Wayne

@skinut to answer your question, here are the most common things I see on a regular basis - Incorrect height drop/rise hitch - No transom tie downs - No bow eye safety cable/chain/strap - Incorrect, poor condition or under inflated trailer tires - Undersized tow vehicle - Driving behavior Combine a few of the above and you have a very expensive insurance claim waiting to happen.

Add Dale Hollow and Norris lake to your list. We used to ski Dale Hollow a lot. There was a course on the lake and we could always find a spot with good conditions for free skiing. It’s been a long time since we’ve been there so I’m not sure if the current craziness for boat sales has made it more crowded or not. I’ve heard accommodations there have dropped in quality. We used to stay at Eagles cove (not far from the slalom course) or Sunset Marina. I believe Sunset has kept their facilities up though.

I would contact Silver Spray Sports and Action Watersports in Fenton. Also give Tommy’s of Detroit (formerly Skiers Pier) in Waterford a call. They are the main dealers for Nautique, Mastercraft and Malibu respectively and should be able to give you some indication of what lakes in the area have slalom courses. Not sure if you tried these places already. I do not know of a recorded list of permitted courses. DNR is the permitting body for slalom courses and don’t seem to track anything once it’s issued. I ran into this when I was trying to revive the course on my lake. DNR basically said “apply for a new permit” which got killed pretty quick. I know of a few lakes that should still have active courses but don’t know if there are homes/property available. Pine Lake, Loon Lake, and Watkins Lake were still active. Wolverine Lake and Commerce Lake might still have active courses. Further west, Silver Lake, Lake Shannon, Silver Fox Lake and Whitmore Lake have active courses.

@braindamage I agree. I might have muddied the water with all the different models of the Sunsetter. LXI was on a single hull design. The others varied.

@Skiphreak and @braindamage there were 3 models of the Sunsetter in that era. Sunsetter, Sunsetter LX and Sunsetter LXI. The Sunsetter LXI was only on the Diamond hull. The Sunsetter LX was only on the SV23 hull (referred to as the “wake” hull in later years). However the Sunsetter was an oddball and depending on the year it could have been on either hull. The 2002 Sunsetter was on the Diamond hull. It was the only year Malibu did that. Essentially they shortened the Sunsetter LXI a foot but kept the same running surface. When you look at a Sunsetter LXI it has a step in the hull before the transom, the step doesn’t exist on the Sunsetter. I had a 2002 Sunsetter I agree it was slightly less luxurious than the LXI but was a great slalom boat. Regardless they are unicorns now. To the OP @gthalgott while this site is very slalom centric and v-drives get ostracized I would give used Malibu 20 LSVs and VTXs a look. The VTX could be optioned with the Diamond hull and the 20 LSV came standard with it. Coming from a stern drive it would still feel like a huge improvement in wake quality to your family.

I just saw my 2002 Malibu Sunsetter for sale online. The hull looked good but I think the rest of the boat had a hard life after we traded it in on my current 2009 Response LXI. The original matching trailer was gone, some of the interior vinyl had been redone but didn’t match the original skins and the Monsoon engine was replaced with something carbureted. At least it didn’t end up like the boat I grew up on. A 1985 Chris Craft Viking Tri-Hull. The guy that bought it hoarded boats. When one stopped running he’d just buy another one. The jets on the carbureted outboard usually needed to be cleaned each season but other wise it ran great. We were guessing the new owner couldn’t get it running the second season he had it. Then I saw it sitting in his side yard for the next 15 years wasting away.

@6balls that dark red one looks nearly identical to my neighbors. I’m pretty sure it could be brought back, just time and money. I’m really wondering why a new OB ski tug hasn’t been tried. Seems like they can have really good wakes. Maybe that would be the way to get a lower cost ski boat option on the market.

So envious. About once a year I look for an OB Malibu or Centurion but they are rare to be on the market and in good condition. My neighbor has a barefoot warrior that seems to randomly show up now and then. It usually has a for sale sign on it at the start of the summer, I was very tempted until I saw their son stumble in the boat one day and grabbed the pylon to catch his fall. The pylon bent like a wet noodle. Im guessing it needs floors and stringers.

It’s a stored non active code. Possibly bad fuel? Do you get a warning while running? Best way to diagnose it is have a Diacom or scan tool connected, take it for a drive and watch the O2 sensor signals to see when the signal might go out of the acceptable range.

@Mastercraft81SnS can you list the model or part number for the carb you bought? You mentioned it has spark after the engine stall. Did you pull a plug to check spark or just do the screwdriver in the plug wire trick? If you pull the plug, was it fuel soaked, have a lot of deposits on it or was it white? I’m trying to determine if you have a stall from an over rich or an over lean condition. The other thing I’m trying to figure out is if you have the right carb for that engine. Even though it’s a 600 CFM carb it may be set up for something different than a 351. The mode number or part number will tell me everything about that carb (jets, power valve, metering block, accelerator pump cam and so on).

Seriously we’re not going to take this opportunity to name a ski “Panda”.

