N8 Froelich

I went ahead and made the swap to Valterra's on our 2011 240+ enzo. Finally this feature of the boat works as designed. Wish I would have done this long ago. I used the  E40A-8 mentioned by a crew member in this thread and they worked. I also took the advice from this thread

regarding the wiring. One benefit of the Valtera's is that depending on how you mount them you can easily see if they are open or closed (whereas the drainmasters were always a mystery). I tipped mine inboard towards the engine compartment and they cleared the divider panel and when the locker cover is open you can see if the handle is open or closed. So far they are working fantastic. 

On 4/27/2017 at 3:25 PM, WakeDoc said:

I have a SWELL Wake Creator in hand, we are going to try it out over the weekend, will try to get pics and video of before and after. They product also floats so no real need for a leash since I had the same worries as pointed out above of it coming off and banging down the side of the boat. Checkout this THREAD, they are also currently a Support Business/Member of the Crew.

Doc, Did you run the Swell? I've got the same boat so I thought I'd see what you thought. I keep thinking I'll make one but haven't been able to find the time. If you liked it I might just take advantage of the crew deal. Thanks. 

On 5/11/2017 at 9:28 AM, Bongo Fury said:

N8...how do you like that gas can.  Is it hard to move when full?  Thanks and sorry for the hijack. 

Late to the party, it is a air compressor, but ironically we do have a steel rolling gas tank. It's a 25 gallon unit and it works but it's a bear to unload out of the back of the truck when full and roll down to our shore line. If I did it again I'd maybe get that plastic one too. My wife bought the one we have not knowing it's meant to be used in a repair shop and not really for fueling up toys. This is similar to the one we have. http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/safety/safety-cans/fuel-gas/25-gallon-steel-fm-approved-gas-caddy-with-heavy-duty-rotary-pump?infoParam.campaignId=T9F&gclid=CLKH3bf16tMCFYZhfgodCdsMjA  

Not sure how helpful this is. Ours doesn't extend too far down and it works great. 2011 Enzo 240

Not sure if your opposed to drilling holes in your transom, but the fast Lenco rams are down to $340 shipped from marinepartssource and 3/4" HDPE is about another $50. Add a couple switches and its a fairly economical way to adjust the wake. I'm surprised I haven't seen more people adding these. We have had amazing results with the boats we have put them on and the great part is you can adjust the wave by just running the ram in or out at the switch. I'm convinced that if Malibu didn't have the patent locked up so tight on surfgate that most if not all manufactures would be trying it.

I've wondered about this too. A $450ish version of the wakemakers $4,000 "WaveControl System" I've been off the forum for a little bit. Has anyone done this mod and documented the process/results? We have a great reg side wave and our goofy is sooo close but it just doesn't quite get there. I also could benefit from an a plate but I've seen a lot of mixed result with spray and so on.

Are you suggesting putting the tab vertically? Meaning parallel to the side of the boat rather than the bottom? Like the Malibu surf gate?

Happy surfing!

Considering grabbing one of these. I read that the fuel consumption is a lot higher, which, is worth it but also I wouldn't mind mitigating that as much as possible. I saw this Roswell unit that just came out, I like that it has built in floatation and I thought it was interesting that it is not nearly as steep as the mission or Tsunami.

Our goofy wave just needs a little help to be pretty dialed in. I wondered if this would have the "clean up" effect but maybe cause a little less drag = fuel consumption? Thoughts?

I've not found any reviews besides one 5 star one Wakemakers. I hate to buy this cause it looks so easy to build but I've got NO TIME.

https://www.amazon.com/Roswell-Marine-Deflector-Wake-Shaper/dp/B01MDS2NZC/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1493086867&sr=1-1&keywords=roswell+deflector

Depending on the hours on your engine these serpentine belts last a very long time. IMO belt failure is usually due to something else. A bad pully or as Stoked said something rubbing on it. If you don't see anything obvious remove the belt and spin the tensioner and idler pulleys by had to see if the bearings feel rough or loose. With cars a failing water pump can make a ton of noise, not are on the sea water pump. Just some ideas from my mechanic days.

One thing we learned the hard way, granted this was a much older Merc. Is that silt can build in the block drains. When you remove the plug it's a good idea to run a piece of wire inside the hole. Our block froze and cracked one year because of this. In later years when clearing the hole it would be completely blocked and the engine block was full of water until you cleaned the blockage.

I have to knock on wood here, but I have replaced my Drainmasters about 6 times total but my latest ones were allegedly the newer versions and they have lasted me almost a year and a half now. I do lube them about every 3rd time out.

