Spring is almost here, and you want your Sea-Doo to be ready to hit the water without issues. That’s where XPS products come into play. It’s easy to blow off maintenance during the winter months because of the old adage: out of sight, out of mind. If you’ve kept it out in the elements, you definitely want to hit the outside with the XPS Spray Wax so it doesn’t lose its sheen or break down due to UV rays. Now to get down to the business of cleaning.
Sea-Doo has a list of the Top 5 Maintenance and Care Products. These things are vital to keeping your machine looking good and running great. The number one tip is an oil change, which you should perform annually or every 100 hours. Use the XPS Oil Change Kit, which includes everything you need for a complete oil change.
Next, is the XPS Marine Multi Surface & Glass Cleaner. This waterless solution can be sprayed on all your seats, dashboards, lights, plastic, chrome, vinyl, and more. Simply spray it and wipe with a clean cloth. For tougher stains, use XPS All Purpose Cleaner & Degreaser. This is a great product for surface stains above and below deck.
We’ve already covered the XPS Spray Wax, so we’ll move onto the final item, which is XPS Vinyl and Plastic UV Protectant. This is easy to apply. Just spray it on the surface you want to protect, spread it with a cloth, and wait five minutes before wiping off the excess. Give it an hour or two to dry and you’re good to go.
For the new 2022+ Kawasaki Ultra 310 platform, Kspeed has two options for their ECU tune. You can either send yours in, have it tuned and returned or you can order a brand new factory ECU from Kspeed in Brisbaine, Australia and have it shipped to your home.
The installation process is the same for either of them. Literally all you need is a 10mm socket. First thing that you want to do is remove the 6 push rivets from the side panel in the bow storage. Attached to the inside of that panel is the stock ECU. Unplug the 2 plugs from the ECU; one black and one gray. The only thing left to uninstall is to unscrew the 2 10mm screws and lift it out.
If you ordered a new ECU, be sure to keep the keys for the stock ECU together and put away someplace safe. Place the ECU back on the panel, screw in the 2 10mm screws, plug in the 2 wire harnesses and place the panel back. Insert the 6 push rivets and off you go! However, if you bought a new ECU to be tuned by Kspeed, you now need to initialize the keys. Luckily, this process is just as simple.
Put in either key, listen to the beep and you should see a “key” icon flash on the bottom left of your display panel. Take the key out and let the screen go black. Have both keys ready as the rest of the process is time sensitive. First, insert one of your keys (does not matter which one) into the ignition and quick press it in once. You will hear the double beep that you are familiar with.
There will be a short break and then a quick single beep. Remove the key and follow the same process with your second key. After those beeps, push the key back in and hold it until you hear a long beep. Remove the key, let the screen black out and we are done. Remember, keep the keys to the appropriate ECU or your new 2022+ Kawasaki Ultra 310 will not start. It’s truly that easy!
The 2023 Sea-Doo Explorer Pro 170 is coming in hot after the Sea-Doo Switch was named Boat of the Year by Boating Magazine. Gear Junkie usually sticks to overland vehicles when determining their annual best adventure vehicles. This year they got their hands on a Sea-Doo Explorer Pro, their first test of an “overwatering” adventure machine.
“Overwatering” might not be an official phrase yet, like overlanding, but the idea of getting away from civilization is familiar to most adventurists.
Now, there’s a watercraft built for multi-day excursions, straight from the factory, that goes where boats can’t go. The Explorer Pro 170 is for the serious adventurer who wants to go the distance and beyond.
It can haul a huge amount of gear with all its storage and specialized compartments. The Gear Junkie crew tested it in heavy water and also took it on multi-day excursions to see what it could do. They were impressed with the amount of storage and its surprisingly good fuel efficiency.
They were impressed with the seat, which made for a nice ride when heading out on a 2-day, 150-mile trip from Fernandina Beach to St. Augustine and back. They left the dock with a lot of gear and full tanks of fuel. Everything was secure onboard with the LinQ system.
