Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

Hey group- I have a 2015 A22 and want to upgrade to GPS. I've seen people mention Zero Off and wanted to know which system I need. I contacted them directly and they said I need to contact Malibu but they don't have a customer service line. Waiting to hear from my local dealer but wanted to also know what everyone's thoughts are on GPS vs. Paddle Wheel. I currently have some surging issues and was told to also take a look at Tachometer but the dealer said they never heard of a tach going bad in a boat that is so new. Have just over 200 hours. Was told it might have purchased bad gas as well. Want to get this figured out before the season starts. Thanks!

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Have had zero-off GPS in a prior boat and the built-in paddlewheel in my 2014 A22. Both work well, and I prefer the wheel in since I run in a 2mph river and I needed to shift the speed in the GPS and the paddle wheel does not make me shift speed depending on my direction (upriver vs downriver).

Surging is not caused by the method of speed detection - in my experience. It has only happened to me when there was an improper throttle setting. Since automatic boat speed controls work by reducing throttle (opposite of an automobile version), the throttle lever setting determines the maximum "loop gain", or how much the cruise control can move the throttle. If the throttle lever is set too high, the system can apply excessive power and overshoot the selected speed, which causes the system to reduce the throttle and, once it drops below speed, it can overdo the throttle once again, causing an oscillating speed. Reducing the throttle to only give it enough to accelerate through the set speed, will fix this.

I prefer to pull my skier, boarder, surfer up to speed by manually adjusting the throttle to achieve the pull I want to apply. As such, when I am approaching final speed the throttle is only barely above the setting that holds the speed. Then as I cross the set speed I barely notice the transition to automatic control. If I have a lot of folks i the boat who move around lot, I will give a tiny amount more throttle as it takes over. If I just punch the throttle and leave it, it is a less comfortable pull for the boarder, it will have a big overshoot in speed followed by a dramatic throttle-down and subsequent throttle-up, an depending on boat loading, continued hunting or surging.

When I use the cruise as a fine adjustment after reaching speed, I almost never get any detectable speed wander.

YMMV