Time to cut ties with Malibu? 3rd and last 'Bu

[Steve B.]

That wrap above is crazy !  Back to gel cracks.  I bought my first Nautique back in 85 ish. Spider cracks. Our crew was on their promo program for years. Spider cracks. Every one of them. My sisters MC. Spider cracks. My Malibu's. Spider cracks. They may not be easily visible because of interior covering them, or incredibly minor around various screw holes, but I think just about every gel coat boat has them. Somewhere.

Steve B.

[23LSVOwner]

17 hours ago, alpensurf23 said:

Tired of seeing gel coat cracking? Wanna try something other than Malibu? Wanting a picture that solves this and will make you feel better? 

That is freaking gorgeous..

[The Hulk]

If only you could get factory paint like that!!!!!

[Steve B.]

2 hours ago, The Hulk said:

If only you could get factory paint like that!!!!!

My guess is the factory probably could do something similar as well as lots of other things, but are simply geared up for what we see today.

Steve B.

[bamabonners]

He’s got spunk.  I like him!

[isellacuras]

I'm unbiased here but i gotta say, I could easily see spider cracks coming from the rub rail, many feet away from the tower being caused by a slow speed bridge impact like described. As i understand it, there are supports under the gunnel that would act as a lever and try to lift the two halves apart. That could easily create enough enough pressure to cause spider cracks. My guess is you're gonna have a tough time trying to get Malibu to stand behind that one. The thread detailing to impact will not help matters at all. Jus sayin. 

[bamaboy]

On 3/12/2018 at 8:25 PM, The Hulk said:

Isn't gel extremely hard and brittle compared to the FG? Vibration and stress and flexing would surely be cause if top coat spider cracking I would think? Again why I worry around the Tower and top deck that flexes there.. so far so good on the new boat.

 

Previous 2013 suddenly had gel cracks around rudder, never hit anything, it would def be more visible in dark colors. Nothing structural.. and nobody sees this part of the boat...

Oh yeah.  You definitely hit something.  I've seen your cheeto ridden carpet

[23LSVOwner]

9 hours ago, ChainSetter said:

Nope. Good find tho you did some digging for that. I can send pictures if you can't bring yourself to believe that some Malibu boats are deep but all my cracks are around the rub rail. Zero by the tower. Nice try 

Actually no digging. It isn't every day someone posts about hitting a bridge. I saw your name on the thread and it rung a bell.

 

5 hours ago, isellacuras said:

I'm unbiased here but i gotta say, I could easily see spider cracks coming from the rub rail, many feet away from the tower being caused by a slow speed bridge impact like described. As i understand it, there are supports under the gunnel that would act as a lever and try to lift the two halves apart. That could easily create enough enough pressure to cause spider cracks. My guess is you're gonna have a tough time trying to get Malibu to stand behind that one. The thread detailing to impact will not help matters at all. Jus sayin. 

^this^ Giant lever. Especially when you add the height of the tower and the weight of the boat to the equation.

Edited March 16, 2018 by 23LSVOwner

[Steve B.]

Of course, it would deflate the fanboys day if there were spidey cracks before the bridge incident, lol ! 

Steve B.

[23LSVOwner]

1 hour ago, ChainSetter said:

Can you imagine if these guys actually worked in the warranty claims dept.?  No one would ever buy a Malibu again.  "Blown engine?  You probably pushed the start button to hard"  "Windshield fell through and cracked?  You probably used the wrong glass cleaner"  " Touch screen went out?  You probably looked at it funny"

Now you are getting ridiculous.

If you can't see the irony with you hitting a bridge with your tower and then posting later about stress cracks that's your issue.

From my experience and what others have posted on here Malibu seems to stand up and take care of stuff, even outside of warranty at times.

[oldjeep]

4 hours ago, bamaboy said:

Oh yeah.  You definitely hit something.  I've seen your cheeto ridden carpet

Looks exactly like my inlaws LXI after they mashed the strut into a rock.