The windshield was nice for cutting the early morning chill and minimizing noise from the wind. A drawback of the windshield was that it’s almost impossible to see through when covered in saltwater spray.
Check out their review for more in-depth details about the Gear Junkie experience on the 2023 Sea-Doo Explorer Pro 170.
We have sad news out of Perth, Australia. 16-year-old Stella Berry was killed by a shark in the Swan River. She and her friends were out riding jet skis on the river and having a good time when Berry saw a pod of dolphins. She then jumped off her jet ski to swim with them and that is when the shark got her as her friends watched the tragic event take place.
The Australian fisheries minister Don Punch said it was too early to confirm what type of shark was responsible for the girl’s death. It is most likely a bull shark because they are notorious for making their way into brackish water and even some freshwater rivers. Incidents like this one are rare in the Swan River, said Punch and this is only the seventh known incident in this location. The last fatal case was in January of 1923 when a bull shark killed a 13-year-old boy. Fatal shark incidents are rare in Australia. There was one in 2022 and two in 2021.
A tribute from the Berry family shared with the Sydney Morning Herald described the high school student as their “beautiful daughter who was a vibrant and happy girl with plans of living in Europe after school.” We send our condolences and sympathies to the Berry family.
HP Tuners is now available in the GreenHulk Store at a discounted price! HP Tuners is one of the most popular tuning options in the automotive world and recently added support for BRP vehicles powered by the Bosch 17.8.5 ECU (which includes most of the Sea-Doo models).
Having the capability to use HP Tuners will open up a new world and opportunity for individuals wanting to do their own tuning; this is quite a powerful tool with many capabilities commonly found on more expensive standalone ECU options.
Powersports Diagnostic and Calibration Support Features and Benefits:
Get access to more and better-defined parameters than our competitors with VCM Editor.
Experience the quickest read and write times for BRP applications.
Monitor your performance and collect data with state-of-the-art data logging and scanning capabilities using VCM Scanner.
Connect, read, edit, and write directly through your diagnostic port with our BRP and Polaris-specific OBDII Adapter Cables.
Do it all with VCM Suite-custom tune for more power (more boost), adjust speed limiters, and adjust torque management and driver demand tables for increased throttle response with full control over air, fuel, and spark.
Save time and money with the ability to license and edit every HP Tuners-supported vehicle in your garage with a single MPVI2/2+ device and Universal Credits-tune your UTV, your truck, and your track car.
HP Tuners offers 3rd party Wideband sensors that can be wired in using Pro Link+ and PFS for data logging with VCM Scanner so you can have eyes on all your vehicle’s vitals.
All Sea-Doo vehicles require 4 Universal Credits and OBDII adapter cable! In the GreenHulk Store you will find a HP Tuners Sea-Doo bundle with everything needed to start tuning for $584.95. This package includes a new MPVI3, 4 Universal Credits, and the OBDII adapter cable. For monitoring AFR when data logging, the Pro Link+ cable is also required.
We are looking forward to experimenting with HP Tuners and we are offering 10% off to all GreenHulk customers for a limited time. HP Tuners is still relatively new in the powersports community; everyone will benefit by using the HP Tuners section of our forum to share ideas and ask questions.
The Watercraft Journal is always reviewing the latest in PWC performance and innovation, so it came as no surprise when they teamed up with JD from JD’s WaterWorld to take a first-hand look at the Supercharger Belt Tensioner with stainless-steel Idler Pulley from Kawi Performance (KP).
If you own an Ultra 300 or Ultra 310 then you are undoubtedly well-acquainted with the Supercharger Belt Tensioner assembly. Anyone who rides in salt water will appreciate the engineering that went into this innovative component, which was designed specifically to improve performance while reducing maintenance and downtime.
For readers scratching their heads at this point, all Kawasaki Ultra 310s are boosted by an Eaton Twin Vortices Series (TVS) belt-driven supercharger. As JetSkis jump in and out of the water, the engine and supercharger are subjected to extreme loads.
