GS22 with H5 at 4200'

[josh22]

All,
I currently own a 2009 Sanger V215 and am considering upgrading to a 2017 GS22. The boat is used but in good shape. My two biggest concerns are the surf wake and the fact that it comes with the H5 (ZZ5). The boat will be primarily used on Lake Powell at about 4200' elevation. I've read quite a bit about the surf wake and an guessing that I can dial in an adequate surf wake but I'm concerned that the H5 will be a little underpowered at this elevation. Any experience?

[kodiak]

I could be wrong but I thought Powell was 3600 feet that is how they measure how high the water is. https://lakepowell.water-data.com/

[idahosan]

We demoed an ‘18 with the h5 @ 5005’ ele and it was meh but I expect a lot. It had pro ballast installed and it would surf and board but I felt like it struggled. You could probably change props and gain some low but how much top are you willing to sacrifice? We ordered a ‘19 w/ h6 and it is a blast to drive. I have pro ballast and 400 lbs of leadwake all through the boat. Not once did I feel like I was running out of throttle, not even close. My only issue was with slalom starts. I felt like I was dragging a little longer than I liked. I now have the wakemakers exact fit bags and will be removing 250lbs of leadwake. I have no doubt the h6 will push it, the h5 would definitely struggle if it could do it. kylant will have better insight.

[josh22]

Thanks idahosan. I don't really want to give up any top end. Sounds like it's probably borderline. So you felt you needed at to add at least 1000lbs to stock ballast for a good surf wave? The boat I'm looking at doesn't have the pro ballast so I'll have to factor that as well when evaluating it.

[kylant]

hello,
my experiences:
I had a '17 GS20 with the ZR4 and ran it at Lake Tahoe, lake elevation 6285 ft. When the boat had full ballast (no pro ballast) and 4 or more people in it, it really struggled to get to, and maintain surf speed. There is no way it would get to wakeboard speed. I worked with Acme all summer and tried 3 different props. We found one that was about as good as it was going to get. I hated it. I did take the boat down to a lake at about 200 ft elevation to test. The boat was a rocket and had no issues. The elevation definitely killed it. I sold that boat and ordered a GS22 with the H6.

This new boat with the H6 is awesome. I have (had) pro ballast in this boat. I ran at a lake at 6500 ft all last summer. Never once did it struggle when fully loaded down and up to 10 people in the boat. I never repropped, running the stock one.

At the end of the summer I replaced the proballast bags with bigger Wakemakers bags (800#) each. The boat did fine at lower elevation lakes, but I did notice there was a slight struggle at a 4800 ft, fully loaded with 4 people in the boat. Not much struggle, but there. This again was with the stock prop. I am now back at 6500ft elevation and expect I will have to reprop slightly.

My suggestion is this:
Demo the H5 fully loaded with several people in it. Surf and wakeboard it if you can. Make your decision from there.
I see many GS22 boats with the H5 and ZR4 (which I don't understand).
I love the H6 and personally would not have a boat with a smaller engine.

[idahosan]

Thanks idahosan. I don't really want to give up any top end. Sounds like it's probably borderline. So you felt you needed at to add at least 1000lbs to stock ballast for a good surf wave? The boat I'm looking at doesn't have the pro ballast so I'll have to factor that as well when evaluating it.

Does it “need” another 1k lbs? No, but the wave gets much much better the more weight you throw in the stern. kylant i switched to a 2773 to get more torque and quicker slalom starts. Should give more throttle for surfing as well. I hopefully will get out in the next couple weeks to test.