The "Wedge"

Hey all,

I know talking about other brands with respect is silly...hehe jk but seriously...I rode behind a friend's response last summer with the wedge, it took 7 seconds to flip down and boom we could wakeboard with a decent size wake. Really was impressed, this weekend I was filling fat sacs in the Sport wishing it could go a lot faster...yea yea more pumps, more tubes all that jazz but it still takes time, not to mention space in the boat.

They steal ideas from CC every now and then, are we too proud to take theirs? Am I missing something? Why don't Nautiques use their own version of it?

Maybe this have been covered, but this is what daydreaming does!

I'm with ya, but even with the wedge down, the wake isn't that noticeably bigger. My buddy had a bunch of problems with his on his Wakesetter VLX. The first one actually sheared right off. Tige also had something similar. My opinion is nothing produces a good wake like a bunch of weight.

Putting a lift kit on a Mustang doesn't make it an off road vehicle.   

I've heard horror stories about them pulling out of the transom and the strain they put on the hull. A guy here on our lake has one and has used it once. Said the nose rides way too high to see and you can hardly accelerate or turn the boat.

I'd stick to weighting the boat evenly.

The boat I drove was a manual version, which deployed very easily. Makes me wonder why they ever bothered with a power version really.

It was definitely important to remember to put it back in the up position before driving the boat any faster than boarding speeds. That would definitely cause problems

CC has the hydro gate. I don't know much about how it works though.

Supposedly they fixed this....but here ya go...






Looks like they just slapped them on there and didn't reinforce them at all.

Those pics are old. The damage to those boats was caused by driver error, not the wedge. No doubt there wouldn't be a hole in the transom if the wedge wasn't mounted to it, but the transom, wedge, prop and rudder wouldn't have been damage without a serios hit caused by the driver.

I actually drove our Sporster which will do 50 mph, WOT last summer with the wedge down for a little bit. It porpoised quite a bit, but that was about it. The boat had never porpoised before and I was blaming it on the 2 fat guys in the back seat, but finally checked it out and someone had forgot to put it up after using the boat.

Riley wrote: Those pics are old. The damage to those boats was caused by driver error, not the wedge. No doubt there wouldn't be a hole in the transom if the wedge wasn't mounted to it, but the transom, wedge, prop and rudder wouldn't have been damage without a serios hit caused by the driver.

+1

I still say it'd be fun to own a boat with one, or at least demo one for a while.

Chris, if the boat driver did not hit something significant with the wedge down, that would not have happened. Rudder and props in those pictures are pretty damaged as well and who knows what else on the boat. The old boats that had through bolt tracking fins used to put a hole in the hull before they changed to screws. Did having the wedge cause more damage to the boat, yeah, but it took the driver to hit something to make it happen. I don't think it's an assembly error. The transom is just a bad place to take a hit. If you backed into a pier pylon really hard and sent your swim platform through your transom, it wouldn't be the platforms fault.

storm34 wrote: I've heard horror stories about them pulling out of the transom and the strain they put on the hull. A guy here on our lake has one and has used it once. Said the nose rides way too high to see and you can hardly accelerate or turn the boat.

Like Bruce said in regards to the other picture. Most issues with the wedge are operator error. People leaving the wedge down while under high speeds will cause it to seperate the "wing" of the wedge from the "arms".

Bri892001 wrote: The boat I drove was a manual version, which deployed very easily. Makes me wonder why they ever bothered with a power version really.

The power wedge is awesome. The demo boat where I work has it and it enables you to make the wake more Super Air 210ish. You can tweak it to make it much more steep and less rampy like a typical malibu wake would be.

Nevergrew wrote: For many years CC has had push button ballast fill and empty, so to compare manually filling fatties in your older Sport to a new wedge just isn't fair. Yes, the auto ballast takes time to fill but no longer than it takes for a rider to get ready for a set.

Great point!

The wedge is convenient and perfect for people learning to jump the wake but many riders with malibus don't use the wedge. Many people like conventional ballast over the wedge. You can only sac a boat out so much and use the wedge before it becomes an anchor

my neihgbor down the lake has a response with the wedge...never been impressed with it...but that may or may not have more to do with it being the diamond (slalom) hull. either way, the 2001 wake is WAY better.

Has anything opposite the wedge been done to improve the slalom ski wake? Thinking this would be a great slalom boat:

Wedge Article

Are you aware that Switch Blade makes an aftermarket
Centerion uses them I belive.

Both of my Malibus had the wedge. My 07 had the power wedge and my 09 had an auto wedge which was pretty awesome, but seemed like it would be stupid expensive if there were electronic issues. For me and my setup, the biggest advantage the wedge offered was with the surf wake. I wakeboarded some and used it then too, but have never been a great wakeboarder.

The Supra dealer tried to tell me that no "good" riders used the wedge until he also became the Malibu dealer. Then it became "must have" equipment.

My opinion is it's nice to have.