To reduce the shock of this load, Kawasaki engineers developed multiple dampening systems: One is integrated into a liquid-cooled supercharger gearbox; the other is the combination of a serpentine drive-belt and tensioner assembly.
The tensioner is designed to automatically release tension on the belt, which then allows a small amount of slip, thereby absorbing the shock of loading and unloading the jet pump. When the stock assembly binds, however, it fails to provide the proper tension needed, and allows the belt to experience an excessive amount of slip.
Kawi Performance has completely re-engineered the stock tensioner to fix this problem! These tensioners are made from billet aluminum with a black hard coat. They also include 303 stainless washers, 303 stainless bushings, 304 stainless snap rings, Viton seals with 316 stainless springs, and stainless bearings.
By utilizing sealed bearings instead of a pivot bushing, there is no longer the need to constantly disassemble and grease the tensioner. The KP tensioner provides an additional 5-10 pounds on the belt, which extends the belt’s life by reducing slippage.
While those looking to install the KP tensioner can use the stock steel pulley or an aftermarket aluminum pulley, The Watercraft Journal was provided with KP’s stainless steel pulley, complete with a stainless bearing and stainless dust guard. While steel pulleys rust and aluminum pulleys pit and corrode, the KP idler is made of marine-grade stainless steel. The idler includes a pre-installed stainless bearing.
Bearings are replaceable as many times as needed, and can be purchased from Kawi Performance. It is recommended that riders replace the idler pulley bearing each season to ensure peak performance. The KP Tensioner and pulley installs with the same hardware as the stock unit, and the process should not be difficult for those acquainted with performing regular maintenance on the Ultra 300 or 310.
Always inspect your belt closely, and replace when necessary to avoid a failure out on the water. Having a Kawasaki Ultra 300 or 310 service manual on-hand is always a good idea when performing maintenance or installations. We put together a comprehensive unboxing, installation, and overview video on the KP Tensioner Assembly below:
It seems that the days of dedicating one’s entire career to a single company (ie. “the company man”) are long since behind us. According to US Department of Labor, the average American worker has 12 jobs throughout a lifetime, and averages about 4.1 years with a single employer (a long way away from 30 years and a gold watch at retirement). Well, believe it or not, those modern statistics don’t stick with some people, including Senior Vice President of Sales & Operations, Bill Jenkins.
That is, until now. After a stories 34 years with Kawasaki Motor Corp. USA, Jenkins has announced his retirement from the Big K, which started back in 1988. Since that time, Jenkins has climbed the ladder, helping build and grow the Kawasaki brand for decades. After 13 years as SVP, Jenkins announced yesterday that he’ll be retiring at the end of March. Read the original press release HERE:
Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA, Senior Vice President of Sales & Operations, Bill Jenkins, announces his intentions to retire on March 31, 2023, after a distinguished 34-year career.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Bill started his career with Kawasaki in 1988 as a District Manager in the Metro New York and New Jersey market, where he resided for 13 years. During that time, he achieved the prestigious Kawasaki President’s Counsel award nine times and was named District Manager of the Year on two occasions.
In 1995, Bill was promoted to the Eastern Region Sales Director, eventually transitioning to National Sales Director for the US market. In 2010, he relocated to Kawasaki’s headquarters in Southern California and accepted the role of Vice President of Sales.
“Kawasaki is a wonderful company to work for. I had amazing team members and industry’s finest dealer base. The powersports industry provided me the motivation to do the very best I could for the last 34 years and for that I’m very thankful,” said Bill Jenkins. “Kawasaki has an industry-leading team in place to continue our strong growth and the future is extremely bright. I look forward to watching the company and our dealers prosper for years to come.”
Helping lead the brand back from recession, Bill was promoted to SVP Sales & Operations in 2012, a position he held through his retirement 2023. As a avid rider and enthusiast, Bill also served as Co-Chair on the board for the Motorcycle Industry Council.
