Moomba Makai Owners- Adding Weight?

[LeeDowney]

Hey guys. I've owned my Makai now for just over a month. The wake surfing has been, what I thought until today, pretty good. Just by random chance today, two guys were sitting on the port side rear of my boat today and my God, what a huge difference it make on shaping the surf wake. Several of you guys recommended me buying 500 lbs of lead to add to that side when I first joined this forum but I didn't think that was needed until today. Got a few questions. 1. Where is the best place to buy lead weight to be placed in the boat (Tractor Supply?) 2. Where in the rear of the boat do you place the lead weight? 3. Do you just leave the 500 lbs of weight in the rear of the boat all the time? 4. Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a 500-750 lbs ballast bag to put back there?

Thanks for the much needed advice.

[Tommy2slow]

I can’t speak to where the best place to buy your lead is, as I made my own melting down old wheel balancing weights from tire stores. Wakemakers has supplied weights for a lot of the members of this forum with good results. The weight will have the biggest impact and effect on your wave placed as close to the rear corners and as far forward as possible in the rear. Think of the placement of the lead as far from the centre of your boat like making a lever longer. Yes, it will displace water the same no matter where you place it but you can take advantage of the extra weight to get you closer to your desired pitch with less dependence on your centre plate. The plate achieves the desired numbers by creating lift and, in doing so, this lift lowers the boats overall displacement, losing a bit of amplitude in the wave. About 9 degrees of pitch seems to be the magic number for most modern era Moomba. With the lead place correctly to achieve this, you can save the centre plate to dial the wave down for smaller kids or for those who prefer a mellower wave. The benefits of the extra Fatsacs would be that you don’t have to carry the extra weight of lead when you trailer and the downside is you will have to give up some of your storage and you can’t be quite as exacting with where the weight is in your boat. I don’t think you will be able to just add weight at the back of your boat without adding some to the bow as well and still be happy with the results.

Congratulations on the new ride by the way!

[Tommy2slow]

I can’t speak to where the best place to buy your lead is, as I made my own melting down old wheel balancing weights from tire stores. Wakemakers has supplied weights for a lot of the members of this forum with good results. The weight will have the biggest impact and effect on your wave placed as close to the rear corners and as far forward as possible in the rear. Think of the placement of the lead as far from the centre of your boat like making a lever longer. Yes, it will displace water the same no matter where you place it but you can take advantage of the extra weight to get you closer to your desired pitch with less dependence on your centre plate. The plate achieves the desired numbers by creating lift and, in doing so, this lift lowers the boats overall displacement, losing a bit of amplitude in the wave. About 9 degrees of pitch seems to be the magic number for most modern era Moomba. With the lead place correctly to achieve this, you can save the centre plate to dial the wave down for smaller kids or for those who prefer a mellower wave. The benefits of the extra Fatsacs would be that you don’t have to carry the extra weight of lead when you trailer and the downside is you will have to give up some of your storage and you can’t be quite as exacting with where the weight is in your boat. I don’t think you will be able to just add weight at the back of your boat without adding some to the bow as well and still be happy with the results.

Congratulations on the new ride by the way!

[2in2out]

Most boat dealers who sell wakeboats will have lead bags. A google search should help you find a distributor.

On the Makai the popular upgrade is the Wakemakers rear bags for the Makai. There are numerous threads about them in the forum.

I also suggest viewing the Wake9 channel on YouTube. Robert (aka Ragboy) has done numerous videos about lead placement and settings for Moomba and Supra boats.


2022 SA 450

[TXSurf4]

As stated above your dealer should sell lead for your boat and might cut you a deal as well. If not leadwake.com has it and you can usually find a discount code floating around online somewhere. As to the placement check out Wake9s video below it is a great guide. For the Makai your best bet will be to get the wakemakers upgraded rear bags. They add the most weight in the rear most locations where it is needed. The only "issue" with them, which is actually being looked into by a few people on here, is you might lose your rear storage bins. The 21s and 22s seem to have shorter storage bins that might be usable but I am doubtful. If you can swing it the bags and lead are a great combo!

Lead:
https://www.leadwake.com/products/th...nt=35497534480

Lead Placement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD1wEPrSWuw

Upgraded Rear Bags:
https://www.wakemakers.com/collectio...03dbad05&_ss=c

[HFarr]

For 600 bucks I bought the Wakemakers upgrade to replace the stock bags. It adds close to 700 lbs to the back of the boat. They arrive today and I will put them in this weekend. Others have posted good results. I will let you know how they do for me. And yes, putting some big people in the back makes a huge difference on the Makai. Will see what the storage bins do.

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[dyrmz134]

I've got the wake maker bags in a '22 and the storage bins fit with the bags full (of water! I made sure in my last lake day). You could put some led in the bins I think.

Next time I see you on the lake, I'll say hi and you can check it out in person!

[larry_arizona]

I've got the wake maker bags in a '22 and the storage bins fit with the bags full (of water! I made sure in my last lake day). You could put some led in the bins I think.

Next time I see you on the lake, I'll say hi and you can check it out in person!

I would put your lead under the bags or in surf locker before I would put in storage trays.


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[TXSurf4]

For 600 bucks I bought the Wakemakers upgrade to replace the stock bags. It adds close to 700 lbs to the back of the boat. They arrive today and I will put them in this weekend. Others have posted good results. I will let you know how they do for me. And yes, putting some big people in the back makes a huge difference on the Makai. Will see what the storage bins do.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

Don't forget to move your sensors up!

[TXSurf4]

I've got the wake maker bags in a '22 and the storage bins fit with the bags full (of water! I made sure in my last lake day). You could put some led in the bins I think.

Next time I see you on the lake, I'll say hi and you can check it out in person!

That is pretty sweet that you are able to keep the newer bins with the larger bags and if it is needed storage that is huge! Are you venting them through the access hole in the bottom of the bin?