Challenger?

[forrestk12]

I am looking at getting a 1997 or 98 challenger 1800 with the twin 110 engines , and i would like to know yalls opinion on them. i love to ski tube and kneeboard and i have recently started to wakeboard. How reliable are they and is the wake really as small as people make it out to be?.any help would be gratfully apreciated.

 

[seadoosnipe]

Wake?

Hello Forrest and welcome to the Seadoo forum. We're glad you dropped in!
I have the 1997 Seadoo Challenger, which is the smaller version to the 1800. I love it and I know there is another member here, KustomKarl who also owns and loves his!...They are great on the water for all types of water sports. They out maneuver any prop driven boat in any class. They'd probably even out maneuver the Mastercrafts!.......
The boat your looking at is a nice boat. It has it's pro's and con's as does any boat. The pro's.....you have two engines so that if one fails, you can always get back to the launch. The con's.....some have made post that the turning and maneuvering isn't as nibble because you don't have independent control of the thrust. In other words, when you push the control lever to forward, both engines go forward. In a twin engine application, they are best in maneuvering if you can put one engine in forward and one in reverse. The ease in backing away from the dock or just turning a slow speed turn is increased 2 fold if that was possible.
If I had to do it all over again, I think I'd choose the 1800. Its a realible boat. Oh, and yeah, it's true. The wake behind the jet drive boats is minimal. But you can make a bit of a wake by setting your VTS (variable trim system) to the high speed plane position (nozzle facing upward). This aims your jets upward a little creating a little better a wake. I usually like to wait until a boat passes me from the opposite direction and hit his oncoming wake!....makes for some good jumps!

 

[doodaddy]

is this the same for all 1800's, or have they improved over the years as far as the wake is concerned. Mine has the single engine 240 hp and I am beginning to wakeboard also. It is to cold still to see how it runs but I am looking forward to finding out very soon.

 

[kustomkarl]

Doodaddy you should have no problem as a Seadoo Jet Boat has little wake because of the jet position. I have a 1997 Challenger single 787 and I just bought a brand new 200 Speedster/ with 2, 4-tec engines, which It is unbelievable. The smaller Challenger is quite nimble in the water and quick off the bottom because of the 2 stroke engine, but the twin I understand is much better from the bottom end pulling hard with 2 engines. You shouldn't be disappointed with the performance of the 1800.

 

[seadoosnipe]

Welcome!

Welcome to the Seadoo forum. Glad you dropped in!....Your question would be hard for me to answer, since I don't own one. But with all that were made, there haven't been many users in the forum complaining about them.
Sea-Doo and Mercury came together again in the year 2000 with their Challenger 1800 series M-2 (V-6) jet drive engines. These engines, at that time, were built just for the jet drives for Sea-Doo. Before the M-2, the last 787cc engines were used in the 1999 models. The last year the 1800 Challenger had the M-2 was in 2004, after that, the Challenger 1800 went back to Rotax with the 1503 4-TEC engines and have been with them since.
In the “problem solver” section you’ll see a thread called “steering”. This is a thread started by a guy with an 1800 who is having some problem with his boat pulling hard to the left (I think, he may have said to the right). His boat is equipped with an aftermarket hydraulic trim tab that bolts up to the jet pump. Seems easy to install and if it’s adjusted right, should help in planning out faster and holding the nose down to prevent porpoiseing. This is a link to that web-site that he provided. Go take a look, they have some good pix. It may be worth the investment, since it can be installed by the average Joe!....its http://www.placediverter.com/index.php?page=mercury and is only usable on the M-2 version of the 1800 Challengers.