Sanger V210 - what options/weighting/salt water

I'm sure this set of questions have been asked in various forms zillions of times, but I didn't want to pick through all the posts piecing together fragments...

If I order a factory new, Sanger V-210, and I'm going to run it in salt water (yes, salt! flame away. I love it.), what options do I want? Galvanized trailer? Flush kit? Should I get all of the factory ballasts, or just some? Will I need to supplement the factory ballasts to get a wake equivelant in size/quality to my '97 Sunsetter with the wedge down and 5 people?

... p.s. not interest in stereo-related stuff.

Yes on the Galvanized trailer

Yes on a flush kit.

Closed cooling system.

Get all the ballast and add more for a GREAT wake. I would run at least 1200 pounds but more is better.

Open a new savings account for new exhaust manifolds,risers brakes etc.

Absolutely get a galvanized trailer. Get a closed loop cooling system. There are two kinds, half closed and full closed. While half closed is significantly cheaper, and smaller components, your exhaust manifolds will be sacrificed every few years. So make sure you factor that into the math. If you choose to only have a flush kit go with Flush Pro and ski/ride and get out. Don't hang out in the boat all day and your boat will last more than twice as long.

Make sure the bilge pump works really well, upgrade gph if nec. You'll want to keep the bilge as dry as possible to keep the salt water off of your tranny and oil pan.

Put an anode at least on your drive shaft, if not your rudder too. Make sure Sanger uses all stainless steel staples and other hardware or else you'll have rust marks every where. Expect issues with the factory ballast motors unless you initially upgrade to pumps that can handle salt well.

Good point from WCW on brakes. Make sure the trailer comes with good GalvX type discs. Drums are a nightmare in salt. Expect to reqire your trailer every few years if it doesn't come with expensive waterproof connectors - few trailer mfrs use them.

Salt isn't the acid most think it is. You just have to prep the boat in the first place and wash/flush like a mad man.

I'm not sure whether the full closed is worth it. My family had a half closed Carver in salt water year round that burned through manifolds and risers every 800 hours or so. The key is quality components.
But I've never seen the price for full closed so maybe it's worth not having to worry.

The salesman at the dealership told me that one of the engine manufacturers did a test to determine whether there was real value to closed cooling by running 2 engines for the same amount of time in salt vs fresh water, and doing the flush to the one run in salt water, of course. He said that they found no differences in terms of engine life. I don't know why he would have told me that if it wasn't true, given that closed cooling would cost more, and I don't use my dealer for service (too far away).

I run my '97 Malibu in salt water 95% of the time, always flushing with salt-away, and haven't had any mechanical problems with the engine that are attributable to salt. It's always an incidental item, like a cable or a pump or something simple. Others I've talked to say the same thing. Someone always has a story about a 20 year old engine run in salt, still running strong... kinda like the "wood is bad" thing... so, then, why are trees made of it

If I were buying a new boat to use in salt, I'd put on a half closed system. I bought a MC that had been used in salt, so I continued using it in salt and just flushing with Salt-A-Way. I did replace the exhaust manifolds and risers.

In a non-salt related issue I replaced the heads on the engine and was VERY pleased to see how clean the cooling chambers were in the engine. So, your dealer isn't lying to you. You can do quite well with a boat if you ski & get out & flush. It would have been nice to be able to hang out with the boat in the water not worrying about how much corrosion occurs every ten minutes. Having a driver that was a chemistry major can do that though.

At least get the galvanized trailer so you don't have to refurbish/paint your steel trailer every couple of years.

Tim, if you can afford it, get an aluminum channel trailer, not a galvenized. Galvenized is a hot dip over a steal trailer and is still vulnerable to rust at certain points on the trailer. trailers get dinged up, it doesn't take much. Once scratches or dings occur, your trailer is now vulnerable to corrosion/rust.
I had a galvenized trailer in Hawaii and it still had rust spots on it and it was only 2-3 years old at the time.


As far as running the boat in saltwater. I ran my Malibu Sportster LX and Wakesetter VLX in saltwater and was VERY anal about certain things. Don't let one session of riding go by where you ignore soaping everything down, salt away flush, wash trailer down anytime it touches the salt water, etc..... That one time ignored, is where it all starts going wrong.

I used about a half can of wd-40 on the engine and trailer after every time I took it out on the water. Sometimes that was 3-4 times per week. Who cares if your engine gets all gunked up with WD-40, atleast you have a layer of protection over it. After I moved to Arizona with my Wakesetter, I realized that I was so anal and now recognize that my boat looks better than some of these other boats around here that have been in fresh water.

Spraying WD-40 on the trailer sounds like a great way to pollute the water.

Try CRC heavy duty corrosion inhibitor on your engine instead of WD. Apply once a year instead of every time.

It's a good idea to put a nice big glob of silicone over the ends of you electrical terminals too. Even if the terminals look fine the wire can fail internally from the salt leaching it's way up the wire. I had it happen on a few of my saltwater boats.

yup, I even did the heavy duty corrosion inhibitor once a year too. I used a product from West Marine in Hawaii called BullFrog. It was some nasty thick stuff, but it worked. That's how anal I was about it. I not only applied that, but used WD-40 on the engine as well. Maybe that's too anal, but....

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