Go Surf Assist / WaveControl system on '07 LSV: Love it but not recommended

[gregski]

It's going to get ugly.

If you are the type who has access to a machine shop, likes to make custom, precision parts for your projects and writes custom firmware/software for other projects (at least "Arduino" hobbyist projects) then you can do it and you'll get my endorsement. You don't need a machine shop for this but that is the type of skill-set required. If those aren't your skills/hobbies, I would not recommend it. It won't be a quick, 1-day installation. It was a long road for me to get there. I probably invested close to 200 hours over several months. You can save a lot of that time since you can avoid my 2 failed attempts and I'll share the code I wrote (probably 100 of those hours) but I can easily see it taking 20+ hours.

The spacers are the least of the concerns. The spacer gets you up over the little step at the bottom of the transom. But the transom is kind of sloped and curved, both of which mess up the geometry. Because of the slight slope, the mount of the actuator is "closer" to the tab which I solved by moving the mount "down" the transom closer to the hinge point of the tab. This then caused the travel of the actuator to create a greater radial reaction in the tab which then made the deployed angle way too much and led to a need for custom firmware to run the deployment actuator for a shorter amount of time. A shorter action actuator would have helped but I searched and couldn't find anything that would work. Another option would be to mount the actuator "higher" but this would require it sticking above the swim deck, sort of like extreme travel suspensions in dune buggies do. Aesthetically, it would be hideous but who cares if it gets you a huge wave, right?

I forgot about the curved part of the transom. I had to make a shim that fit under the actuator mount and contoured that curve. It wasn't much, maybe 5 degrees but without it, the actuator would bind up. You need the 3 screws of the mount to be in the same plane as the hinge. I started trying to just use some stainless washers but it was too difficult to hold all the loose pieces in place while mocking it up and testing. I tried to tape washers in place but it just wasn't working well. And going this route, you absolutely must get a working mock-up before drilling and mounting. The templates won't work. Holding it up in the right place, marking and drilling won't work, even if you are super-dooper careful. I tried those methods and failed before I broke out the micrometer and got a working mock-up.