“We are very fortunate to have someone as dedicated to Kawasaki as Bill has been for 34 years,” said Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., President, Eigo Konya. “Bill’s tremendous positive attitude has provided strength for us in both good times and challenging times, and all of us at Kawasaki are extremely thankful for his positive energy. We are a family here at Kawasaki, and Bill will always be a part of the Kawasaki family.”
Kawasaki will continue its strong momentum in 2023, with riding season around the corner and multiple new model announcements later this year.
Belassi, long known for their cutting-edge technology, have the first electric standup jet ski in development. The new electric watercraft was announced in August of last year. They have been at the forefront of electric standup jet ski technology for a long time. Their name has changed along the way but their excellence in watercraft production has stayed the same.
Many will remember Hydrospace back in 2006 when they made the S4, which was the first production 4-stroke turbocharged standup ski. When they became Benelli, they offered the HSR-Benelli S4. Regardless of the name changes over the years, they’ve been innovators every step of the way with every watercraft they have designed and built.
CEO Christian Hintersteininger assures us they aren’t trying to replace combustion engines with their electric watercraft. “No, they will not replace it any time soon,” he explains. “From a purist point of view, we are actually talking about two different products, and we also have new plans for our Burrasca in the coming year. The two products will not compete with each other, but the customer will choose the best solution for his needs and preferences.”
The Belassi group knows the electric revolution is here to stay and that is why they went to work on building electric watercraft. The team is excited about what the future holds for electric PWC, and they will build a hand-crafted machine where every component will be held to the exceptional standards of the Belassi heritage. Check out a behind the scenes video from Belassi featuring their concept for a new electric personal watercraft. Stay tuned for more on the progress of the new watercraft from Belassi.
Bathed in glossy Ebony black and an eye-catching Candy Candy Steel Furnace Orange, the Ultra 160LX-S quickly rises to the top when it comes to towing inflatable tubes or wakeboarders as the JetSki touts the industry’s only rearward-facing camera. This feature allows the driver to peer through the full color TFT screen behind them with three zoom settings to boot.
Add to that a variety of power Modes (Full, Medium, Low and Learning); the massive Ultra deck with a multitude of mounting points for action cameras to record your passengers at play; and active LED front marker lights; the new Kawasaki brings to the water a whole new look at how a JetSki can be – and for a listed MSRP of $16,299.
Then considering the huge industry-leading bonuses of shopping at Cycle Springs, namely the dealership’s exclusive Lifetime Engine Warranty, No Risk Extended Warranties, Employee pricing on all gear and accessories on the day of sale, financing for everyone and acceptable trade-ins at purchase, and you’ve got a deal ready to happen.
For the first time in my nearly twenty years of reviewing personal watercraft – have I ever intentionally delayed, even avoided, writing a review. Seriously, this one has gotta be easily three, maybe four months late, and frankly, I’m still struggling to write this. But here I am, and here we are. So I guess there’s no more putting off the inevitable.
A few months back, I got to spend a couple of days on the 2023 Sea-Doo Explorer Pro 170 – and I quite literally hated it. But to be fair, I think the problem might be more with me than the Explorer Pro itself. I’ve had quite a bit of time to think about it, and I think it’s a matter of the Explorer Pro targeting a customer that frankly, I have zero in common with. I’m just not who the Explorer Pro is aiming for.
As biased as I can be, the Explorer Pro 170 represents everything that I detest about the trajectory of the current watercraft market: namely, a gravitation towards machines that insulate the rider from the environment and keep them distracted from the visceral sensation of riding – reducing the on-the-water experience to being little more than transportation; a means of getting from one place to another.
Of course, that was my initial response to the Explorer Pro. Others saw it just as Sea-Doo presented it: unlimited access to shorelines and waterways that you otherwise couldn’t reach by conventional watercraft. Even the ad material was enticing (albeit misleading); smiling campers unloading coolers and camping gear as their Sea-Doos sit beached dozens of feet up a rocky shoreline.
