Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

Hey guys its boating season in Maine again and im back to the forums. My boat is mainely used for pulling tubes as my kids are 7 8 and 9. I recently installed sx tabs to try to lift the stern a bit to get he ropes out of the wake and get on plane easier. I have the 80lb shocks on the lowest setting and the ropes are still in the wake. Most ppl with the 4.3 18 diablo say the 60lb shocks are enough for them and im confused as to why i almost want to put mine up another notch.

Well thats kind of another topic, but im looking at buying the booster balls to keep the ropes up. This is 160 minimum for 2 and a pylon or different attachment point probably wouldnt be much more. I stated this is for tubing for a reason as i know pylons arent really supposed to be used, nor wake towers but i have seen a ridiculous amount of ppl doing this without issue. I would like a wake tower eventually but I dont have the funds to go for it this year anyway.

Issue's with booster balls
1 visibility of my kids that ball is huge
2 Hinder ollies and tricks on tubes maybe?
3 price

Today i was pulling the tubes and it just didnt go that well. ONe tube rope constantly stuck in the wake and seems dangerous when it rips out of the water. Struggled to do any whips to get outside the wake even with a tube that moved great last year.

Tabs screwed my wake up

Any suggestions or advice for me?

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

The Smart Tabs won't raise the boat out of the water much , if any , further than the boat was designed to ride in the water.
If your wake is screwed up , you got to much down force on the tabs.
How much weight do you have in the boat and where is it positioned?
The 60 lb actuators should be perfect for your Diablo.
My 93 Diablo pulls tubes (2-3) just fine. I run the 60 lb actuators in the middle setting 90% of the time.
Have you checked to make sure you aren't "retaining water" under the deck?
Something seems amiss to me:confused:

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

I can see your point that the tabs wont defy gravity and hull design now that you say that. I have contacted nauticus to see about some 60lb actuators. If you remember right I ordered the 80lb actuators before i joined this forum and went by nauticus charts. After that, I joined here and was told 60's were better suited, i know others have said nauticus was really good about sending new actuators if you ordered the wrong ones. I sent them an email the other day so we will see.

Larry you were a big help to me last year, as i remember, the boat is running out good this season thus far. Weight in the boat yeasterday was just my wife and I. She did tend to hang towards the stern a bit, but did the same last year without as much issue as we had yesterday. I use 60ft ropes what do you use? 50ft may be better i suppose? As you do, I also pull 2 tubes havent mustered the courage to pull my 3 kids at once although they would probably love it.

Is there a location for me to check water retaining other than the ski locker? The "boat guy" put the tabs on a week ago and said nothing of any large amount of water draining out when drilling as others have reported, although i didnt ask either. My boat's stern has set low in the water from day one of my ownership, hence the tabs.

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

I run 60 ft ropes. You could try a 50 ft setup , might help you a little.
I think once you get the 60 lb actuators on , you'll be ok.
When tubing I always keep as much weight as possible in front of the fuel tank.

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

im going to try some different things today. I believe there is a 50ft line somewhere at camp. It seems to be far worse with the kids favorite tube than others as the attachment point of the tube is very low. Of course it has to be their favorite one too right. When the tubes hang up in the wake its not very far in front of them. That's why I think a 50 ft might help out alot. We will see i suppose. Thanks larry I will keep you posted

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

This is probably a stupid question, but are you sure your outdrive it trimmed all the way down? When mine is trimmed up even a little bit it plows water pretty bad. Great for wakeboarding, but bad for getting up on plane quickly.

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

No I don't take that as a stupid question at all, but yes I am sure it is all the way down. My "boat guy" has mentioned he is curious to know if the all the way down on the switch is really all the way down on the drive. He also thought it looked funny taking off as it is a bit slow to hop up. I noticed today that i have very little up trim before i start purpoising unless the water is glass with weight in the front. I can hardly ever trim up to 1/4 on the gauge before its bouncing even with the tabs.

Larry when i said my wake was screwed up with the 80lb shocks its hard to explain in words i suppose, but i no longer have a smooth wake with a nice cut at the top of the waves. Now its all white cap bubbling probably 6-8" wide. Its like now its the ocean when before it was a nice cut wake.

A 50ft rope seemed to help a bit keeping it out of the wake, but then made it hard to get much swing. I am also wondering about my speed. Last season, I could only stay on plane around 23-24 mph. My young kids were in tubes that I couldn't flip if i really tried, but still was too fast. I plane at 18-19 mph now and that's where i pull now. I understand this will have an effect on the whips and getting outside the wakes and maybe my ropes being stuck more than last year as well. Do you guys think the 4-5mph makes that big of difference?

That is the only real difference I can think of from last year, while i still had trouble with ropes last year, it wasn't as bad as it is now.

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

Caused from to much down force from the tabs. Soon as you go to the 60 lb actuators it ought to disappear.:wink_thumbup:
When you trim in the drive all the way , how much of the trim cylinder "rod" still shows.
Just curious.
I pull the kids(7 & 11) usually between 22-27 mph to be able to get em swinging.. Getting over the wake going slow is a ***** unless you really crank it hard.
If they really want to giggle , I do figure 8's and cut across the wakes:)

Re: Has anyone figured out a higher attachment point for diablos
 

larry i will look at the trim cylinder next time im out at the lake and report back to you.

I was a bit worried that the 23 or 24 I did last year was a little fast for the kids, but things went ok last year. I will bump up my speed a bit and see if it decreases the wake just that little bit needed.

I called nauticus this afternoon wow what a painless procedure that was. They are shipping me my 60lbs today with a return label to send the 80's back. Beautiful execution Nauticus! It's getting harder and harder to find companies like this.

I looked at a universal pylon from big air. It has a base mount and 4 guy wires to each corner of the boat. How bad would this really be to pull tubes? I know that no manufacturer will say its ok to pull tubes not wanting to risk sue happy americans.

I have read a rep for monster towers response to this, as far as pulling from towers, he made statements of what if the tube was caught on a dock or was stuck into a prop of another boat.??? Seems kind of like go for it if you're not going to be stupid response. Thoughts? I mean pulling from stern hooks with 4 small screws each and the tower seems to be more rugged than those. Or the ski hook only has 2 half inch bolts holding that.