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Review of my 2009 VLX


Trentster

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Well I have spent some time in the boat! It's been my favorite so far, but there are some things I don't like. Tracie pretty much covered everything in her review, but I will touch on a few things she already may or may not have mentioned. I'll cover the dislikes first.

The stereo still does not have a mute however it is on the Malivue, but it turns the volume off completely.

The boat is a lot louder than last year. Tracie already mentioned this and I traced down the problem. After Malibu spent a lot of time with their sound suppression installation, quiet exhaust, and not to mention I paid for the silent tip exhaust; this thing is loud. The engine noise is not from the exhaust, but the back seat. In the location that the rear speakers are there is either little or no insulation. The engine just blasts through the back seat and really makes the cabin louder. This is probably an easy fix and I suspect Malibu will get right on it since they monitor this board, not to mention the fact that they will definately be hearing back from their customers on this issue. My 2008 VLX was a lot more quiet.

The stereo and head unit seem the same to me. Not sure if the RCA outputs for amps are up in voltage this year or the same as last year. The Rockford Marine speakers sound great, but the sub is a huge disappointment. My P3 last year rocked!!! This year the Marine sub is mounted in the same place, but running free-air and is not enclosed in a box. The sub is also not a dual voice coil like last year. It sounds horrible! I will be getting a box built for it behind the panel and if it still sucks I will be switching back to the P3 or something else.

Now here is what I like!!!!!!

Everything else!!!

The Malivue is brilliant! If you are "considering" this on your next boat you are not fully informed. This should be STANDARD! There are three guage screens: The traditional guages like last year in T.V. form, and two versions of depth (which actually has a picture of the boat, maps the lake bottom, shows water temp and air temp). Cruise is usable on all of the screens. The presets are cool and saving presets this year is a lot easier. There are two dedicated cruise screens: Speed and RPM. So, I count five "in-motion" default screens. They all pretty much show whats going on with the boat, but things are different sizes depending on what screen you are in. They all pretty much show air temp, water temp, guage info, ballast info, depth, speed, cruise set speed, etc. It's real busy, but easy to see all of the information and understand. You can watch video. You can get a rear camera and use it as a mirror while still using cruise. You can watch wakeboard instructional DVD's- the possibilities are endless. There is a video RCA in the glove box for video input. I could go on and on, but what's the point. If you don't get this feature you need to hit yourself in the head with a hammer.

The wake is SICK! What's different? Not much, but the wake is cleaner. Take whatever speed you liked to ride behind the 2008 VLX and ride five feet further back. The wake is that clean! I rode 23.6 mph at 85 feet and was in heaven! I had to go 24.5 in my 2008 VLX to ride that far back. The wake is wider and seems more firm. Visually it looks pretty much the same.

The power wedge also actually works on this VLX. On my 2007,2008 I could wash out the wake if I was anything but all the way down on the wedge. This 2009 gives me full adjustment. I can't speak on the auto-wedge feature as it wasn't working. Probably an easy fix, but I didn't figure it out.

The boat handles better with no chine lock! I could easily chine lock my 2006, 2007, 2008 when heavily loaded in tight turns. This thing turns much better with the wedge up or down like a dream. On a side note I often end up operating in tight tournament lakes while heavily loaded, so this may not have been anything some of you have noticed. It also chops through rough water and double-ups much better. The surf wake is also easier to dial. I love this boat!

Sorry that was such a fast review, but I have to go to sleep since I worked last night.

Trentster

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The boat is a lot louder than last year. Tracie already mentioned this and I traced down the problem. After Malibu spent a lot of time with their sound suppression installation, quiet exhaust, and not to mention I paid for the silent tip exhaust; this thing is loud. The engine noise is not from the exhaust, but the back seat. In the location that the rear speakers are there is either little or no insulation. The engine just blasts through the back seat and really makes the cabin louder. This is probably an easy fix and I suspect Malibu will get right on it since they monitor this board, not to mention the fact that they will definately be hearing back from their customers on this issue. My 2008 VLX was a lot more quiet.

Slider & I were talking about this after the fact & wondered if that was it. That makes a lot of sense & should be an easy fix.

The stereo and head unit seem the same to me. Not sure if the RCA outputs for amps are up in voltage this year or the same as last year. The Rockford Marine speakers sound great, but the sub is a huge disappointment. My P3 last year rocked!!! This year the Marine sub is mounted in the same place, but running free-air and is not enclosed in a box. The sub is also not a dual voice coil like last year. It sounds horrible! I will be getting a box built for it behind the panel and if it still sucks I will be switching back to the P3 or something else.

Our dealer said the same thing about the sub. He said that it was so bad that they never even turned it up during our demo. But the cabin speakers sounded pretty good.