And while, yeaaah the Explorer’s bow rail is intended to be used to drag the nose up on a shoal or sandbar (each fixture is reinforced with a steel plate so you can even tie up your anchor or dockline to the powder coated railing) the Explorer’s ST3 hull is still made from BRP’s proprietary CM-Tech, which still doesn’t respond well to beaching. There’s no reinforcement or rubberized keel guard as some speculated.
Although the $16,799 (MSRP) Sea-Doo comes equipped with Sea-Doo’s Intelligent Debris Free pump system, that’s mainly intended to purge grass and kelp tangled in the intake grate, not to dislodge small rocks and pebbles from the impeller. And it’s not too uncommon for rocks to wash into the pump while beached on the shore.
So if all of that wasn’t clear, let me reemphasize: Don’t beach your skis. Buy an anchor and tie it up in 3-feet of water. There’s a reason they put that in the owner’s manual. Those pictures they show beaching the Explorer Pro? Yeah, don’t do that.
OK so with that out of the way, let’s get back to the Explorer Pro 170. At the outset, it’s really not all that different from the Fish Pro Sport. Both skis are identical in hull and deck design, ergonomics, and several key features. Both come with a 1630 ACE 3-cylinder producing 170 naturally aspirated horsepower fed by an 18-and-a-half gallon fuel tank.
And like the Fish Pro, the Explorer comes with a rear deck extension but equipped with a second set of LinQ attachments. The added 11.5 inches (29 cm) to the back of the watercraft allows for two LinQ accessories instead of the Fish Pro’s one. Yet, a third pair of pop-up cleats also permit the traveler to bring a single accessory in the center, permitting for four different arrangements.
Additionally, the Explorer Pro includes a massive hard-mounted platform behind the rear passenger’s seat with even more LinQ mounts. This deck gives you three more positions for your LinQ items, or a single spot for the Explorer’s gargantuan Explorer Bag – a whopping 100-liter (26.4 gal) watertight storage duffel that can locked down using LinQ attachments, stacked atop other LinQ compatible accessories or carried as a backpack.
Some final similarities to the Fish Pro Sport include the angled gunwale foot rests, Ergolock knee pads and a Garmin 7-inch touchscreen fish finder, GPS and fish locator. The Garmin chartplotter features an in-hull transducer with mid-CHIRP technology (as well as a token for access to free upgraded regional maps); all really good, functional stuff.
It’s where the Explorer diverts from the Fish Pro Sport that I found problems began to rise. Both share the center storage bin totaling 25.3 gallon (96 L) front stowage. When filled, the rear-mounted Explorer Bag exceeds that by a whole other gallon. Strap down another couple of jerry cans of fuel or a large Fish Pro cooler, and you’ve got an extra couple hundred pounds hanging over the transom.
The Explorer also comes standard with Sea-Doo’s Tech Package consisting of a full-color split-screen 7.8-inch display that interfaces with your smartphone via Bluetooth or a USB port in the glovebox (but never simultaneously) and is supposed to provide music, weather and navigation through the BRP GO! app.
The dashboard is navigated through a responsive toggle pad on the steering. Prompts guide you through a series of pages to manually input your phone’s name, pair it to the dashboard, access the BRP GO! app (permitting for GPS navigation as long as your phone has a strong WiFi signal) and play music (again, only accessible if your music catalog is saved to your phone or you have a WiFi signal out on the water).
I have documented my travails with BRP GO! and the Tech Package interface extensively here at The Watercraft Journal. Without expounding further, it’s been resoundingly negative thus far, which is particularly disheartening as BRP’s 100-watt Premium Audio System was easily one of my most recommended additions for years prior to the advent of the cumbersome Tech Package.
Unique to the Explorer Pro, the Premium Sound System is particularly potent thanks in large part to the Touring Windshield, which protects riders against wind, weather and water. At speed, the shield reduces wind noise that music or podcasts come through with crystal clarity, which even as I write this, sounds really good.
The windshield has a thin rubberized lip around the screen, softening its edges. It also sits on a sliding track, allowing the whole windscreen to “give” a couple of inches when pressure is applied. During my two-day ride, we discovered that sliding the windshield forward to its stop, and pulling up detaches it from its tabs and folds forward, nearly flat on the bow.
