TexP51

Wow - That boat is slammed! I wouldn’t be comfortable with that at all. I’ve been flying for 35 years - and if I’ve learned anything,, engineers put thought and numbers into their designs, and pushing past that YOU become the test pilot. You asked if we’ve been able to surf, and the answer is yes, but not like the pros.. We.re taking baby steps from just extreme tubing. My 13 y/o takes his mom’s 10’ paddle board and surfs all the time with not much more than loading all our items in the LS rear locker and putting everyone in the rear and LS. Even then you start losing some rudder authority. Kids have fun. Just me, I want a safe boat that we can get back quickly if need be, were gonna try a suction wake maker this year.

Congrats, and enjoy! Nice looking boat. My 2002 Elite V C4 looks similar in hull design. The C4 was just a seating configuration that wrapped around - I think many, if not most, came with it. The 00-02 models could also have the Air Warrior pkg - still not sure beyond the graphics and paint what the difference actually was... Recommend replacing the bilge setup from the older style to the newer low profile Whale style That mounts lowering the transom bilge. Keep the water impeller replaced every 2 years and you should have a nice boat with those low hours. I attached a few pics of my boat for comparison. - Rob

Got around to installing our ‘02 Elite V’s battery charger/maintainer that it got for Xmas this weekend. I really didn’t have a great spot in our boat, so I built a mounting rack I thought someone else might be able to use. I installed in the left rear locker close to the batteries. The charger I got was a Cabela’s 2-bank 12a model - Pro Series Onboard 12. Cabela’s unit appears to have everything in a high-end charger without the Minn-Kota price, including all the steps for charming to maintaining, and able to charge 12a to a single battery if needed. It will handle flooded lead-acid & AGM batteries. They run $149-169 in the catalog, but we found all the Cabels units on sale in a store in Waco, TX, and this one was for $109. https://www.cabelas.com/product/CABELAS-PRO-SERIES-ON-BOARD-CHARGER/2416312.uts Required items: - Battery Maintainer 2-bank - Treated 2x10 cut to 28” length - Bunk Felt (Academy) - Spay paint/cheap - (2) 3” x 3/8”-18 SS Bolts, lock washers, nuts and oversized washers Tools: Saw, drill/bits, staple gun, scissors, hammer, tape measure Install: Measure location for board height in locker location Cut wood and take off extra 1/4” (for felt overlap when you wrap board) Paint board to help seal wood Fit wood into position - assist w/hammer Drill 1/4” pilot holes through fiberglass and wood - repeat w/ 3/8” bit Remove board and wrap in felt - fold felt like wrapping a package - staple Reinstall board - assist w/ hammer - make sure you have tight friction fit Install hardware Run wiring to batteries and install connections Mount Battery Maintainer to board Plug in -

I will send a few pics this evening. At first glance when I saw it reminded me of a expandable freeze plug if anybody who remembers those. That’s a good idea thinking maybe the t-handle may have pulled off at some point in the past. I know it’s one of the lowest points in the hull, but mine appears to be leaking pretty good when the boat is in the water. She is in my shop for the little bit of winter we get and I’m planning to fix the few squawks over the weekends..

Can anyone give some guidance on removing the bilge drain located in the bottom of the hull in front of the V-Drive? I don’t have a service manual and have searched and just haven’t seen any details on removing and replacing that drain location. Mine appears to have some type of compression rubber with a center threaded shaft. Mine appeared to be leaking last year and I’d like to replace it while I have the boat on a trailer versus on our boat lift. My hull is a ‘02 Elite V-Drive. I saw a newer 2013 Centurion Enzo and their front drain appeared to have been replaced with a t-handle garboard-style drain. Can I hear from a few of you that have replaced their drain before? Thx - rob

Check and make sure your belt is very tight. Later models have a single serpentine accessory drive belt, but your ‘82 I think had v belts. If they get wet they slip if not really tight. Other idea is the engine driven water pump could be a problem. Is water actually circulating through your block? The impeller most of us are talking about pulls lake water and provides it to the open cooling system, but the Chevy small block also has a mechanical engine mounted water pump that circulates the water in the engine cooling circuit. If either pump goes down you overheat.

Once you get it unsnapped you’ll find textured gel coat in the hull color. You will have several round access panels that are attached by ss screws for your fuel and ballast tank sending unit access.

Get the weight out of the boat and watch your gauges - temp, oil pressure, and what angle the hull is at. Full boat - people, fuel, ballast, etc - at 12 mph the engine could be under a hard load depending on configuration- are you surfing, wakeboard, ski. - or might not. Are you burning lots of fuel? I’d suggest taking it out empty, configured for speed - and see how she does. Flat wake tabs, no surf devices, etc. baseline some performance. First hunch might be that they have wrong prop on boat since you just bought it. Keep everyone posted.

