Animal on an F1X? / Pro Ski Coach Water Ski Forum

outofthesaddle · #1 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:34 PM

Sorry for the rookie question but I couldn't find the answer with a search. Is there an easy way to mount a rear '07 Animal on my '09 F1Xi? If there is an easy way to do it, I was hoping to mount it tonight and ski a few sets tomorrow.

WadeWilliams · #2 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:39 PM

If I'm not mistaken you've got a problem with the rear 2 holes? The front 2 holes of the back binding fit up OK but not the back ones?

The only "easy" way to fix the problem is to drill a couple holes in the binding plate. This is hard to make an exact process.

You'll need to mark the bottom of the plate by putting the front 2 screws in and then peeping inbetween the plate and the ski to mark where your holes will go.

Hopefully the binding isn't in the way of where the holes need to go. (the HO holes should be behind where the Connelly patern is, right?)

Let me know if this makes sense. Take some pictures use the Image Uploader if you need some more specific help.

HO410 · #3 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:39 PM

Unfortunately, the HO plate tapers off behind the heel. I do not believe there is any metal where Connelly places the rear inserts.

If you have a connelly boot laying around, you transfer the HO boot onto the Connelly plate with a minimum of fuss. If you don't have a connelly boot then you are out of luck for today, but you can either contact Connelly or wileyski.com and they will set you up with a plate that will fit your boot.

Last edited by HO 410 (Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:43 PM)

outofthesaddle · #4 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:48 PM

I have a Draft boot - how can I mount the HO to the Draft plate? I don't have it with at the so I'm going from memory - but I remember that the holes in the plates don't match up either...

outofthesaddle · #5 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:57 PM

Sorry - re-read my last post and realized it wasn't very clear. I remember looking at the bottom of both bindings last night and think that the hole patterns that mount the boots to the plates were different on the Animal and the Draft.

WadeWilliams · #6 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:10 PM

You'll need to drill new holes in the draft plate to accomadate the animal boot. A countersink bit will be helpful too

outofthesaddle · #7 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:17 PM

Thanks for the input - I'll bust out the drill and give it a try tonight.

WadeWilliams · #8 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:21 PM

Measure 5 or 6 times, drill once.

HO410 · #9 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:41 PM

I was able to put a Vision onto an HO plate and an HO onto a Vision plate without modifying either plate.
Connelly hasn't made the vision in several years so it is conceivable that current plates are machined different.
That's not much help if the machining of the plates has changed, but Wades solution is definitely doable.

Last edited by HO 410 (Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:42 PM)

outofthesaddle · #10 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:42 PM

Hopefully I won't be posting a question tomorrow about where to buy a replacement plate... : )

WadeWilliams · #11 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 8:53 PM

I hope not!!!

Why don't you do us all a favor -- Take lots of pictures during the process! I'm hoping that you're enough of a craftsman to get it right the first time. It would be a great tutorial for the next person who comes a long with the same question -- we'll host it here on the site.

outofthesaddle · #12 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 9:22 PM

I can take pics of the process but based on my lack of craftsmanship, I suspect it'll be more valuable as a warning rather than a tutorial. "Don't do what this guy did!"

Thomas Wayne · #13 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 9:50 PM

edit

Last edited by Thomas Wayne (Mon, Oct 5, 2009 8:23 PM)

WadeWilliams · #14 Thu, Oct 1, 2009 10:37 PM

now just get the pics to go with TDubs article and we're good!

outofthesaddle · #15 Mon, Oct 5, 2009 3:05 AM

OK - So I chickened out on doing the plate switch on Thur afternoon. When I laid the HO binding on my F1X, at first it looked like: (i) the front holes were going to match the inserts, and (ii) the plate was long enough so that I would be able to drill two holes to match the rear inserts. I liked this approach better because all the work was done to the new HO biding (which I got cheap) and if it didn't work, I could mount Draft and ski. On closer examination, I realized that the front holes don't actually line up and I was going to have to remove some material between the existing holes to make them larger.

Because there seemed to be plenty of opportunities for me to screw up while hacking the plate with a Dremmel, I took a look at option 2 - mate the plate from my old Draft on the new HO boot. I removed all the screws holding the plate on the bottom of the draft and it was still pretty firmly stuck on the boot. It seems that the plate is glued to the boot in several places. I started tugging on it and it was stuck on well enough that I was concerned that I was going to damage the boot getting the plate off. I stopped yanking when I realized that if I ruined the Draft and couldn't mount the HO, I wasn't going to be doing any skiing the next day. I decided hold off 'till I had some time to fix it if something went wrong and not miss a ski day. I remounted the Drafts and had a great day skiing with the family

2gofaster · #16 Mon, Oct 5, 2009 12:38 PM

Wiley's makes plates that replace the bottom plate on the HO and allow you to mount it to a Conelly ski. Simple and quick.

WadeWilliams · #17 Mon, Oct 5, 2009 1:48 PM

If you can drill holes in the HO plate to match the inserts, that's your best bet. Take the two plates and put them bottom-to-bottom. Use a drill, centerpunch, or marker to make a mark where you'll drill the hole in the HO plate to match the connelly pattern. That's about as straightforward as you can get.

Atleast you still got out on the water!

Post some pictures and we'll give you as much help as we can.