Because we were riding through the intracoastal waterways around St. Augustine, Florida, in August, we were sweltering behind the windshield (the small plastic vent did little to direct any air towards you. Instead its purpose is to defog the plastic windscreen). Desperate for a breeze, we all folded the screens down or rode standing up in the open air for much of the ride.
I also noted that the clarity of the screen completely vanishes into a multicolored swirl (similar to a pool of gasoline) when wearing polarized sunglasses. This reduced my visibility to near zero, making it impossible to read the water, which aboard the problematic ST3 hull proved itself yet again, to be dangerous even for an experienced rider like myself.
Thankfully, the Explorer Pro comes with two features which helped offset the completely obstructed view: the densely padded Explorer Pro seat, which raises the rider an inch higher into a more vertical riding posture and the adjustable handlebar riser (the same adjustable steering neck available on the Trixx and RXP-X). Whether sitting back on the raised seat or standing up, I wasn’t leaning to reach the bars, allowing me to comfortably see above the obscured windscreen during my two-day ride.
And it was here, peering through an impenetrable windshield, tracking my dogged progress on a massive 7-inch chart plotter, and fretting over my iPhone persistently failing to sync with the digital dashboard, that I realized I was hating my experience on the Explorer Pro 170. Rarely did I look up to soak in the scenery or enjoy where I was. Rather, I was too busy looking at screens to bother to see where I was.
This is not what jet skiing is supposed to be. This is the exact opposite, I felt and I didn’t like it.
Don’t get me wrong, Sea-Doo knew exactly who they were aiming at with this ski and for the most part, they did a great job checking all of the boxes to make sure that these customers were satisfied. It’s just that these people do not want to experience anything while on the water. I know because I get their emails, read their comments and review their complaints – and believe you me, there are a lot of complaints.
So what did they get? A joyless machine that cannot traverse the slightest ripple of chop, is horribly imbalanced when appropriately loaded down, and rewards the pilot with a stale, lifeless ride from one destination to another. The Explorer Pro is big, and worse off, it feels big: she’s 146.8-inches long (six inches longer than the Ultra 310LX); 49.4-inches wide (2.5-inches wider than the Kawi); and 859-pounds dry (so factor in 155-pounds for fuel, coolant, oil and a battery puts a curb weight closer to 1,014lbs.).
This is important because the Explorer is only rated for a total capacity weight of 600-pounds. When the majority of that weight is distributed behind the rider – through loading hundreds of pounds of cargo and fuel – the balance of the machine is thrown off. Suddenly, the flat rear half of the hull is doing all of the steering, which is not the same as trimming down.
When burdened under load, I found the Explorer Pro significantly underpowered, unmanageable in mild chop and wakes, and nigh dangerously uncontrollable in heavy seas (what I’d consider 3-feet and above). One of our group were thrown forward into the windshield. Others lost cargo or had LinQ attachments break. I personally duck-dived the entire craft – up to my elbows – as we exited into the Atlantic near Amelia Island and lost a GoPro to boot.
Admittedly, I can see how the Explorer Pro 170 would best serve those riding in cold weather and isolated locations. (Two of the units in our group came equipped with BRP’s electric heated hand grips.) But it would be disingenuous for me to suggest that such a purchase be strictly for a few limited months solely – and that’s why it’s hard to recommend it.
In my procrastination, I’ve shared a little bit of my displeasure with the 2023 Sea-Doo Explorer Pro 170 during live question-and-answer sessions on YouTube, and to their credit, many have bucked my opinion and gone ahead and purchased one. Thus far, those who’ve told me such have enjoyed the many features and unique abilities of the Explorer Pro and that’s great too.
Like I prefaced, I just don’t think this one’s for me. Some of you will agree with that sentiment. Others won’t. And that’s OK too. We don’t all have to like the same things.
“Overwatering” might not be an official phrase yet, like overlanding, but the idea of getting away from civilization is familiar to most adventurists.