On my Response LXI the straight line distance from chine to chine was 41.5 inches as measured off the outer set of bunks on my trailer. I would go outside the chines as it’s a little more stable and I found it easier to center the boat on the bunks. My bunks are angled 5 degrees at the rear of the boat to match the hull angle. I added some extra angle at the front so my bunks have a little twist. I think the front angle is about 9 degrees. If you put the lift bunks outside the chines, run the bunks parallel to the chines. Also you want the bunks at least 10 to 12 inches above the lift frame to clear the tracking fins and give space for the prop shaft. My adjustment measurements are probably a little overkill but until I copied the trailer exactly I was always struggling with getting the boat to sit the way I wanted it. I don’t use any type of stop, I have a visual reference point but I also never drive my boat onto the lift. We approach slowly and drift into the lift and guide it by hand. I added guides that have a walking plank and use them a ton. They are pretty much just another set of bunks that are barely above the waterline when the lift is down.

I agree on getting the 2-piece one. Makes storage a LOT easier. First time you set it up and adjust the cables might take 30 minutes. After that it’s on or off in 2 minutes.

Is that a slalom course or the Red Bull air races?

Doesn’t that ski belong to @Horton I’ll just tell him @Dirt has it.

What length ski? Also do you have the Feather Frame bindings or the ones on the aluminum plates? I’m assuming aluminum plates since you are looking at a sequence plate. I would not discount a sequence plate for your level. I’ve been using one with vectors for a long time and would not go back to individual plates or feather frames. It gives you a larger adjustment range with more resolution and you can still move each binding around separately. In addition you can mount radar bindings to just about any ski with it.

I have mine set just outside the “step” of the chine which works pretty good. As said above my trailer has 2 sets of bunks. One inside the chine and one outside. I tried setting them inside the chine and the boat felt wobbly and was hard to center on the lift. I also set the angles of the lift bunks so they matched the hull. There is some twist in the bunks but this also seems to help in centering the boat on the lift.

@msuws unfortunately there is not a course on Portage anymore. It was taken out about 10 years ago. I’ve checked Half Moon lake on satellite images and have driven around it. There isn’t a course on there as far as I can tell. Maybe some one is dropping in a temporary course? I’ve skied the Whitmore course. No Permission needed as far as I know.

@MISkier yep. I’m on Portage lake (the one on the Huron River) but drive over that way for work. Well not lately, been working from home for almost a year now. @msuws Whitmore lake should have a course, I’m not sure when they put it back in the water though. Usually April or May. The jump only gets put in the water when the ski club is using it. Most of the time they have it beached.

Also the $20k is a low estimate. All in for the 440v dedicated drop and charger will easily double that number. Don’t forget your electric boat will probably also cost a premium. That will fill a lot of gas cans. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of electrification but the use case has to make sense. It taken a while for me to get behind it but the technology progression is what changed my mind. However I really see a hybrid with plug in capability as a more robust solution. The problem is they are expensive to develop since you are mixing traditional and electrified technology making the complexity is higher.

@BraceMaker I think @chrislandy clued in on the use case I was envisioning. Our sport is a small percentage of boat use. I disagree that most people throw in 5 or 10 gallons and go, that’s just the niche slalom ski community on a private lake or possibly a person living on the water. Most of the boating population fully fuels their boat for the day and go until empty or the day is over. I think we agree on the fact level 3 chargers are a minimum to really support an electric boat. I’m not sure I agree with you on how readily available 440v service can be installed. It’s there but not cheap to run the lines, then the charger will run you another $20k or more. I think the reality is we need to see more wide spread offerings and consumer uptake of EVs in automotive and it will come to marine as a more common option.

Charging is the main issue for all electric vehicle (EV) applications. We can do all we can to improve power density of batteries but there is no cheating physics. The boat linked at the top of the thread has a 124kWh battery. With a level 2 charger, which is about the most you can install on your home electrical service, your looking at 4-6 hours to charge it depending on how “dead” it is. If I remember the article said 3 hours of run time on a full charge. Considering that your are not using much power when the boat is sitting where a gas engine boat still burns fuel, I’m still guessing the same boat with a gas engine can go at least that 3 hours or more. If I want more run time I can fill the gas tank in about 10 minutes. That is the bane of any EV, once dead it’s going to be parked for a bit. So we can step up to level 3 or higher charging but we are still facing about an hour to charge the batter from fully depleted. Not bad but the logistics of making level 3 chargers available dockside is a tall order since they require 440v service. The auto and commercial vehicle industries are looking at both the vehicle and the charging problems to make EVs more customer acceptable. Faster charging than level 3 is possible but the issue is heat. As the battery is charged it has to be cooled. Faster charging will require more heat dissipation capability than what is practical for being built into the vehicle so you will have to use an external cooling system. We can pump coolant through the charging cable, which will be necessary anyway to keep the charging cable cool. Unfortunately the industry has not agreed to a universal cooling medium for batteries. Heck we don’t even have a single global standard for the charging port. So we have some work to do on standardization. Europe is a little ahead of the US on this as they have a standard for all plug in EVs. Tesla has their own connector in the US but not in Europe. Yes there are adaptors out there but with the cooling problem for charging over level 3 we need to get to a standard so adapters are not needed to support external cooling.

@swbca I think I took it literally. The real issue is the output of the solar panel array just doesn’t have enough output to have an impact.

A solar panel array the size of a bimini will probably generate 100 to 150 watts. A level 2 charger puts out over 3kW and will probably take over 4 hours to charge the 124kWh pack. A solar bimini would barely act as a trickle charger. I’m also negating the voltage difference so it would probably do even less.

That looks like the London Bridge channel at Havasu. I think there is a rip in the fabric of reality down there.