Malibu Wedge

I have a 1995 Malibu Echelon. great boat, but a very small wake. very much a ski boat. we have been using fat sacs, but they are such a pain in the butt, plus they take up so much room. we are looking at investing in the wedge, but have never ridden behind a boat with one, and are unsure on how much of an improvement it would be. any advice out there? thanks

You should post this on the malibuboatowners.com site. You will get a more accurate responce and if it's even doable on your boat. There is a model year cut off that doeas not have a reinforced transom.
Personally I did not like the wedge on our VLX from a drivers standpoint. We always used ballast. The wedge made the boat steer lousy.

thanks for the info. your the first person to tell me about the steering issue. I have already checked with the dealer, and the boat can accomodate the wedge.

Never driven a malibu with the wedge down but I've heard the steering is pretty bad with it down. I think its supposed to act liek an additional 1000lbs of ballast. www.malibuboatowners.com can clarify everything

Handling is definately different but not that bad. Kind of like the difference between a direct drive vs. a V drive, just takes a couple minutes to get used to. Some riders also prefer the tunability of wet ballast, something the wedge doesn't offer. I will have both on my next boat.

Thomas,
My advice would be don't do it. The echelon has one of my favorite wakes on older ski boats. If you don't like the sacs laying around try using the fat seat. It works well, you just have to be careful not to overfill it, I had a fat seat a few years back and it would spring leaks every now and then, but I filled the thing till it was buldging pretty bad. Then add a tube sac or full size sac into the ski locker and you should be good to go.
My opinion on downsides to the wedge-
Have to go to slow 19-22 I usually ride at 24mph after 22 wedge starts to loose effect.
hard to hold speed
drives like a tanker
you still need balast even with the wedge to have a big wake
Only posiive is that it puts a nice kick on the top of the wake.
You could also look to add some sand or lead to the boat to take up less space.

Whats up Mr. Stan Tanner.... How are ya doing..? Looks like you gave up on the Double up boards and went to CWB? Hows that working out??

Sean