Setup question 04 xlv gg

[jsly04XLV]

Went riding this weekend and was having some issue setting speed and ballast. Loaded full gravity games 3 system but had to run 27 to clean wake at 70-75ft. Played with plate settings but didn't help much. Ended up letting out few hundred frm ski sac and able to slow to 25.5 to 26 at 65-70 ft. Had probably 800lbs human ballast also. Any thoughts/suggestions? Wake was nice but some people like to ride slower but want that big solid wake. Thanks in advance.

[brain_rinse]

Did you GPS calibrate your speedometer? I know you need to go faster on the XLV and other big boats but that seems excessive.

[jsly04XLV]

That was on perfect pass which was checked against a gps app on phone (i know not most accurate) but matched perfect pass speed.

[KG's Supra24]

What sacs does the gravity 3 have it in 04? Do you have the playpen bow?

[you da man]

I used to have an '08 XLV and that's the exact reason I sold it is because I could not get a clean wake below 24mph. I don't give up easily and tried every combination of ballast, no ballast, with wake plate, and without. I went with another manufacturer. However, Levi (aka: 501) swears he can get his XLV clean fully weighted around 23-ish. He has pics and video of his wake. I had my XLV for 18 months and gave up. My girl wakeboards at 20-21mph so the new boat wake is money down to 17-18mph all day. Myself and other XLV owners have talked about this issue and it's the only complaint we had with the boat really. I must add, the XLV is very side to side weight sensitive. I've had a passenger move 6" to one side and it would effect the wash on the wake....that's a bit too sensitive in my opinion.

[501]

I have an 08 like YDM mentioned and although the hull is sightly different then the 04, 27 is WAY too fast to go. We routinely ride at 21.5-23 and at 60-73 feet. I have tons of videos online of us riding at these speeds on youtube and Vimeo but others here have had issues. The wake isn't going to be clean loaded up at slow speeds but if you need to ride at 18 you really shouldn't be using any ballast anyways. We ride with 1150 up front, 1500 in the rear, plate almost all the way down (important). If you have 750's in the rear you may try only filling them up half way and keeping the front full. In general, the more weight in total and especially in the rear the faster you need to go. You mentioned Gravity 3 but do you know what size bags you have? If you had the rear full and all the people in the rear and only had the 400 up front, then you probably had to much rear weight. The wakeplate really only needs to move between the ALL the way down position and raised up %20; this is where I find it make the biggest difference.

Back to your situation. At 27mph and 70 feet the wake would be really narrow. Did the wake seem extremely narrow or did the speed feel really fast? I have a feeling your speedo might be off too. 27 is just really fast to have to ride at.

Here are some vids of the wake behind my loaded XLV :

Here is one of me teaching a buddy backrolls on a 60 foot line at 21.3 and me riding at 22.7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ki81BGX6o
here is one of us learning Raileys at 21.7: http://vimeo.com/13834181

[jsly04XLV]

Rear bags were full (550 each side) and ski locker had 1100. The people were in the salon area. As stated previosly, perfect pass was checked against handheld phone speedo app and matched. This was ony second time out so I will play with it more next time out. The 04 does weigh about 1k lbs more than the 08 too. Thanks for the input.

[rdlangston13]

The 04 does weigh about 1k lbs more than the 08 too. Thanks for the input.

according to the archives its 500 lbs more. i wonder why that is? did they start reducing the glass material to save money??

[jsly04XLV]

Not sure where the extra weight comes from or if it changes the front to back balance of the boat. Just want to get speed down for learning new tricks.

[KG's Supra24]

Id drop some rear weight. You are at a 50/50 ratio, worse when you factor people. Try only filling the rear half way or none at all when you want to slow it down.

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[501]

Yup, KG is right. Start with filling the front and then go from there. The 04's can produce a nice big wake.

[501]

Some more XLV background:

When the XLV is FULLY weighted it can be sensitive with weight left to right. Fill up but leave your rear tanks at about 80% full. The more rear weight the more sensitive the wake is. Get your rider up and riding but have them stay in the middle for a minute. Look at both sides of the wake and which ever side is washing out fill that side while dumping a little from the opposite side. This should only take a minute or two to adjust. You can also just move people around. Once its good on both sides while you are in the middle you are set. When you cut to one side to jump the wake, you will notice the opposite side might curl. That is fine, a lot of boats do this and it makes for a soft landing zone, but when you go to that side, the wake will then be clean from that side. I have almost 400 hours on my XLV and have the wake pretty dialed. The wake can be sensitive when fully loaded but so is an X Star, just balance it and you are set. Heck the wakeboarding magazines have articles explaining how important it is to balance your boat and move people/weight around to get the perfect wake. It will be big, fairly steep (but not too steep) and a good width at 22-23mph on a 65-70ft rope.