Thoughts on 2013 Tigé R20 -- too entry level?

[cboshdave]

I am looking at a clean 2013 Tigé R20. What I understand so far is that the R20 is more of an entry level surf boat. Tigé left off a few things to make it cheaper. Generally, I'm fine with that. I am curious about a couple things though.
1. The 303 HP motor sounds a little small? Will I have enough to do what I need to do? Will I regret it? Does anyone know the top speed of this boat? Sometimes we explore at Powell. That's a lot of lake to cover at 25 mph.
2. Can we do add-ons that will make entry level a little better? Wake shaper? Additional sacks? Is the R20 plummed to add more ballast or will that all be external/manual from the existing system?

Other than that, I'm pretty excited to give it a try!

Thanks,
Dave

[chpthril]

Can we do add-ons that will make entry level a little better? Wake shaper? Additional sacks? Is the R20 plummed to add more ballast or will that all be external/manual from the existing system?

The difference between the R20 and RZR was available "bling" like options. Same hull, vinyl, carpet, etc. You could get same engine upgrade, same ballast level, etc. So nothing excluded that would make the RZR perform better

As to the add-ons. Wake shaper, or the VX hull extension as it was called, was an option, but cant remember when it was first released, so if its not there, it may not checked on build sheet, removed or just not available yet. Honestly, id not pursue one at this point.

Additional sacs. The boat could have been optioned with no ballast, base level 900 or Surf level 1600. Same as what was available on the more optioned RZR. However, PnP plumbing was not an option on any tige boat in 2013. But, if it has the stock 350# above floor surf sacs, they can be upgraded to about a 1000# sac.

As to the engine. I think you are going to have a real struggle to make this a surf machine, and on the same trip, cruise the lake at high speeds with any degree of fuel efficiency. With the right prop, this boat can run 50 mph, but its not going to surf well loaded with ballast and crew. On the flip side, the perfect prop and it will surf great, but you lose top speed and gain high rpm.

[cboshdave]

Thanks! That is helpful. I think I am going to try it!

Dave

[Ironrequiem]

I had a 2015 R20 and started with additional ballast bags to surf with. That quickly became old manually filling additional bags.
So I changed out the port rear ballast to 1000lb ballast, bought lead bags and used a surf gate. Otherwise basically stock R20 and it did pretty good for surf and had a top speed of 45 mph.
Although we were not concerned with top speed as much as cruise control for surf and wakeboarding.
Recently traded for a 17 Z1 for the convenience of Taps 3 - no surf gate, Touch screen control and Electric tower.
Life on the water is so much easier with these options, less work to have more fun.
But the R20 was a great starter boat for us.

[bsreid]

I ran a 2014 r20 for a couple years, put 400 hours on it. Was a great boat no doubt. Definitely recommend being prepared to swap out the rear bags to get some more meat to the wave. Only thing I would be hesitant about is the 303 engine we had the indmar 335 and with the correct prop it was more than enough. Now I have heard the 335 indmar was a big jump in power from the standard 303 pcm.

[sandm]

not a tige but my first boat was a 20ft. stepping up to a 22 I'd be pretty hard pressed to go back to a 20ft.
my .02 is spend a little more coin to get a larger boat as it's cheaper in the long run than trading up later.

either way good luck and post up what ya find.

[cboshdave]

Thanks all! I did it. We surfed last night. Wave not huge but should be a good starter for us. Boat generally ran well. A couple small problems I will see if I can get suggestions on in another post. I think it's exactly as stated, we will start with this and work up in a couple years. I'm stoked. The boat performed well! Compared to my 2001 celebrity it really jumped with more power (even though this is a smaller engine).

Thanks again! I'll be on this site a lot!

cboshdave