Agree w/ Tim. Direct Drive boats shouldn’t have the problem once you’re at ski speeds. Try w/ a spotter to go through and document wake size w/ various speed benchmarks. Wake should fade away at +18mph or so with no weight in boat. Your skier size will change things as more load on prop = more rooster tail. Aim thinking a good specific ski-use tow rope should have you beyond the rooster anyway.

Appreciate you taking the time to respond. After I read it I realize I pull the rear garboard brass bilge drain, but not the drain by the v-drive. Actually I never have needed to pull that drain. Wonder if the rubber seals have gone bad? Mine doesn’t look like a t-drain, but looks like a bolted-in mount. Is the normal t drain location just ahead of the v-drive?

This site could use a category for keeping these older boats maintained. I just posted a similar post regarding my 2002 Elite V and a drip. Here is what i’ve found - If you have the stock bilge pump (mounted on a block of wood in the rear of the bilge area most likely under the alternator) you’ll see even if it does a perfect job it would leave 2-3” of water in the bilge. The rear brass plug gets you down another inch - but you will have still have some standing water inside. My thought is it depends on how your boat sits on the trailer at what angle. You have several hull pass-thru points - could have a thru-hull transducer, strake mounts, rudder pinion seal, or prop shaft seal leaking. By the way, I went with one of the new Whale style bilges mounted lower than stock and really like the amount of water it removes - and to a lower level. That was one of the first things I replaced, along with upgrading all of the bilge and ballast hoses. Not a bad job. Hope this helped give you some ideas.

Kinda have a strange situation that I'd like to hear some perspective on from members. Have a '02 Elite V C4 Air Warrior that we keep lifted in a boat house on our lake. Saturday I hit a submerged stump and put a small ding in the 3-blade prop, lots of vibration so idled in and pulled the boat out and trailered it a couple of hours home so I could exchange props on dry land. This boat never sits uncovered, and while home it sat outside the first night and wouldn't you know we had pretty torrential rains - like 4" Sunday nightt here in Houston. I came home from work on Monday and things were drying out but I noticed there was water on the driveway under boat. Looking closer I saw there was a steady drip - every 2-3 sec drip - coming from the prop shaft dripping water out from inside the boat. I looked in the bilge and found 5" of water standing in the engine and tranny bilge areas. I pulled the plug and ran the bilge to drain the water, and all is good. Got me to thinking I had never noticed a sizeable prop shaft leak, but then again maybe this is normal. Different perspective from water leaking into the hull, versus seeing water leaking out. One lesson- I need to pull the plug if/when I store this boat exposed to weather. Anyone have any thoughts if this is normal?

- Check brake fluid level in reservoir. - Check that the flex brake line quick-disconnect between reservoir and trailer is connected. - Cycle the surge brake actuator by hand to see if you have back pressure (on tongue) - See if hydraulic actuator (mini-looking shock absorber) in tongue is connected. - Check for brake fluid leak @ drums. - Bleed air out of brakes

Here are some pics...

Thought I’d give a product review for some of the ‘seasoned’ Centurion boats. I have a 2002 Elite V C4 Air Warrior that was recently purchased over in FLA. On the drive from FLA to TX to get her home the Tach bezel cracked. If you’ve been on I-10 you’ll understand! The boat had the factory Faria gauges. Playing around in the dash I found the instrument harness had seen several radio upgrades and was pulled up tight in places with zip ties. As I moved my hand inside in the IP the tach bezel on the outside broke completely off. Old plastic and too much force. The Gaige’s are mounted through the front of the Instument panel and use a squash ring on each gauge to hold in place, so all the force is on the outer ring. Well mine broke and the tach gauge fell into its hole into the IP. All of my Elite’ power went through through the tach connection. Faria has a lifetime warranty for the original owner of A Centurion boat, but they didn’t respond to my email inquiries. I Just ordered a replacement Faria white gauge, giving up on finding a Centurion logo with the chrome bezel, and since the speedos were acting up, went ahead and ordered matching GPS speedos that do not used the paddle wheel, and now have internal GPS antenna. Depth gauge was dead so I replaced it as well. On Amazon the tach was $120 w/ Hobbs meter, and each speedo was $79, the Faria depth sounder was $140 for a in-hull system. The euro white worked out well for my taste, but the Chesapeake has chrome trim. If you prefer that., Don’t be in a hurry as it does take time figuring out the leads. Generally you could just hook a replacement exactly as the old one, but I had to remove the wiring blindly in the Elite IP configuration, and figure out wiring afterwards. Also got rid of a few harnesses that were in the IP, as in 2002 you got all harnesses for the various options whether they were installed or not. Anyway, the GPS Faria speedos (F33147) are especially interesting as an option for us replacing older dash/IP setups. The speedos have internal gps antenna and just need ground, and a hot wire coming from the ign switch, and 3rd hot for illumination. Hope this helps somebody else.