Hmmm, and you have the same boat it looks like. It would be sooo much easier to stick with the Drainmasters. Between the wiring and the clearance requirements of the Valteras it's a project. I wasn't aware they updated them. I may have to look into that. One of my Drainmasters has actually worked for a couple seasons now with the occasional sticking here and there which was usually cured by turning with the allen, then it would work (still annoying to have to crawl back there and 10 people on the boat are like, watcha doin'). We are planning on leaving our boat in the lake most of the summer so servicing them is tricky. Thanks for the heads up.

This is the connection that Mike had in his boat. Do you have it?

 

https://www.msdperformance.com/products/accessories/connectors/parts/8183

 

If so, I've watched the guys at the factory. What they do is they take the stock Valterra with the 3 wire plug, cut it off and use the 2 wire Deutsch connector. Would be simple for you ...just have to figure out which 2 out of the 3 wires to use!

That's the one! Thanks for sharing the link to that connector part! I'd have never found that.

For Mike's you go from 3 wires to 2 and use the same wiring harness. Not sure about SV240 though. You might also have to use new rubber tubing..

 

I just did a 2015 S226 with drain masters, went from 4 wires to 3, all new wiring harness, switches, etc.

 

Drain masters brought their manufacturing back in house, they are supposed to be more rugged but who knows.. MB got so sick of them that they went to a manual system.

When you say 3 wires to 2 I'm thinking that means 3 wires on the valve down to 2 wires on the boat harness. I think I might order the parts, connect it to 12V and monitor what happens with my multi-meter with switch open and switch closed with the 3 wires going to the valve. Hoping one of them is just hot when the valve is open for the little light on the Valtera switch. This wire would be terminated and the other two would be used for open/close. The question I'm wondering is what causes the circuit to open once the valve is full open or full close? Wondering if my current factory switchs work similar to a power window switch which has an internal breaker that sees the motor is stopped and the circuit opens. Hopefully the factory switch does this now for the Drainmaster? Anyway I'm just thinking out loud for anyone else that's done this or considering doing it.

Regarding the rubber tubing, I think based on the photo of the part it looks like the coupler has just about the same amount of shoulder as the Drainmaster's I have now which is encouraging.

Thanks again for sharing. I'd be grateful for a good dealer nearby!

contact NW boat sports... they are who did my valterra upgrade and know exactly what to order

Did they happen to mention wiring changes that needed to be made? Did the leave in your factory switches?

I believe the drainmasters are two wires and these are three. I'm guessing the factory switching just reverses polarity to open and close the drain master and the Valtera probably works the same. Maybe the third wire signals when it's open because the valtera switch lights up when it's fully open.

Hmmmm

Thanks for the part number. I may just order them up if the dealer can't help out.

try goggle Valtera # E40A-8, etrailer.com , looks like the valves you are looking for.

I have the identical boat and are seriously thinking about making the swap.

I've been trying to get my local dealer to look into this for me. They emailed Fineline and got an email back with an image of a 3/4" copper valve. They have no idea, I'll take the high road and leave it at that.

Does anyone have a dealer or manufacturer contact that they'd recommend and be willing to share? I'm hoping I can order, pay, and have em' shipped to me. Does anyone know the Valtera part #. We have an 2011 Enzo 240+.

After all the reading and mixed reviews I'm ready to try the Valtera's and see how it goes. The Drainmasters have not worked well for us.

Thanks for your help. We're in Colorado, boat's winterized, almost no snow (snowboarding), moderate drought, dark times.

That doesn't affect the range of motion for the tab plate?

 

What does one of these cost? My wife was complaining about the exhaust smell while we were at idle one day but I don't recall it being an issue once under way.

It's around $450 but it depends on your boat and they have fancier versions that are polished and stuff. Keep in mind it won't help much at idle because the exhaust bubbles up regardless. My wife felt like the fumes were really bad while surfing before we added this, this is because the exhaust ports are dumping into the atmosphere from the transom right in your face. With the FAE system it forces it into the prop wash and it bubbles up after you've gone by. It didn't effect the trim tab for us.

Thought I'd share with the Forum, I'd seen in another thread people having issues with spray. We have the dual exhaust style and the system worked great. The only spray I've been able to see is at wakeboard speeds but it's not enough to effect the wave or performance.

It is about 1/3 as loud as it used to be, we can now hear the music and have a conversation in the boat while surfing. We used to occasionally get a big whiff of exhaust and now that's cured as well.

Install was pretty easy and the construction is really solid. One of the better mods we've done.

The brand stamped on the bottom is different in my case, but they're identical. The Office Depot one has an Office Depot brand stamped on it

I've wanted to try this for our 11' Enzo but couldn't find anything at home depot. Is the one at Office Depot a trash can or some other bin? I'll have to take some measurements and go by there.

I'm in the market for a lift, how'd the install go ReSession? Did you get it in the water?

