rhino89523

Any upholstery shop should be able to make one. You need to decide what you want to use for the base. Either wood or something like King Starboard. After that piece is cut its just foam and vinyl.

I have one with a walkthrough, it makes a difference on resale value, it makes a difference if you don't want to see a visible bladder and plan to surf it...other than that I don't think it makes any difference at all. I guess maybe the seating, but for really long days on the lake we often stuff an additional cooler right there and people will sit on that. When we went to Lake Powell I had 5 gas jugs chilling in the walkthrough so we could do a bunch of exploring. I paid 20 for mine a few years ago and have been very happy with it. The wave for surfing is really solid both sides. The wake for boarding is a little temperamental to weight, I usually leave my underwalkway bladder full, just move a few people around. Cruising comfortable is pretty easily done, the Avalanche cuts rough water well, the only issue with cruising is if you surf a lot you end up with a seriously flat tug boat prop and your top cruise speed suffers from flat prop pitch. The 2001 Avalanche will have the 1 to 1 V drive ratio unless someone has changed it, at altitude that ratio requires the flattest prop made to run significant ballast....at or close to sea level not as much of an issue. The one thing I don't know much about is if the hull design was different in 2001, mine is a 2005. I know some of the earlier Centurions had this huge cutout and that does make a difference for the surf wave. I just don't know the Hull years all that well.

For overall motor health I kind of like a leak down test but either gives you a decent overall condition of the motors top end. To be honest though I buy vehicles all the time and even with my boat I didn't do a compression or leakdown test...I just went out and ran it. With my boat the motor ran great but the steering was tight, was able to knock another G off the purchase price knowing it needed a steering cable installed...worth it to me, the cable cost $100 or so and it took less than an hour for me to put it in. A compression or leakdown test says nothing about the multiple sensors, fuel system, cooling system etc. I'd rather run it than test it if given only one option. Most of the problems I see encountered these days has more to do with sensors, electrical components and fuel system components than times I see a motor with bad valves or rings. I'd almost rather have it scanned than a compression test given the choice.

Mine is the Avy with the walk through, I bought it for 20G at the end of the season (like now) the walk through drives the price down and it had scratches through the stickers into the gel coat that allowed me to talk it down some more. I took all the stickers off and buffed the scratches but it is still a walk through. I run the bag that runs up under the seats on the regular wave side of the boat (port) we run a #350 I think it is under the walkway and an #800 in the walkway. I fill to level and use the shaper to go side to side. We are 50/50 surfers just in the family and about the same among friends so being able to go side to side quick is important. I have a bow sack but rarely use it. I normally have enough weight from people up front and the boat seems to like dragging it's tush a little to make a good wave.

I think the step was gone in that year. Ballast may not be required but will give you a better wave. My shaper is a suction cup glass handler off of Amazon, a set of stainless steel shelf brackets, a cutting board from Walmart, some carriage bolts from home depot and 2 deep sockets to set the plate off at an angle, and a $6 leash off of amazon....I'm wrapped up in it a little over $20 and it makes swapping from side to side about a 2 minute process. That said I think I am going to build an automated slapper system this winter.

We Run a homemade Ghetto gate on my AVY now while I stock parts. This winter we will be automated...not sure what I will run for a controller yet but there are some nice ones available but knowing me it will be a switch with some relays. The wave off my Avy seems to be better than almost everything I have seen and it is confirmed by everyone who rides behind my boat that has ridden others. I paid 20G for a walkthrough Avy and have a bag in the hallway. I've looked at it and thought about removing the walkway but I kind of like it.

My first boat was a day cruiser inboard/outboard and it was a great boat. We had it for like 10 years and used it a lot. I learned a lot about boating with that boat and learned that we liked boating...so I upgraded a few years ago to an AVY. You said one thing in there that concerned a little, " When I go boating I want to boat, not manage the boat" I think I get what you were trying to say but as the captain of the ship you will have to manage everything about the boat from hitching it to your truck, to the launch and all the time on the lake. To do it correct takes quite a bit of management to insure your whole crew and everyone else's returns home safely. There is a lot going on to keep track of and if I understood you correct the set up of the boat is not one of the things you want to deal with....Fair enough. That said you are looking for a newer boat and I think the advice you have been given by your friends is probably correct on the years to look for. I think Centurions throw out the best looking waves I have seen and my biased opinion would have you looking for one of those. There is a lot of electronics going on in the new boats and boats require yearly maintenance and service so keep a nice little side fund for that. As an older boat owner I will check out of this thread and I am sure you will get some great advise on Models within the range you are looking for. As far as time to buy...you are in the prime zone. After Labor Day the price drops as low as it's going to get and you can talk an owner down as low as he/she is going to go. For most climates it's time to start thinking about laying the boat up for winter. This means winterizing and either storage or a wrap. For somebody selling it's the last ditch to try to off the boat before having to pay or do the service and having to pay for storage or have the thing clogging up your shop for 6 months. I'd get ready to pull the trigger now and go for it....you have the hammer right now. If you wait a couple months the for sale boats disappear and everyone waits till spring. Spring until 4th of July is the high season for the boat seller.

