Tried wakesurfing with 1000 lb and couldnt get over 11 Mph

[mabbore]

I have a 1987 Supra sunsport with a 351. I just picked up a 1200 lb fat sac for an oem Malibu. I layed it next to the dog house and up the rear seat in effort to surf. I also had 4 ~160lb people on board plus cooler. She could get me out of the water but would not go over 11 or 12 mph. This is the first time I have ever added balast to her. I assume I have the standard 13X13 prop. She is really not super quick out of the water, but pulls hard and consistent. One of my boating friends said to take the prop to Fox lake prop to get it pitched down and have a cup put in. I would love to spring for a nice new Acme prop but I don’t think it’s in the budget at this time. Would re-working this prop work as well. We mostly wakeboard and surf, almost never ski.

[haugy]

Ummm Yeah, 2,000lbs is a lot to load up a 351 with, on top of the boats weight already. I loaded up my Comp one year with 14 people when I was a teenager, (about 2100lbs) poor girl could barely move.

I don't think a prop will help that much with that much weight.

[jshepp122]

Yup, not the prop its the weight. I was pulling 4 tubers along with 5 people in the boat and couldnt get it out of the water to go, until I tied the ropes to the rear ski hook and dropped 3 people then she took off np.

[kvand347]

I have loaded my boat up with ~1800lbs + 4 adults at 180-230lbs each and have been able to pull just fine. One time I got caught in a hailstorm and had to get back to shelter quickly. The boat went about 20mph and I was at 3/4 throttle. Any faster and it just got scary since the boat was leaning so much. My PCM is 285hp...

[WakeSurfCanada]

Did you have any weight up front?
On my 85 SunSport, we use about 1800lb to surf, and the difference was made when we put 1-400lb sac under the playpen.
I was originally using my OEM 13x13 prop without any issues, but holding the speed got a bit tedious, just upgraded to an acme 13x11.5 and it made a world of difference.

Also from my experience, my best wave is achieved in the 9-10.5mph range. Perhaps just some bow weight would help you out

Here's my current setup and I'm sure it isn't to far off from other SunSports who Surf:

400lbs - Under playpen (as far forward as you can get it)
400lbs - Surf Side (Beside Engine /As far forward as possible)
370lbs - Ski Locker
580lbs - Under Rear Bench

I also have whomever is in the boat sit on the surfside, staggered front/rear depending how many ppl are there

Hope this helps

[wiatowski]

My truck has 425hp.... if I tried to start pulling a heavy load in a high gear, I wouldn't go anywhere no even with 600 hp. That's why truck have gears.
Think of your prop the same way... the more load, the lower the gear or in the case of boats Pitch of the prop. If you lower the pitch you should have no problems to pull weight, or as WakeSurf pointed out dispersing the weight differently would help so you not plowing the water as much.
In my opinion though when these boats are loaded up with so much weight and not pitched right, the strain not on the engine, but transmission, prop, and shaft and coupler worry me. My dad always put it this way... think of trying to climb a hill on a bike in a high gear, the strain/burning in your legs represents the the strain on all the components of engine and drive train.

[mabbore]

I understnad the pricniples of prop pitch, weighting and load. I talked to the acme guys and they say that there is signifigantly more surface area on thier props, and pitching down would also help. I was just trying to decide if it was worth it to get my current prop reworked down a pitch or just wait and buy an acme

[sydneyACE]

Prob just a little too much weight to get it to plane-out.
I've only surfed a few times, and haven't tried yet behind my boat, but isn't 9-11mph about right?

If you went to an 11-12 pitch prop, you might be able to get it to plane-out with that much weight.

[kvand347]

I've only surfed a few times, and haven't tried yet behind my boat, but isn't 9-11mph about right?

I found my boat to be around 8mph when surfing. Speedo is calibrated to gps...

[wotan2525]

Correct. 12mph is too fast.... 10mph is probably the maximum I've ever heard of.

[dusty2221]

We surf around 11.2 to 12 with anywhere from 2300 to 3500 pounds.

[kvand347]

We surf around 11.2 to 12 with anywhere from 2300 to 3500 pounds.

I'm thinking v-drives can go a little faster than DD's when it comes to wake surfing? Just my guess though. If I go that fast then I lose all push.

[SquamInboards]

I think if you pitch down, you might get better results with the surfing but may cause problems on the other end. When you're not weighted, you don't want to over-rev the motor with to shallow of a prop, unless you truly always run with weight OR are careful not to over-rev ~ 4400 RPM on your motor.

I think you'll find that it's much more about placement of weight than quantity, although you do need a good amount for it to work. I've surfed behind a Correct Craft 2001 with zero ballast, with one person hanging off the tower to one side. It wasn't great but I could let go of the rope and continuously ride.

[DAFF]

I think the issue was in the weight distribution. With all the weight on the rear the nose had a hard time dropping down to achieve more speed. Think of a express cruiser with no trim tabs. I would start with smaller weights and fine tune them to get bigger wakes then work up from there.

[mabbore]

I think the issue was in the weight distribution. With all the weight on the rear the nose had a hard time dropping down to achieve more speed. Think of a express cruiser with no trim tabs. I would start with smaller weights and fine tune them to get bigger wakes then work up from there.

the fat sac I used is almost 8ft long, it streched from about a foot infront of the observers seat up to on top of the back bench. that seems fairly distributed to me. I talked to the guy from nettle props and he said the factory props dont nearly have enough suface area.

[Memmer99]

Mabbore,

To answer your question, Yes. Get a new ACME prop and you wont be disappointed. That sac you have should throw a killer wave. Check ebay for some deals on ACME props. I got one a few years back new in box for 150 bucks. Reworking your prop would help a bit but as JT pointed out there is less surface area and it's a 20+ year old prop= old technology. The new props are CNC machined and weigh a lot less. You will notice a lot less vibration and much better throttle response. In my opinion it's worth every cent!

[NorCalPR]

You need more weight up front. You're not planing out :P

In my 98 Comp, I have a 4blade prop, 13X13. For wakesurfing, I run:

About 400 lbs of rock bags in the nose (going to get replaced with a ballast bag on a switch)
500 lb bag in the back storage locker
600 lb bag on the side of the motor that we would be surfing on

Depending on how many people are aboard, We try to have as many people out back as we can. If we're running 6 people, it usually ends up being everyone on the rail, as far back as possible. If 8 people, everyone can usually sit where they want as long as it's not on the non-wave side...

I have no problem holding 10.5 mph. IIRC, I'm about 2400 rpm...

[jet]

Its all in the prop 14x14 4-Blade!!