Thx. I have played with the suction wake shapers for several years, which sort of led the design for what I am doing. This is all a culmination of "want to's" I have been collecting for the last 10 years I have owned the boat. The foremost is that my son surfs goofy foot, but every time he brings a friend they always want to surf straight. For some reason they do not understand the idea of shifting ballast for 30 minutes to change surf sides?!? Weighting even and using a plate to change the surf side is the logical solution.
Last year I bought an old Bridgeport mill, and spent the year learning how to use it by gradually stepping up the complexity of my projects. I finally reached a point I felt confident enough to tackle the wake plate project. I will be able to machine plates of different sizes and shapes to experiment this summer. I doubt they will be optimum as I have them right now...but changing plates will be fun to play with. Who knows, they may end up huge like MJHKox's! They are driven by standard Bennett hydraulic trim tab pistons. If I have any trouble with these...like power or travel...I can swap those out later.
The next "want to" was a ladder for my wife, who has a bad back and has trouble getting in and out of the boat. Then, the black rubber on the original swim platform started staining all our swimsuits black, leading to the idea of making the entire upgrade into a pretty teak swim platform. The real challenge was fitting all of these upgrades so they all mount on the original Platform mounting pads. By doing that I can always go back to the original if it doesn't work out for any reason.
The pump upgrade was a "want to" from my having to sit for 30 minutes after every time we go surfing...waiting for the bags to empty so I can lift the boat. Not to mention the constant cavitation where I have to go back and jump up and down on the bags to get the aerator pumps to prime. I have had enough of those sprinkler parts.
Sadly, the 16 year old vinyl has now started to come apart from my climbing in and out so many times working on these mods. I'll have to factor that in to the "want to's" too.
I have not done anything to the original 3/4" vents. Do you recommend enlarging them? I planned to set the timers well short full, so the vents should only vent a bit of trapped air...unless I screw something up.
The boat has been great for the last 10 years. I am hoping these upgrades will keep me from looking at new boats for at least another 5 or ten years?!?
Last edited by CJD; 02-02-2021 at 08:46 PM.
I would not always rely on the timers. I'm more concerned about having the bags full.
If you had 1" fill and 3/4" vent lines, there is not that much of a difference of the diameter of the lines and pumps. I know if a pump was left on or bumped, the vent could keep up with the water inflow. This happened on my last boat. It was a 2007 Supra with the upgraded Jabsco Pumps, 1" fill-lines and 3/4" vent lines. There were times when someone driving would bump the switch and I would notice water shooting out of the side of the boat.
You have input of 1 1/2" fill lines and 3/4" vents with those new bigger pumps. Not any write ups on those pumps. That's A LOT more volume of water. The pressure would shoot out the water with more force. I ASSUME the the vent could keep up with the inflow if you did not notice water shooting out of the side of the boat. A bag connection would probably fail or pop-off before the ballast bag breaks. Either way, it would be a lot of water in your hull. And I would not want the inflow popping off with the pump running - the bilge would never keep up.
I'm sure Wakemakers makes different sizes of hull fittings for vent lines if you wanted them. I would run it as-is and see how the system and timers are working.
I have timers on my SL, but I still use the manual switches to either
1) make sure the bags are full - I turn them on if the timers are done and I do not see water shooting out of the side of the boat
2) draining them back at the boat ramp. more like making sure the water is out when the boat is on trailer and I'm ready to get on the road.
So I guess the moral of the story is to pay attention if you have water shooting out the side of the boat.
Last edited by MJHKnox; 02-03-2021 at 12:00 PM.
2018 Supra SL400
Rather then look at it from a hose/fitting size stand point, you need to look at it from a volume capacity standpoint. That pump can easily fill the sac through a 1" port, but once the sac is full, you need an outlet that will handle the flow of the pump without allowing to sac to build pressure.
Interesting you went with hydraulic actuators for the surf plates.
Michael
Mikes Liquid Audio
Yeah, the more you guys talk and the more I think about it, I think I will come up with some kind of fail safe for the fill. Either a flow detector in the vents to shut off the power...or possibly using a power source that is only on temporarily. This will take some more thought...
I assume the thru-hull fittings from the factory are 3/4" from those model years.
Wonder what the bigger thru-hull would looks like next to the 3/4"? Usually they are mounted next to one another.
But new hose and fitting would do the trick.
Sent from my P00I using Tapatalk
Last edited by MJHKnox; 02-05-2021 at 01:54 PM.
2018 Supra SL400
If I up-sized the vents, I'd likely run the rear bag vents out the back of the boat. I could double -up the front vent to use the OEM side vents.
If I up-sized?
Michael
Mikes Liquid Audio
Like I said above, dont look at it from hose or fitting size point of view, but the capacity of the fitting/hose v's the flow rate suppling the sac.
Heres what I means by this. Say I use a 1.5" hose to fill, but my pump flow is 400 GPH. A .75" vent system is not an issue. No insert that 30 GPM pump with the same 1.5" hose. Now you may have an issue.
Also keep in mind, that 3/4" sac fitting may have in ID thats 5/8" or as small as 1/2".
Last edited by Wylietunes; 02-05-2021 at 02:24 PM.
Michael
Mikes Liquid Audio