eleventenths

Funny how even in the days of the interwebs some info does not make it out until much later... our dealer was aware of the EVO tower problems back in late 07 which, combined with the difficulties of folding, limitation to two racks, and the reduced clearance and height of the EVO made us go with the more bullet proof tube option (by XTP) on the boat we ordered. I was told the EVO towers were cracking due to lateral loads the stiff castings were unable to absorb. Was also told the stiffer castings had a tendency to transmit flex to the gunnels causing stress and cracks.

Finally decided to do something about the exhaust roar on our SV220. Not that I don't dig a nice meaty exhaust but the wife and fam were starting to complain after longer sets and I have to admit I was "over" coming home with my head ringing and noise fatigue. Before (yes, they are not straight from the factory-the trim tab rams are also different heights!?!): Centurions sold in europe where noise is an issue much more reugulated run these: Here's the engine compartment of the boat with the exhaust removed: Here I have drilled new, clean holes for the mounting screws (three vs four-mine are the clean, unchipped holes... it's really not that hard to do properly with just a little care!?!): Finally here the "after" shot all screwed in and sealed. They look even better in person: I was hoping for them to take the edge off the roar, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to conduct conversation at cruising/boarding speeds. I find I am less "noise fatigued" now. I used Eddie Marine part no.s 100-80. Cost about 260 for the pair shipped give or take. Definitely worth it on our boat. YMMV.

AFAIK the tips from the OP are not for sideswipe. The angled ones look like Malibu tips.

http://www.centurioncrew.com/Silenced-Exha...s-int-t350.html These are the guys that make the centurion baffles, see above threat for part number. http://www.eddiemarine.com/

Did this one boat ago on our Cyclone. Bought a three outlet kit (two vents and one heat snorkel) heatercraft from bigguns marine on ebay. You will need at least 15-20 extra feet of radiator hose depending on how you decide to route, everything else is in the kit. The heat exchanger goes behind the drivers feet. The kick panel comes out with two screws. The factory runs the heater hose along the starboard gunnel but on my own install I opted to go under the floor along the starboard stringer to the engine with the heater hoses. It's a shorter run an easier to get to after lifting the floor insert (I like to secure hoses etc. instead of letting them move and rub). tapping into the engine is very easy, just use thread seal on the fittings supplied in the kit. The fan control switch typically goes low on the panel that holds the throttle. One of the outlets goes at the driver's feet. One under the port locker seat, the heat tube usually is mounted in front of the passthrough cooler on larger boats on some smaller boats the heat tube and vent are reversed with the heat tube coming out at the front of the passenger seat locker. the only nerve racking part was carefully cutting out the mounting holes for the vents and heat tube. Definately use a hole saw and not a jig saw as others have learned the hard way. I may still have the two sizes you will need if you are interested. Sorry no pics. It wasn't that big a deal to install so it didn't occur to take out the camera. Had the whole thing done in about 3 or so hours.

Kevin is probably typing his answer as I type this... I see he is online also. SV 230/240 are the deeper V hulls, the SV 220 is their "cascading" flatter hull that looks a little like a nautique's from the transom. All are surfable but the 220 will need more weight. Lets see if I beat Kevin.

They are both good boats. I'd give the Enzo the the edge in surfing but it is hard to find a better, cleaner wake than the wakesetter (they surf well too). The 'Bu will have a little more cachet to it and MAY hold value a bit better. Quality wise the boats are similar but I'd give the edge to Malibu there also. I prefer Malibu's driveline components to the ones Centurion has been using. We love our centurion but at the time we were buying it was a new Enzo or used X-Star or Wakesetter. Still not 100% sure we went the right way...

I think you or the "ranger" you are telling the tale of are confusing TEAK surfing with WAKE surfing. TEAK surfing is illegal in many places. I suspect there is more to this ticket's fish tale.

12" drop hitch makes me think you may have a lift and big tires... in which case all bets are off as generally lifts change suspension geometry away from what is desireable for towing. Agree with checking the tongue weight. Typically the top of the ball should be about 20-21" off the ground for a level tow with the factory standard Centurion boatmate trailers.

As I am known to partially sink my boat on purpose when surfing I have two bilge pumps: the factory one in the rear and a high capacity unit in the center on a 1" discharge hose. Have been caught in a few rough spots. If the wave interval is short I hammer across them. as the height and interval rise you want to start taking them on your quarter at a speed that keeps the bow up but not such that he bow crashes into the face of the next wave. May have to play with the angle a bit depending on your boats length and the wave interval. Think about how you would cross the wake of a larger boat.. now imagine doing it over and over and over again, literally driving over each wave with the rudder and "flying the bow" with throttle. Every boat has its limit with regard to sea state and unfortunately for ski boats that limit is easily reached. I thought craft under 20ft were required to have reserve flotation sufficient to keep them from going under when swamped but I may be misremembering.

Applies to all boats (not just centruion) with the dripless shaft gland. They put a positive spin on a job that can be a bit of a PITA if you try to do it by yourself. while you have the panels off why not grease the rudder bushings which are often overlooked at service...

our intermittent vibration seems to be the rudder which has taken to fluttering under load. Wish it was the prop. At least it would be fixable then.

