03' b52?

I have a chance to pick up an 03' B52 for what I think is a really, really good deal. I dont know all the specifics yet, but the boat hasn't been out of the garage in 5 years. I do know that it needs a lot, a lot of love to bring it back.

Being from the midwest, I've never even seen an MB in person. How are they? Board, and surf wakes? Is this even a good year/model?

I'm going to look at it tomorrow. I need to decide if it's still going to be a good deal after everything gets fixed and cleaned. What's a fair price for a low to average hour 03' B52?

Someone has to have some experience in this boat.

How's the wake? Can it surf? Any input would be appreciated.

I assume it is a B52 21 footer right? Pretty sure this was the same hull for the 2008 220V. My friend has one of these and it's not a bad boat at all. Pretty good for surfing if you get some weight in it. I've never wakeboarded behind it but for stock ballast and it wasn't bad, but at the time i had a newer MB with the quick fill ballast which was much larger.

Does it have the 2 speed transmission? What tower is on it? motor? hours? price?

Yeah, it's the 21 footer. It's got a 350. The tower doesn't look like anything special. It fits right into that era boat. I'm not sure about the 2 speed tranny. Is there a gear selector or something? This just looked like a standard throttle. I also couldn't find an hour meter. I thought that was pretty weird too.
I'm still good with the hours. I know the original owner and I know this boat barely got used when it was new. And it hasn't left the garage in 5 years.

There's one major problem. I think there's a seal out of the tranny. There's tranny fluid all over the bottom of the boat. I'm really nervous about it. Everything else just needs to be cleaned or polished. There's also a few wiring issues with things like the bildge, stereo, and one of the ballast pumps.

He's asking 1/2 of what it's worth, so it's worth it to take a chance.

I've ridden behind a b52 and it's pretty sick. A buddy of mine has on 03 with the 2 speed transmission. The wake is pretty narrow so you need to ride a long line and a fast speed to go wake to wake or else you Are landing hard in the flats. We typically ride at 80ft and around 24mph. It also surfs really well on the starboard side.
The boat can handle a lot of weight (it needs it) so load it up . The build quality isn't as nice as the big three though and It has some things related to this that would annoy me (just like my old 03 moomba lsv) like difficulty in accessing certain areas for maintenance. For example, to access the bilge pump, you need to pull up the floor. Because of this, my buddy hasn't fixed it and when we forgot to put the plug in the other day, we ended up having to use a tsunami bag pump to pump the water out of the engine compartment.

To access the tranny you will be pulling the rear seats and the floor FYI

I owned a 2003 B52. I never surfed behind it, so I can't speak to the quality of the wave.

The quality of the build was excellent. On par with the "Big 3", in fact. I have owned 2 of the "Big 3", so I am speaking from experience.

The wake is OK. There were wake pockets in the hull in 2003, and that creates a bit of a double lip at the top of the wake. You can overcome that by adding weight, however. I would estimate you will need around 3000lbs of water to get a decent wake.

For that year, the B52 is a nice boat. Jump on it if you can get it at a good price. P.S. A boat sitting for 5 years is not necessarily a good thing. Engines like to be exercised...

Oh yea the hour meter is in the engine compartment if I remember

How does the two speed work. Is there a shifter somewhere? Is it incorporated with the throtte?

I guess what I'm asking is how do I know if this us a two speed?

The guy I'm getting it from doesn't know much about it. It was his kids boat.

If it is a two speed it will have a small shift lever above the throttle

I don't think it does. I'll look again tomorrow or Thursday.

Hello. My wife and I have an 04 B52, so I have some experience with them. I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but I think my boat surfs fantastic on the port side. My wife, who rides goofy footed, has always been a little frustrated with the starboard side wake. Its plenty big enough but we always have a hard time getting it to clean up related to the prop wash. I love the boat but I do wish the pumps were faster, the tanks hold a lot of water for the stock pumps to move, but I try not to be in a rush when I'm on the lake anyway Mine doesnt have the 2 speed tranny so I cant comment on it other than I am glad I dont have it, I hear from people that have had that feature that they dont use it because they dont like it. I think it was a better idea on paper than it was in practice. And I dont believe mine has an official hour meter, there is one in the perfect pass but it racks up hours whenever the ignition switch is powered, so mine is waaaaaay off. To get an actual number I had to have mine plugged into a computer at the dealer when we bought it. I hope that helps, if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

I looked at it again last night. It's definitely not a 2 speed. I also couldn't find an hour meter anywhere. The owner couldn't make it, so we didn't have a chance to work out a deal. Like I said earlier, it needs some love. The owners kid really didn't take care of it. I'm pretty confident I can fix almost everything. The one thing that scares me is the tranny is leaking oil. A lot of oil. I'm sure one of the seals are out of it. I'm not worried about pulling it as much as getting it back in and the shaft lined up properly. I guess we'll have to wait to see just how good the deal is.

Thanks for the replys. Any inside is welcome.

Alex, how do you weight it for surfing? What speed?

We fill the surf side ballast full and the non-surf side about 3/4 full. Like someone said above, it likes weight. We dont have the team edition, which has the bow ballast, so we put a person or two up in the bow and that seems to clean up all the other problems with the wave. I don't remember how fast we go off the top of my head, but its somewhere around 8-9 mph if I remember correctly. We dont add any ballast other than the 2 factory tanks, between those and a few people in the boat it seems to be plenty for what we need.