How much Fuel are you burning?

So... I have my Max Pretty well sorted. I am very happy with my wave. We run 1250's in the Rear, and 910's in the Midlockers. That with a couple of my larger friends on surf side produces a fantastic wave around 10 mph for me, 10.2-3 for our daughter and we run 10.4mph on the right side wave. We typically go out for about 2hrs a session. What is catching me off guard is my Fuel Consumption. Everyday I am putting in around 25-30 gallons of Gas in the boat to replace what I used before. The cost is starting to be...Noticeable to say the least, as well as the Material Handling of the gas. For sure we are plowing a bunch of water, but I am wondering if there better way to achieve a big wave, and gain back some efficiency? My Rpms with a 2419 prop range between 3800 - 4200rpm. I would love to get that in the 34-3500 range, but when ever we dump ballast, we dump "wave."

Anything I should be considering?

Yes I was prepared for heavy fuel consumption but it’s even more that I would have guessed. Considering the 4000-5000 lbs of extra ballast and the constant starting and stopping that wake surfing entails it makes sense. I would say I use 15-20 gallons per use which is usually 3-4 hours run time.

The raptors are really good on gas too. That consumption sounds a bit high, I see 2-3 gallons per hour with 50% of that time wakeboarding at 22mph or surfing at 11mph.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by larry_arizona

The raptors are really good on gas too. That consumption sounds a bit high, I see 2-3 gallons per hour with 50% of that time wakeboarding at 22mph or surfing at 11mph.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

How much ballast you running? What prop?

3500# plus 500# lead, 3 crew 11.2mph surf
1750# plus 500# lead, 3 crew 22.5mph wakeboarding

Acme 2775 prop, 3500-3600 rpm surf 4000 rpm WB.

I got 24 hours this season and only used 60 gallons so far.

Typical lake day consists of 4-5 hours.
First 60-90 min is wakeboarding.
Second 60-90 min is surfing
Appx an hour cruising near idle to 5-6 mph for a breeze effect
4-5 hours cruising and sand bar.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

boat 'gas mileage' is a tough thing to pin down. as larry's post above there are way too many variables to stick a number to it.

last year we ran the z3 for 6 hours straight surfing, never shut it off. 8 guys swapping one after the other. used 38 gallons. most will say on a non surf-gate(think malibu) you will burn 5gph as an average(gated boats will burn more). we found towing a tube or pulling waterskiers would burn more. wakeboarding a tad less as we never ran the ballast full full.
all this push to surf tabs and equally weighting a boat should burn more fuel than listing as you're hauling around an extra 1500+lbs of water. it'll have an effect on it.

and apparently they boat in mumbai as well :)

We will leaving the dock about 9am come back about 6/7pm usually atleast 7/10 people, coolers and 3600 of ballast and lead, we will be surfing probably 70% of the time stop and hangout or swim the rest we will burn about 30/40 gallons on said day and have the oj945 prop

I've never seen a DD including mine get less than 5gph so I imagine the surf boats consume more. Only reason I know is for calculating the fuel needed for the day as the gas gauge didn't provide any help.

Mine is going through 4-5 GPH with small crew & mostly wakeboarding w/o ballast.