[oldjeep]

1 hour ago, ChainSetter said:

On a different note isn't this site supposed to be a resource for people with problems and community of owners?  I know that's why I joined and paid the fee.  Or is it more of a post your problems and then defend your self to 23lsv, Bama, and IFXE. Funny some of the most helpful people on here Pete, Oldjeep etc. don't sit around and blame owners.  Its just the same old folks from this post. Funny how that works....

 

For the record, I think that hitting the bridge could have something to do with it.  Pretty easy to believe that the whole top cap got moved around/flexed from even a slow speed impact with that kind of leverage.

Edited March 16, 2018 by oldjeep

[minnmarker]

1 hour ago, ChainSetter said:

On a different note isn't this site supposed to be a resource for people with problems and community of owners?  I know that's why I joined and paid the fee.  Or is it more of a post your problems and then defend your self to 23lsv, Bama, and IFXE. Funny some of the most helpful people on here Pete, Oldjeep etc. don't sit around and blame owners.  Its just the same old folks from this post. Funny how that works....

 

The available facts have been exhausted so I suggest the issue be left to a qualified independent fiberglass tech.  Bridge or Malibu defect?, that is the question and no amount of posted verbiage is going to provide the answer.

[spikew919]

Y'all keep talking about leverage and I agree to an extent. But think about a 300lb rider behind a boat at say 30 mph off the tower. Lot of leverage there also. And as far as a floating object bumping into a bridge, wouldn't majority of force go to pushing boat rear down into water? Just a good for thought. 

I mean even with Bimini deployed going 40 mph there is a lot of force exerted on the tower. 

[oldjeep]

6 minutes ago, spikew919 said:

Y'all keep talking about leverage and I agree to an extent. But think about a 300lb rider behind a boat at say 30 mph off the tower. Lot of leverage there also. And as far as a floating object bumping into a bridge, wouldn't majority of force go to pushing boat rear down into water? Just a good for thought. 

I mean even with Bimini deployed going 40 mph there is a lot of force exerted on the tower. 

There would be a sharp shock load before the boat transom got pushed down. 

[spikew919]

5 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

There would be a sharp shock load before the boat transom got pushed down. 

Yeah you agree would be a shock load, but not much at 4mph. 

My 2014 vlx had spider cracks all around tower bases and a few areas along rubrail. Always noticed them whe detailing but never got any bigger so didn't worry about them. 

[formulaben]

6 minutes ago, spikew919 said:

Yeah you agree would be a shock load, but not much at 4mph.

I bet if you put your head between the bridge and the tower you'd have a very different point of view...

[IXFE]

@ChainSetter, You slinged a lot of mud this morning in dramatic fashion so it’s gonna take a few parapraghs to give you a thoughtful response. I actually considered just posting a wisecrack meme or two since contributing actual words on this site generally just incentivizes people to nitpick and argue, but here goes.

Nobody is saying Malibu shouldn’t repair your boat. If you read my posts with an objective outlook you’ll see I clearly stated that spider cracks are not the norm and they shouldn’t happen. I even said that the source could easily be from before you took possession. All I’m saying is the tower strike doesn’t “look” good from an outsider’s perspective. I think if you’re being honest with yourself you can understand that.  Others have posted likewise. I also said that I hope you get your boat fixed and then sell it to get the boat that will make you happy. I really mean that  

As for this site being a resource for people with problems, I guess that depends on what kind of problem and what sort of help you were looking for. If a guy posts that he needs help installing tower speakers or picking a prop or needs help sticking that 360 or picking colors for his new boat or millions of other topics we’re good at... just watch how much help he will get; sometimes more than he ever wanted!  But your laundry list of problems is a little hard to digest. The truth is most guys on this forum never had a list like that and even if they did they aren’t equipped to solve them for you. Plus there were no pics until today. Even then, what sort of help do you honestly expect from a bunch on strangers for the issues you’ve experienced?  This isn’t a customer support forum. What do you expect from us?  Virtual gel coat repair??