Tips I like to give: Do not back the nut off too much you only need about 1/4inch of free space and it keeps the drama of the prop popping off to a manageable level and keeps the key in the slot when stuff breaks free. Tightening and tapping works but make sure you tap the clamp, never your prop. Be careful with blocks... our props are soft enough to tweak a blade when trying to turn them against a poorly situated block ( personally use the flats of a small piece of 2x4 against the bottom of the hull). I turn my key slot "up" so when I carefully slide off the prop I don't drop my key. When I reinstall I put a small amount of marine grease on the shaft and key - probably just superstition but I have convinced myself it helps with the next change.

you may find you need a shorter prop if you are adding a lot of ballast. We have the SV220 and run twin 750s in the rear, stock mid tanks, and depending on who is on board a few fat sacs in the bow. The boat struggles to get on plane, a shallower prop helped.

Kevin, you buy that thing and your lake ninnys will limit top speed. It's a conspiracy after all.

We were there this weekend. traffic was ridiculous. we surfed early in the morning. towards noon over the weekend it was even too rough for tubes. We resorted to running the PWCs. Strange thing I noticed was that the worst on-water manners I saw were all from boats an not PWCs! first time in several years.

It does not move much... so everyone has a fixed, non floating boat house. They have been running it lower than typical so far this season.

Totally off topic but I saw someone barefooting behind a three seater SeaDoo this weekend... probably old news to you but I would have thought the pull characteristics of a pwc would have been all wrong - at least the wake would be nice and soft. The guy seemed to have some sort of wetsuit bootie looking dealios on his feet and a shortie wetsuit with butt cheek implants. They were gone before we even got started surfing but I am sure they went home to pout and lament an evil wake devil ruining their early morning run on whatever corner of the internet barefooters inhabit. If you run into them tell them I said "Hi" and that I was planning on letting them finish their runs while I ballasted down. We were definitely not trying to shoo them away by hanging out at the side of the water

WakeVB, Colombian Surfer: I sent each of you a PM with my digits. Don't know when we'll be there. Its very unpredictable when we show up and often its a last minute thing. Wake: The cove IS shallow but I can get in and out (SV220 only draws about 2ft) if I stay to the left. The issue that has kept me me from putting in is that our development's ramps are very difficult with low water. I still have to do an oil and impeller change, check the heater core and block for cracks before putting in - hopefully tomorrow. I will probably just tow around to the public ramp next to your resort to get my boat in for the season. I have an IS red woody and a Walker 4.4 to dust off.

If your don't have a lot of fat friends or if "coolers" full of ballst won't fly: Some thoughts: Bring lots of marine batteries along "spares" - I am sure they will not be covered by the rules. carpeted tractor plates placed symetrically can provide "stealth" ballast. put them under an empty hard ballast tank... Another option is to fashion a low "false bottom" enclosure for your lockers and put lead shot/"popsacks" in. For ultimate stealth drill an access into the liner of your boat, carve out the foam, fashion a lid, and you have nice little contraband (in your case ballast) stash spots thoughout your boat. If the lid is cleverly hidden under carpet or empty hard tanks I doubt a casual inspection would pick it up. All is not lost, you just need to hide high density ballast materials in your boat. Shame the lake ninnys are making you resort to less safe methods of ballast. Next they will train ballast sniffing dogs!! They may be able to ban purpose built ballast systems but they can not dictate what gear you can have on board, the latter is pretty much unenforcable. "but officer I always bring my weight set on my boat with me so in order to catch a set of squats whenever the mood strikes." Just be glad they are not clever and did not specify displacement limits.

We'll be on peahill but probably not in the boat as low as the lake has been recently. We have guests with small kids planned for the weekend so I imagine tubes will prevail - that's what most people seem to settle on for holiday weekends as the traffic will be pretty heavy for boarding.

Tensioning our belt was not that big a deal. put a wrench on the larger nut then used a smaller wrench on the hex end of the idler pulley shaft to tension the belt. our idler pulley's hex end shaft has a cog behind the pulley that rides in a toothed braket. when it was at the right tension I simply tightened the larger, closer nut...

It's happening everywhere in various forms. There was an issue in the pac n.w. recently trying to ban wakes Here in VA they successfully attacked wakesurfing. On the northwest river in NC game fishermen with friends in law enforcement have pretty much harassed anyone trying to use a PWC off that body of water - they started targeting towsports over the last two years. Part of it is the inherent selfishness of people who believe their particular way of enjoying the water and waterfront are the only acceptable way. Another part is that we have an image problem thanks to some inconsiderate Asshats in our camp that insist on driving like they own the water with a boat full of underage drinkers blasting obscenity laden rap over ridiculously powerful speakers. I believe in individual freedom and definitely like to have fun but realize that consideration for others is an important part of being a member of a community. Having said that, using erosion as an attack on ballast is weak and should be easily addressed with some cogently formulated opinions submitted to the minutes/record of the meeting. Erosion is a natural, continual process - if one makes the argument that erosion is indeed accelerated from wakes the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. Their opinion or sense that wakes make it worse should not suffice. If the board accepts that wakes make erosion worse they need to correctly address the issue by addressing the displacement of craft allowed on the lake without regard for how it is achieved - ballast is not the issue, final displacement is. Is a thrid party monitoring and administering the referendum? if it isn't the process can be argued to be tainted.

the 08 is the better bet. nicer tower, newer, less polarizing color scheme. depending on when it was made it should also have the newer instruments. make sure they put on the upgraded swim platform brackets if it still has the thin black ones and you have a glass platform (cant tell from the pics).