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Gelcoat spider cracks around illusion tower


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Ok, I have some small cracks around the base of my tower one on the port side aft just behind the tower and the other, starboard right at the front of the tower base. Now the one on the starboard side I am sure can be fixed, but I am worried about the one on the port side. After, I got to take a good look I saw how there are three 1/2 bolts to secure the tower and there are two 5/16 bolts that come through from topside. Now do I need to take apart the port side and inspect or is this somewhat common?

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The tower base is secured to the deck with three bolts from under the gunnel. I am not familiar with the "bolts from topside" on an Illusion X. It is not common to have stress cracks develop with that tower, first thing to do is make sure the bolts are tight and backing plate is tight. That said, have your dealer look at it to get it fixed.

Peter

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The tower base is secured to the deck with three bolts from under the gunnel. I am not familiar with the "bolts from topside" on an Illusion X. It is not common to have stress cracks develop with that tower, first thing to do is make sure the bolts are tight and backing plate is tight. That said, have your dealer look at it to get it fixed.

Peter

Plus1.gif

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Is tighting the base/keeping it tight a prevetative maintanence item? I am just wondering because with my last tower it was tigten once and then let go.

Thanks,

John

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I actually noticed the same cracks on my bu last year (at the 20 hour service) :( . I tried several times during the winter to get it fixed, but the local shop was always backed-up. Now, with the summer here I'm certainly not going to have the bu in mothballs for 2 weeks... It makes you wonder if it's not a design flaw?

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I noticed that I have a few very small spider gelcoat cracks around the port Illusion tower support. They don't look like anything major, but I will let the dealer know about them next time I talk with them or stop by.

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Honestly I don't see how you can't get a couple, but I have a the area behind the tower has me somewhat concerned. From what I can tell, looks like the base is tow pieces bolted together from the topside. Anyhow I am sure I will have it apart take some pics and see what happened here. I have had spider cracks on my starboard side since the first time we wakeboarded, but they have not gotten any longer so I am not worried about that side.

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Honestly I don't see how you can't get a couple, but I have a the area behind the tower has me somewhat concerned. From what I can tell, looks like the base is tow pieces bolted together from the topside. Anyhow I am sure I will have it apart take some pics and see what happened here. I have had spider cracks on my starboard side since the first time we wakeboarded, but they have not gotten any longer so I am not worried about that side.

I have them on both sides back of the tower Dontknow.gif

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  • 7 years later...

Is seem to be a Malibu issue, because my Wakesetter VLX '08 also had the cracks.

My dealer has fixed the gelcoat, but now it appears again.

The solution for fixing this problem is to chamfer the (screw) holes.

The gelcoat is stiffer than the polyester, thefore it will crack.

It is not a major issue, but it doesn't look on a nice malibu

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