In my experience on this forum and dozens of others, when guys post about issues they are either 1) looking for a solution that is easier solved by a user forum than a dealer (e.g. where’s the best place to buy replacement impellers), or 2) coming here to vent frustration. It’s pretty easy to identify the guys who just want to vent. They come in hot, often don’t post pics, leave out details, and turn up the contrast. They also post about issues that a forum is ill equipped to solve. Ultimately when things don’t go their way they lash out at forum members. Sound familiar? 

My advice to you... put down the keyboard and work this out with your dealer and Malibu. If you  really want this fixed, then focus on the outcome and what’s the best path to get there. As much as we all enjoy the drama, the forum is probably not your best path to a solution. 

That’s about as much objectivity as I can muster.  After this it’s gonna be all sarcasms and memes... 

 

[Brett B]

10 hours ago, isellacuras said:

I'm unbiased here but i gotta say, I could easily see spider cracks coming from the rub rail, many feet away from the tower being caused by a slow speed bridge impact like described. As i understand it, there are supports under the gunnel that would act as a lever and try to lift the two halves apart. That could easily create enough enough pressure to cause spider cracks. My guess is you're gonna have a tough time trying to get Malibu to stand behind that one. The thread detailing to impact will not help matters at all. Jus sayin. 

Yep, agreed.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by Brett B

[spikew919]

1 hour ago, formulaben said:

I bet if you put your head between the bridge and the tower you'd have a very different point of view...

Well that's a pretty intelligent statement. 👍🏻

[ahopkins22LSV]

Fwiw, a repair to that is not that bad. A good glass guy can make it look like there was never a repair. I wouldn’t sweat that. 

Also, it may seem like everyone is not accepting that Malibu’s QC has gone down but as IXFE mentioned the vast majority of us have never had these type of issues. Malibu builds thousands of boats a year, the majority of them are built very well and have little to no issues. Your one case or even the few others on here do not warrant a decision on a companies QC control. Now also don’t take this as I’m saying it’s perfect, it’s not. And I might know a thing or two about QC. 

One last thing. I get the time can be frustrating to wait. But this is not a simple warranty review for Malibu like a blown speaker on delivery (example). They have to review all the facts and decide the best way and location to make the repair. I had a floor repair done last year and there was a month or two of waiting for them to get quotes from local shops, review them and make the best decision on to have one of them or ship the boat back to the factory for the repair. Again, idk how long it has been but I’d be leveraging the dealer to get answers out of Malibu as they have the best voice with them. 

[RyanB]

I don’t have the cracking you describe. But I did need fiberglass repair on my boat. 

Brand new, when I first got it home in the garage, I noticed a bunch of small “pocks” in front of the windshield. There were obviously air pockets when they sprayed it. 

I worked with my dealer and a local fiberglass place and they fixed it. A bigger one appeared two years in. Fixed again. 

I’m picky about my boat. And you can’t tell where the repair happened. 

If you’re worried about quality of repair, you shouldn’t be. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by RyanB

[The Hulk]

8 hours ago, bamaboy said:

Oh yeah.  You definitely hit something.  I've seen your cheeto ridden carpet

Well I didn't,.. although it was outta my hands for numerous hours and weeks in various occasion 5+.. lots of run time not under me so have to consider that it may of happened off my watch.. 

[kerpluxal]

2 hours ago, ahopkinsTXi said:

Fwiw, a repair to that is not that bad. A good glass guy can make it look like there was never a repair. I wouldn’t sweat that. 

 

I will attest to this statement.. I have had 2 underwater strikes.. 1st one caused gel cracking on rudder and the strut.. came back and could not tell... 2nd one sent prop into hull... came back and cannot tell.... 

gel coat repairs are quite common in boating, automobile, aerospace, etc...

[Fman]

I had a women at the Sac Boat show tell me that she witnessed a tower fall off a new 23 LSV Malibu on there lake.  It just fell off...no reason.

She actually was serious and able to keep a straight face.  I was deflated and felt depressed for the rest of the day.....but I continued to keep my fanboy enthusiasm and move on! sometimes you gotta take your licks and pick yourself back up!