Milwmarc
Jet Boat Addict
- Messages
- 137
- Reaction score
- 240
- Points
- 92
- Location
- Wind Lake WI
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2006
- Boat Model
- AR
- Boat Length
- 23
I'm a Financial Advisor during the day, but at night and weekends Id much rather be on my snowmobiles, boat, or improving toys in the Garage turning wrench's than sit in front of a TV...ANY day. With that being said I'd say I have a solid "B -" ability in the shop...unless its Engine work...than I leave it to the experts..with that being said. This is my 4th product from Will and all I can say is I appreciate the heart and love that goes into the products when sent to us. I've done a lot of Mod's to my other previous boats as well and make many mods to my snowmobiles over the past 20 years. Never have I seen aftermarket piece designed so well as what I typically see come out of Will's shop. It's nice to have the little extras like, using one or 2 bolt sizes to simplify installs, having not only directions but his OWN install video's. I've put after market parts on my F150 from Stage 3 Motorsports...and even that large company doesn't have the packaging, details to engineering and video links as Will does.
I ordered the Wake setter and Lateral Thrusters for my Dual Jet 2006 AR 230 at the same time.
Installing the Lateral thrusters took 15 minutes...my 75 year old Dad with Parkinson's could have installed these things it was so easy. Can't wait to see if they help with reverse and making me look like an ultra cool jet boat pilot...looking like I'm docking a Carnival Cruise Ship with Bow thrusters.
With that being said, I'm taking my anal retentive time on this project as I want it right the first time so I can get on the water up here in Wisconsin and enjoy the 5 weeks of summer we (maybe)….. get and NOT be fixing things like upstops that come loose or steering cables that hang. So what I did was...took advice of a previous thread here suggested...Tonight installed everything without Loctite to see if I would have any hang ups or problems with install. Once I had everything installed and checked steering etc. I uninstalled and took apart everything, did the epoxy and will reinstall everything tomorrow afternoon for hopeful water test on Friday/Saturday. The problem we have, it has rained so much the previous 4 weeks, most of SE Wisconsin is under water, our lakes are high and rising. My neighbors see me doing all this boat work and think I'm NOAH getting ready to whisk my family of 5 on to the boat when our house starts floating away.....what I'm getting at is many many many of the lakes I go on have a NO WAKE rule right now! How do I test a wake product without a wake? Time will tell.
A few lessons from tonight. A. To give yourself as few variables as possible when installing these start before the fins even hit the water.
#1. Give your steering a oil bath. There is a link to show you how to give the ENTIRE cable length a good lubrication....do that first...so if you have stiff steering to begin with...maybe the new vectors will get stiffer and show itself more....so lube the cables. That took me some time to get the parts and do the job...but that's done. Here's the link to do it. https://jetboaters.net/threads/diy-steering-cable-luber.9755/
#2. Double and triple check that your jets are facing directly rear. I had to adjust one of my 2 sides. I used a piece of angle iron and followed center line...adjusted the steering cable....and than eyeballed it from behind.
During the install I did compare the old Vector XL, they are wider than the new wakes and a bit shorter than the wakes....so it will be interesting to compare how the handle differently from each other. I also noticed that the New Wake Vectors are a lot stiffer springs...maybe my old vectors springs were just broken in...it definitely takes more strength on my part to lift the new springs compared to old springs though....the new Wake Vectors are black and right behind the old vectors Xl's in this picture...its hard to tell the new ones are on the boat...but I thought this may be helpful for comparison for some of you.
So after I test fit everything (My upstops came Damn near perfect set from the factory for all 4 upstops for my 2006 model and per the video my allen wrench hit the guide right where it was supposed to be)....so I didn't make any micro adjustments at ALL to the upstops..we will see tomorrow after the epoxy sets and I reinstall if that is still the case.
