PP not holding anything below 22 on SAN

I've been messing with PP on my 03 SAN for the past week trying to get it to hold 22 or 21 MPH without surging and hunting.
It'll work great at 23 with or without rider but, at 22 it'll surge and overshoot and undershoot with or without rider. Seems to be a little better on perfect smooth water but, if there is any steering then it'll go back into the surge/hunt thing.
Thought it might be the KDw setting and NN settings and have been messing with those to try and correct but, they don't seem to fix the problem.

Any suggestions?

Chris
No Slip Gator Grip
www.wakejunky.com

Chris, welcome to the club. We pulled our hair out with this issue on a friend's '03 SAN and finally gave up and just run in RPM mode, which does seem to give a consistent pull. If you figure it out, please share.

Guys, this is unacceptable.

I was thinking of you all the other day while I was pulling someone at 21.3 mph with accuracy within 0.1 most of the time. No perception of hunting - just a fantastic pull.

Something is wrong with your systems. Either PP has issues or the install has issues. It would be good to figure this out.

Since your systems are under warranty, you should be able to take the boat to the dealer and tell them to fix it (replacing everything if needed).

definitely should not be doing this. I just got back from a week at oroville, teaching kids of all abilities and sizes to board. I was using PP at speeds varying from 8.5 (wakesurfing) to the 12-16 range for lightweight beginners to 22 for the more advanced kids and just about everything inbetween, without issue.

have you taken the boat to West Coast? They know what they're doing... good luck,

Wes

My PP on my 03 VLX can hold speeds (any speeds) only varies during the pull are like .1 or .2

The only time I have experienced this is with the boat (X-10) really weighted down with ice chests and a lot of people, and we were going slower than usually because there was a beginner in back... it seamed more the boats fault than the PP. It was at a spead where the boat would just plane, then the PP would cut the throttle, and the boat would slow too quickly, and the PP thought that it was slowed by the driver (I am assuming).

Something I encounter more often:
Another possible issue is the location of the sensor. My buddies PP on his X-Star ('01) is in the back of the boat (we never have issues with his), mine is in the middle... which I think is part of my problem (due to the deep V)... as the boat goes over wakes, and then comes down, the sensor makes the boat think it is going too slow/fast (I can see this because the speed reading jumps one way or the other, until the boat settles).

I have played quite a bit with the KDW and the NN, I haven't found a great combo yet either. Although stock works pretty good for me. I would love to be able to try the sensor in the back of the boat to see if that is the problem with my PP.

Food for thought, good luck

william you could do a test and put a bunch of weight/people in the front to hold it down and see if it clears up, or have you already tried this??

I'm having similar problems re: PP not holding tight (e.g. varies +/- .7 mph) on my '02 X Star. I've played with the NN and kdw setting for a slight improvement, but still not acceptable. I haven't looked to see if the paddle wheel is aligned properly or if something might be interfering with the flow of water. The servo installation is fine.

On my 95 Sport Nautique, the PP speed varied by only .1 mph...

I have experienced three boats with PP problems in the past month. Two of the owners have since solved the issue, but drove another boat this past weekend with major PP issues. In the boat this weekend, I would set PP for 22mph, accelerate out of the hole and pull the throttle back when I got close to 22. PP would engage, then slam the throttle and speed up to 23-24.5mph, then let off and slow to 20-21 before finally settling in a range of 21-23mph. It never held a consistent speed, as it was always speeding up and slowing down. It seemed to be stressing the engine as well, because it would let off, then floor it to catch back up, and repeat the cycle over. I would physically speed up through the tight turns and return the boat to 22 manually when we straightened out, but it wouldn't stay there. They played with the settings some, but could never get it figured out. This boat was not heavily weighted, just a little over 1000lbs total, three people, and an intermediate rider. Any ideas?
Later
Tiffany Landry
www.wakechicks.com

I had a problem with my PP, wouldn't hold speeds below 26 and then would surge a lot. Did yours do that from the start, or is it something that started happening after a while?

In my case it wes the paddle wheel shaft was bent, at slow speeds it would not turn right, but at higher speeds the wheel freed up. This was due to the boat setting on the trailer bunks wrong one time, it can also happen from using a lift that has different bunk spacing than your trailer.

It's probably either that or the install was not done right, maybe the paddle wheel is not alligned properly. Call PP, they have a great trouble shooting team.

GOOD LUCK

The most common PP problems are :

1) paddle wheel. Make sure it spins freely and always reads out the correct speed on the digital readout. If not, fix it or have it fixed.

2) Servo motor cable. Make absolutely certain that the PP can smoothly engage the throttle. Do this by
a) turn everything off
b) push the throttle halfway down
c) go to the motor. Turn the PP knob left and right while watching the engine throttle. If it moves smoothly with you, great. If it sticks even a little, the PP cable has too tight a radius and the PP motor must be moved to relieve the tension in the cable.

