- Location
- Bay City, Texas
Ok, so... to understand where I'm coming from... I'm 25 years old, virtually no experience riding PWCs other than renting or borrowing from friends. I just moved to the Texas gulf coast not too long ago from up north. I been racing motocross since I was a kid, so I'm very comfortable with motorsports in general, even more comfortable working on motors. I have limited experience working on PWC engines... not to the extent that I know motocross bikes, but enough to know my way around a STX/ZXI...... about 2 weeks ago, one of the guys I work with says he's lookin to get rid of these two boats that have been sitting in his shed for 3 years, neither of them run anymore... I traded him some of my guns for both of them with the trailer. They are both sit-down PWC's... Kawi STX 1100 (1999 I believe, no DI) and a Polaris 1200. These are both way too big for what I need or want... for the same reason I would rather ride a dirt bike than an ATV, I decided I need to convert at least one of them to a stand-up. After a few days of researching all of the hulls and the capabilities of different hulls and different engines I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed and I figured it would be best to ask the community rather than try to figure this out for myself.... basically I would like to take the 1100 motor out of my STX and stuff it into a stand-up hull. And although I am nowhere near experienced enough to start flipping and barrel rolling in flat water, I would like to build a ski that will have those capabilities once I do get more experience on it. From what I've read on here and seen elsewhere, there are plenty of people that have done this that probably have a wealth of knowledge to share about the best ways to do it and the basic components that I will need.... so I guess my question to you all is where do I start? what hulls should I be looking for (on a total project budget of <$4k over the next year) what accommodations do I need to make for the 1100 engine etc. where do I go from here?