So I than uninstalled everything and expoy'd the 4 hardware parts, my comments on the epoxy job;
A. I do have concerns that in month 2, year 3, or somewhere down the road this hardware that is expoyed to the jets to provide our upstop will loosen from the jet and make hell out of a trip....whether that be a ruined weekend, being in the middle of a large choppy lake or on your Bimini run. For me fortunately i'm in Wisconsin Fresh Water, The boat is trailered, and garage stored...so my expoy'd hardware will have less environmentals like salt water and a constant 4-5 month on the lift or in the slip type of boats.
B. I will be taking LIGHT sand paper tomorrow to the surface to smooth where the gates rotate.
C. Like many have said. Have EXTRA epoxy on hand. I've done plenty of fiberglass work on cars, used expoxy's for many years on many boats, I'm pretty meticulous on my mixes...and I used every single drop included.
C2. Watching the install video it states you should have a good half hour for the Epoxy, it was 70 degrees with 75% humidity in my garage tonight and I only got 15 good minutes working time...I had to work fast as things started to settle up pretty fast
C3 You definitely don't want to glob on epoxy as it can create air voids...but you want to saturate exactly how Will shows on the video the only difference. I use Q tips with the fuzzy end cut off..as its gives a smaller easier diameter application item to fine tune where you want the epoxy to go. Make sure you epoxy both the jet and the upstop hardware from behind. My epoxy job looked darn near perfect, I was Not heavy on expoxy..which takes me to the last point of the evening install part 1.
C4. It's definitely not enough epoxy that comes with the 2 packets. Fortunately I had 2 part Marine Epoxy on hand. I went over all 4 upstops and needed the extra to fill in the gaps, have extra marine epoxy on hand before install and make sure you read directions so that it has a similar curing times. Some marine epoxy's can take a week to cure. You don't want to ruin your whole install job by not doing this right....and you may not find you ruined that job till month 3, year 2, etc....do it right the first time...! Hence the reason I'm doing this in 2 days, Put all on boat, test the fitting, stearing etc. Take it all apart, do the epoxy...come in and tell your wife you have created another man project in the garage she can be proud of your alpha male status....write up your report for us to learn from each other.
Tomorrow..final install of all part with Loctite, rechecking upstops….etc. I can't say enough how much more engineering seems to go into this set of Vector's than my old ones..The old style are just fine if you want slow speed steering they work fantastic...if you don't do a ton of tubing or wakeboarding they'd be just fine. But I have 3 kids, the 20 and 16 year old love to wakeboard and want to try surfing, hence the reason for the new set....If was just tubing most of the time...I'd have kept the old vector's as those work GREAT! Until tomorrow for install part 2. Basically Re attach everything.
It's a Good Life
Marc M.
I ordered the Wake setter and Lateral Thrusters for my Dual Jet 2006 AR 230 at the same time.
Installing the Lateral thrusters took 15 minutes...my 75 year old Dad with Parkinson's could have installed these things it was so easy. Can't wait to see if they help with reverse and making me look like an ultra cool jet boat pilot...looking like I'm docking a Carnival Cruise Ship with Bow thrusters.
With that being said, I'm taking my anal retentive time on this project as I want it right the first time so I can get on the water up here in Wisconsin and enjoy the 5 weeks of summer we (maybe)….. get and NOT be fixing things like upstops that come loose or steering cables that hang. So what I did was...took advice of a previous thread here suggested...Tonight installed everything without Loctite to see if I would have any hang ups or problems with install. Once I had everything installed and checked steering etc. I uninstalled and took apart everything, did the epoxy and will reinstall everything tomorrow afternoon for hopeful water test on Friday/Saturday. The problem we have, it has rained so much the previous 4 weeks, most of SE Wisconsin is under water, our lakes are high and rising. My neighbors see me doing all this boat work and think I'm NOAH getting ready to whisk my family of 5 on to the boat when our house starts floating away.....what I'm getting at is many many many of the lakes I go on have a NO WAKE rule right now! How do I test a wake product without a wake? Time will tell.
A few lessons from tonight. A. To give yourself as few variables as possible when installing these start before the fins even hit the water.
