake by a mile. Malibu was just starting to hit a stride in the mid-90s with some really good boats for the time. 90-96 Ski Nautique set the standard at the time for driving experience, tracking, spray, build quality, and ergonomics for what we'd consider a modern ski boat today, no question, by a mile. BUT the long-line barefoot wake is not great. Slalom wake is pretty good. Not a footing boat though. 91-94 MC people absolutely go bonkers for here but the driving experience and ergonomics/layout are awful IMO so I highly disagree with rating that boat so highly. Not a modern driving experience. Highly rated slalom wake for the era, never footed one but the footing wake is probably better than the SN of the same period, I'd guess. 95-97 MC could be an interesting option though I have no experience with those. Reliability will be similar across the board, I'd avoid TBI fuel injection setups if possible from that era, maybe they are more serviceable now though. 95+ PCM GT40 in the SN is the of the best EFI powerplants ever made for a ski boat and the LT1 Indmar engines are also terrific EFI motors. Otherwise, go carb.

More. Try to order a new trailer, then get that trailer to you if you are a long distance away. Not only is it expensive but it's a total pain. I'd guess $6K minimum for a brand new trailer to your door. As such a good used trailer should be more than $2K.

Possibly a noisy damper plate.

Not a great boat IMO. Better than no boat, but not great.

Exact one I have. ^^^

Last time I had nearly this exact issue it was the LP fuel pump on a GT40. I'd throw a new LP pump at it, worst case you have a spare. It can still make noise and be bad.

This is with the handle guard, the ski went in the little space for your hands. I actually think the handle guard kept the ski in the handle!

I just had my ski go though the handle in a fall causing the ski to get instantly ripped off my foot in a nanosecond. T factor as tight as it goes and it came right off in this very odd test of a fall. I couldn't believe it.

The Malibu-Marinized M5 is ridiculously weak for whatever reason. It's full throttle to get a normal sized skier up at normal elevation and floored to get up to 34 before the pre gates. I mean it's unbelievable. I have the same engine in my 200 and it is awesome, I don't know what the difference is between the PCM and Malibu versions technically but I'd never order that engine in a TXI. NFW.

Back in 2004 we ordered a portable course from Ed. That's the only way we could ski the course. We would drop that thing in a public lake, hope the water would stay calm, ski it, retrieve it all, and do it again and again. We had no private lake, mommy and daddy didn't give us a boat or a lake house, it was all determination to get course time ourselves and a portable was our only option for years. Still have it and still use it every once in a while! Thanks Ed!

And at various line lengths. A 15 or 22 offer is dealing with way more rope than someone at 38. It's not even the same planet as far as what's going on at short vs long line and 18 feet less of whatever the line is.

@george feel free to reach out to me via PM for a lay of the land.

Mid season slump typically.

Somewhat related - Do Bronco owners know the difference between a Bronco and Bronco Sport? Like that they are totally different cars? I'm just curious because it has to be the oddest release of a new car model ever, the public has been totally bamboozled by the Bronco.

Wow, tough crowd.

If all is lost in the course and I'm missing passes I should be making and everything just seems harder than it really is- I've forgotten to pick up the ball on the other side of the course with my vision mid-turn. Fixes a ton even if everything else feels out of sorts. It's a solid key.