I've been out on several boats with "factory installed" perfectpass systems with the latter problem. Some folks have had them into the shop 3-4 times and still not fixed. I move the motor two inches one way or the other on the hose it's clamped to and presto!

Yeah, I have (had??) this problem on my 03 SAN.

First off, I think that Correct Craft has a problem with where they install the paddle wheel. If my boat is going straight it does fine (now that I have it adjusted) but any turn at all and the boat either speeds up or slows down dramatically. I believe that when the boat starts a turn there is a wave of water from the keel that washes over the paddle wheel, disturbing its ability to sense the speed.

Ignoring that basic problem for a moment, my SAN was delivered with the Perfect Pass set up in a totally unusable configuration. Like yours, it would hunt and wander all over the place. This was a terrible dissappointment to me, as my last Nautique would hold 0.1 MPH in most situations.

I improved mine a lot by changing a couple of the adjustments in the Perfect Pass unit. Get your manual out and read the section on how to do this, as I forget the exact sequence. There are two buttons that you have to push together to get into the adjustment mode, then there are two parameters that will effect how your unit responds.

The first is what is referred to as the K factor. Essentially, this factor says "if the boat speed changes by "x" amount, adjust the throttle "k" amount. If this number is too high, then the unit will over correct for speed changes.

The other factor I believe is called the "N" factor. This is a filter for the paddle wheel, and sets how many samples of the paddle wheel it uses to calculate the speed. A larger number is more accurate, but it takes longer for it to figure out how fast you are going. If the throttle setting is wrong, and the boat is changing speed, having too large of a N factor will allow it to get too far out before it makes a correction.

I had to make some pretty large changes in both of these numbers before I started getting acceptable results. I need to play with mine some more, but it is a lot better than it was. None of the adjustments made any difference to the speed change on turns, however.

I was talking to a guy in Sacramento that apparently is the west coast PP specialist for CC. The 03 SAN has a problem with the paddle wheel placement. It's a well known problem apparently but I don't know if they have a a solution.

Also, you might want to be careful with your motor cover. Shaun Murray had to have his replaced and another guy actually had his blow off while towing. Apparently they can pop open and then the force of the wind can either bend it back or break it off.

With the perfect pass off, push the up and down arrows at the same time. This will bring up the Kw screen, make sure it is set up around 90-100. If it is down around 60 the boat will surge back and forth.

I'm still having issues with my PP on my 02 Xstar. I can use it in RMP mode and it works fine but can't use it in speed mode. I prefer speed mode though. When I have it in rpm mode it doesn't clock the speed either. Has anyone else with a MC xstar had this pp issue?

debbie:

It your PP isn't showing you the speed, then the paddle wheel isn't working. Without the speed indication, speed based control will never work.

The paddle wheel unit is easily removed from the bottom of the boat. If you are not already familiar with it, it is easier to find by looking under the boat when it is on the trailer. It will be in the back half of the boat, off to one side of center. It will sort of look like the other through hull fittings, but if you look closely you will see the the paddle wheel in the middle. Or maybe you won't see the paddle wheel, because it is missing and that's your problem!

Anyway, my PP sending paddle wheel is black, and everything else sticking through the boat is either white or bronze, so it is fairly obvious.

Once you find it, go inside the boat and find it. It will be about 4 inches tall, about 3" in diameter, have a wire coming out of the center. There will be a large collar that threads down the outside. This is a hand tighten thing, so reach down and unscrew that collar. There should be a smaller steel ring at the top, that is where you loop your finger through to pull the unit out. It should come out fairly easily.

When you bought your boat and/or PP, you should have received a dummy plug that you can put back into that hole (did you wonder what that was and throw it away?). If you are on a trailer, no problem. If your boat is in the water, you have just opened up a 2" hole in the bottom of your boat so you will want to get that dummy plug in PDQ. Don't panic, you can fumbled around for a few minutes before enough water to matter will get in.

Now that you have the paddle wheel out take a close look at it. You should be able to freely spin the little paddle wheel. I suspect that some little critter has taken up residence in there and is blocking the paddle wheel.

If you leave your boat in the water a lot, this is bound to happen. One safegaurd for this would be to remove the paddle wheel and replace it with the dummy plug when you are done using the boat for the day/weekend.

It will make replacing the unit a little easier if you lube it up with a little vasoline or similar lubricant.

Rod, thanks for the good info. I had MC look at it and the paddle wheel spins freely and looks normal....yet not picking up? He thinks there might be an issue with the whole harness that MC installs. I will hoepfully know what's up this week!