#1. Give your steering a oil bath. There is a link to show you how to give the ENTIRE cable length a good lubrication....do that first...so if you have stiff steering to begin with...maybe the new vectors will get stiffer and show itself more....so lube the cables. That took me some time to get the parts and do the job...but that's done. Here's the link to do it. https://jetboaters.net/threads/diy-steering-cable-luber.9755/
#2. Double and triple check that your jets are facing directly rear. I had to adjust one of my 2 sides. I used a piece of angle iron and followed center line...adjusted the steering cable....and than eyeballed it from behind.
During the install I did compare the old Vector XL, they are wider than the new wakes and a bit shorter than the wakes....so it will be interesting to compare how the handle differently from each other. I also noticed that the New Wake Vectors are a lot stiffer springs...maybe my old vectors springs were just broken in...it definitely takes more strength on my part to lift the new springs compared to old springs though....the new Wake Vectors are black and right behind the old vectors Xl's in this picture...its hard to tell the new ones are on the boat...but I thought this may be helpful for comparison for some of you.
So after I test fit everything (My upstops came Damn near perfect set from the factory for all 4 upstops for my 2006 model and per the video my allen wrench hit the guide right where it was supposed to be)....so I didn't make any micro adjustments at ALL to the upstops..we will see tomorrow after the epoxy sets and I reinstall if that is still the case.
So I than uninstalled everything and expoy'd the 4 hardware parts, my comments on the epoxy job;
A. I do have concerns that in month 2, year 3, or somewhere down the road this hardware that is expoyed to the jets to provide our upstop will loosen from the jet and make hell out of a trip....whether that be a ruined weekend, being in the middle of a large choppy lake or on your Bimini run. For me fortunately i'm in Wisconsin Fresh Water, The boat is trailered, and garage stored...so my expoy'd hardware will have less environmentals like salt water and a constant 4-5 month on the lift or in the slip type of boats.
B. I will be taking LIGHT sand paper tomorrow to the surface to smooth where the gates rotate.
C. Like many have said. Have EXTRA epoxy on hand. I've done plenty of fiberglass work on cars, used expoxy's for many years on many boats, I'm pretty meticulous on my mixes...and I used every single drop included.
C2. Watching the install video it states you should have a good half hour for the Epoxy, it was 70 degrees with 75% humidity in my garage tonight and I only got 15 good minutes working time...I had to work fast as things started to settle up pretty fast
C3 You definitely don't want to glob on epoxy as it can create air voids...but you want to saturate exactly how Will shows on the video the only difference. I use Q tips with the fuzzy end cut off..as its gives a smaller easier diameter application item to fine tune where you want the epoxy to go. Make sure you epoxy both the jet and the upstop hardware from behind. My epoxy job looked darn near perfect, I was Not heavy on expoxy..which takes me to the last point of the evening install part 1.
C4. It's definitely not enough epoxy that comes with the 2 packets. Fortunately I had 2 part Marine Epoxy on hand. I went over all 4 upstops and needed the extra to fill in the gaps, have extra marine epoxy on hand before install and make sure you read directions so that it has a similar curing times. Some marine epoxy's can take a week to cure. You don't want to ruin your whole install job by not doing this right....and you may not find you ruined that job till month 3, year 2, etc....do it right the first time...! Hence the reason I'm doing this in 2 days, Put all on boat, test the fitting, stearing etc. Take it all apart, do the epoxy...come in and tell your wife you have created another man project in the garage she can be proud of your alpha male status....write up your report for us to learn from each other.
Tomorrow..final install of all part with Loctite, rechecking upstops….etc. I can't say enough how much more engineering seems to go into this set of Vector's than my old ones..The old style are just fine if you want slow speed steering they work fantastic...if you don't do a ton of tubing or wakeboarding they'd be just fine. But I have 3 kids, the 20 and 16 year old love to wakeboard and want to try surfing, hence the reason for the new set....If was just tubing most of the time...I'd have kept the old vector's as those work GREAT! Until tomorrow for install part 2. Basically Re attach everything.
It's a Good Life
Marc M.
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