Out of curiosity did you lower it into the water or was your water level down for installation? Our lake is now full and we'd have to somehow measure the depth at each corner of the lift to try to set the legs to the uneven bottom. We also have a very soft lake bottom (3 feet of mud) so I wonder if we'd need to create a larger surface area for the feet?

Hopefully you're enjoying the lift!

Finally on the lift and ready for summer

 

 

 

Looks great! How do you like the slide on lift? I've been trying to figure out the best left option, I called one company that makes the dock blocks and they said it wasn't designed for V-drive. Looks like it's working well for you though.

I'm looking at possibly selling my Avy and getting a 2010 Enzo 240 with Gladiator tower. Can anyone tell me the height of that boat with the tower down?

We have a 11' Enzo 240 with the Gladiator and it doesn't fit through our 7' garage door. Unfortunately I don't know the exact height so I'm not a lot of help there. The Gladiator shape sticks up kinda high because of the shape. When we take it to winter storage it clears that opening with the tower down by just a couple inches, not sure what the height of that door is though, it's a shed out in the country so hard to say if it's a standard size.

The other thing about our tower down is that the tower light on top is the first thing to contact the seat in the center of the boat. So I built a little padded wood stand for the tower to rest on. Super basic and not a big deal but certainly something you need if you're putting the tower down often.

I get emails from Marie Parts Source and they sent one that was promoting the Lenco Trim tabs. Obviously not the first to consider this but I'm just curious why I've not seem more people doing this mod as opposed to wake shapers strapped to the swim deck and other tricky mods that require a lot of putting on and taking off.

With the New Centurions having quick surf pro as an option it seems like it validates this approach.

I think listing the boat is the way to go personally, every non-listed tech seems to have fairly soft reviews. So...for example on our boat; for some reason I can't get the dark side to list as much even though it has the same QF and Enzo Sac, and the wave just isn't quite as clean (obviously prop rotation has a lot to do with this). I could probably add some more ballast but ideally I'd like to have the seats clear and fewer pumps, hoses, lost storage, etc.

If you had these, weighted the boat like normal and put the opposite side tab down would it put more pressure on the listed side? Is that how this works?

I'm purely curious, there could be many reasons why this might not work, it may just lift the transom and make the wave smaller. honestly I'm pretty darn happy with the wave our boat puts out but making it bigger is sooooo addicting right? If it did work it would be nice to have a better/bigger wave with the flip of a switch and $400 is only a few tanks of gas

I just thought I'd pose the question.

http://www.marinepartssource.com/newdetails.asp?pnumber=LM15007101&mfg=Lenco+Marine&mcat1=1&mcat2=0&mcat3=0&mfgcategory=Standard+Mount+Trim+Tab+Kits&mfgno=15007-101&desc=12+in%2E+x+12+in%2E+Standard+Mount+Trim+Tab+Kit

 

N8 I will have to check. I was out of town the week they finally showed up from Fineline (4 week wait) and had my local marina install them thinking they were a direct replacement of a few nuts and bolts. I did inspect what they did when I got back and found they really did not fit nicely where the old drainmasters did. They had to co*k them at an angle so the little lever that moves up and down had room to move but once I filled up all the bags and watched the engine divider panels not get in the way of them I haven't looked at them since. I will try to get a picture and video of them this week. Today probably wont happen since its pushing 90 today and its torture to be in that engine bay on a day like today. So instead today we surf!

Sounds great! No rush, catch one for me.

If your talking the normal quick fills for non Ram fill boats I'd highly suggest switching to the Valterras. I can't speak for the Ram fill (I believe they are the same though) as my boat doesn't have it however I had nothing but problems with my Drainmaster quick fills valves, after 3 replacements on each side I finally had enough and requested Centurion send me the new ones, Later swapped to the Valterra's May 1st and knock on wood after 115 surf hours this season have not had one failure yet. I also can't say I maintain my valves well (I know, I know shame on me), since I leave the boat in the water May-October they only get serviced maybe twice when the boat comes out for maintenance or cleaning.

 

And like Viking said "Hope I didn't just jinx myself???

Cdifranco, when you switched from Drainmaster to Valterra's did you have to mod the wiring? My Enzo is an 11' with just two wires to the valse so your's may have been different. At the expense of offending someone I think the Drainmasters are junk, at least in this application. Fortunately our boat only has two valves, I can't imagine the ram fill with 4 or whatever they have. Yikes.

Why?? You have an enzo the surf system is the hull

Yeah we get a great wave. These would be interesting to try is all, maybe more so for the dark side wave which we don't get quite as clean when we have a small crew. I wouldn't want to take them on and off and store them. Just thought I'd share what I came across.