I'd start with a call to Lenco, I'm not a lenco guy but do play with rams and shocks at work a ton and all that stuff ends up being collapsed length, extended length and ram/cylinder size. I am sure Lenco will either be able to get you a new set or rebuild the set you have....I would think. If that wont work you may be able to find something close enough that will work, you could check it by removing the rams and move the blade through the stroke and see what would happen with the new length. If that doesn't work I would think you could find a new mounting location and glass up the old holes and drill a new mounting location. This is just what comes to mind, I don't own a switch blade so I have no actual knowledge, but my next call would be to someone at Lenco.

I have an AVY and sometimes get boat envy, we run with a ghetto homemade wake gate and I know there are better waves out there but I have not seen any on the lake that look substantially better than ours, or at least in proportion i.e. ten times more expensive boat doesn't even come close to 10 times better wave. My Father in Law rents a house on the lake for a week every year. Two really new wake boats were tied up together and we surfed by them (not real close, I'm not that guy) both my daughters will surf my board together and they actually kind of rip like this. On Friday night we went to get Pizza and these 2 guys came walking over to us while we were waiting. They asked if we were the people with the blue boat and if these were the 2 girls surfing together. When I said yes they complimented my daughters on their tandem rip session and then started drilling me on speed etc. and how I was making our wave. I think some of these older boats have potential to make a really good wave if you mess with it until you are happy. You need to sort of get a formula down and then make slight tweeks for added people in the boat and for me altitude. I don't have all the digital stuff or any of the really cool gizmos, but it felt pretty great to have guys with much nicer boats ask me what we were doing. Our season is pretty short, I have a great life but cant justify or afford a 100G plus boat for a 3-4 month season. I could maybe do just the boat but then all the other toys go Bye Bye and I am sitting around for 8 months wishing summer would come, which I do anyway.

Many of the pleating colors for boats are available pre-made so it may not be as much as you think to do the pleats they would only have to lay in the colors. I personally dig old boats, I had an old Laveycraft open bow day cruiser for years and when it was time to redo the interior I tried to keep it close to factory. It had like 8 colors in the Gelcoat and 5 colors in the interior. The attention to detail and custom look were things I liked. I used to always tell people "Imagine me pulling up with this boat behind my bubble window van with matching paint circa 1977....I would have been the biggest pimp!!!" My vote is for keeping it stockish looking......nice boat.

Infinity hit it with the weighting thing as well. I have an older AVY and I'm propped as flat as I can go and still move forward, I run over 5000ft pretty much always. If I have girls on the boat I have no problems because women like to sit in open bows, you get 3 of them up there for an extra 300lbs and we get going no problem. When I run after work and its all dudes, nobody is up front we are all weighted up and it will just tugboat out with the bow up so high I cant see where we are going. Even a little weight like having a fat tush dude sit in the walkway until the wave forms up is usually good enough.

No I didn't, my platform is teak, and unlike most I kind of like it. The color of the wood looks cool with my boat. If I had to replace it I would go fiberglass but it is low on the priority list. I wouldn't hesitate to cover one in Gatorstep, the grip on the stuff is great. I was originally going to do my floor in the Gatorstep molded stuff (has a bunch of little dimples) because the Chinese copy stuff I used was so slick when it gets wet, and Mason talked me out of it saying he has zero complaints about it getting slick. He said the molded was more for like guys fishing wearing shoes.

I just did gatorstep in my Avy and the pattern wasn't perfect for my model. I dealt with a guy named Mason Obray and he took great care of me. The way it works is you pay $50 and they send you a precut pattern. I went with the one that was the closest to my boat...same thing it had an extra table cut out. The $50 is applied to your order if you go with Gatorstep so it really isn't a charge. I sent them back my templates with the changes (I covered the hole with tape)and a week or so later they sent me back another set of templates with the modifications I had made to test fit again. This set was perfect so I paid the amount for the pieces I wanted, I picked my pattern and colors and they said it would be a couple weeks for the floor to show....it showed in like 3 days. It looks killer. I did some Chinese copy floor of a gatorstep type flooring last year. I had to router all the edges and it came out looking pretty good, but not even close to the look of gatorstep. The knockoff stuff was slippery and in my opinion dangerous, and it started to de-laminate between layers towards the end of the summer. The Gatorstep is holding up well, was easy to install and looks killer....cool on the feet and all that, I'm sure you have done the homework. Mason Obray | GatorStep LLC Sales & Marketing 2830 Industrial Ave. Hubbard, OR 97032 11270 Threadstone Ln. Knoxville, TN 37932 C: 503-930-4801 | P: 800-603-5246 Call Mason he will take care of you. No I don't work for Gatorstep and I don't get any referral fee...just a happy customer.

Don't have much to add, but I love old Internationals and they are the king of vapor locking. Insulating the fuel lines in the engine compartment fixes it on IH's. the make some pretty cool sleeves and they make some stuff kind of like aluminum foil with some good sticky stuff to hold it together all sold at Summit Racing.

I have almost the same thing made up....works killer. My glass handler is all metal and I used carriage bolts under it to attack shelf brackets. I used that same stainless shelf bracket shown in the first picture and then spaced it off with a couple old 3/8 deep sockets to create an angle. I have a leash on mine...it has never come off while underway, it did get dropped a few times while people were trying to attach it.