The boat handles better with no chine lock! I could easily chine lock my 2006, 2007, 2008 when heavily loaded in tight turns. This thing turns much better with the wedge up or down like a dream. On a side note I often end up operating in tight tournament lakes while heavily loaded, so this may not have been anything some of you have noticed. It also chops through rough water and double-ups much better. The surf wake is also easier to dial. I love this boat!

I wondered about the handling, since I didn't get to put it through its paces. For those of you that don't operate a boat in this manner, Trent is right on the money with the earlier hull. It handles good, but under certain circumstances you can chine lock it. I know almost exactly how to do it & how to keep the boat out of that situation to keep it from happening, but it's still a little scary even when induced. Nice to know that the new hull is that much better.

The Malivue is brilliant! If you are "considering" this on your next boat you are not fully informed. This should be STANDARD! There are three guage screens: The traditional guages like last year in T.V. form, and two versions of depth (which actually has a picture of the boat, maps the lake bottom, shows water temp and air temp). Cruise is usable on all of the screens. The presets are cool and saving presets this year is a lot easier. There are two dedicated cruise screens: Speed and RPM. So, I count five "in-motion" default screens. They all pretty much show whats going on with the boat, but things are different sizes depending on what screen you are in. They all pretty much show air temp, water temp, guage info, ballast info, depth, speed, cruise set speed, etc. It's real busy, but easy to see all of the information and understand. You can watch video. You can get a rear camera and use it as a mirror while still using cruise. You can watch wakeboard instructional DVD's- the possibilities are endless. There is a video RCA in the glove box for video input. I could go on and on, but what's the point. If you don't get this feature you need to hit yourself in the head with a hammer.

Do you know if you have any customization options for any of the screens? One of slider's complaints with ours is that you can't have the depth reading big & bold on our little screen while you have Cruise engaged, so you have to hunt for it in the little readouts below. Having some options on that would be awesome. I love the rear camera idea, that's really really cool.

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what does chine locking mean?

It's when in a turn, the hull rolls over on the chine & locks there. When that happens, most of the time it won't turn, won't react at all, so you end up having to get off of the gas & change the attitude of the boat relative to the water. It only happens with this hull when you're heavily weighted & turning tight, & really there are ways to avoid it even under those circumstances. You just have to know the boat - how it handles in a given situation & how it will react to your reaction.

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That's good to hear that the hull has been reshaped to eliminate chine lock. It has happened to use dozens of times, and you just have to learn how to avoid it.

Good words about the Malivue. It sounds like Malibu made it similar to an aircraft multi-function display.

Does it have any touch screen functionality?

I wonder how the circuit board and screen will handle environmental issues (water, sun, etc)

Almost makes me want a new boat!

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The boat handles better with no chine lock! I could easily chine lock my 2006, 2007, 2008 when heavily loaded in tight turns. This thing turns much better with the wedge up or down like a dream. On a side note I often end up operating in tight tournament lakes while heavily loaded, so this may not have been anything some of you have noticed. It also chops through rough water and double-ups much better. The surf wake is also easier to dial. I love this boat!

Trentster

That is good news. I do run my boat loaded on a tourny lake every year and last year I did get chine lock with the boat ending up on the shore. Fortunately no damage and I haven't done it again since then. It would be nice not to have to worrry about it happening though.

Thanks for the review, although it gets me thinking about an '09. Actually if the proposed legislation to restrict essentially wakeboarding and wakesurfing goes through, I may be looking at a VTX again and do more skiing.

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what does chine locking mean?

No an issue you'll worry about w/ a DD, I never had it in SLXI even w/ 2k of ballast.

Not exactly true, My iRide has chine locked several times. It's usually when I'm pulling a tube (which doesn't happen very often) and I'm circling back around to pick someone up that has fallen. It's a very strange feeling not being able to turn your boat. It seems to only happen when I turn starboard, I don't think it's ever happened turning port. must have something to do with the rotation of the prop as well.

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what does chine locking mean?

No an issue you'll worry about w/ a DD, I never had it in SLXI even w/ 2k of ballast.

Not exactly true, My iRide has chine locked several times. It's usually when I'm pulling a tube (which doesn't happen very often) and I'm circling back around to pick someone up that has fallen. It's a very strange feeling not being able to turn your boat. It seems to only happen when I turn starboard, I don't think it's ever happened turning port. must have something to do with the rotation of the prop as well.

Weird I'd drive the SLX many times heavily weighted and never had that issue rear it's ugly head. You say circling, is this after the rider is down then make a hard turn under hard throttle?

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The boat handles better with no chine lock! I could easily chine lock my 2006, 2007, 2008 when heavily loaded in tight turns. This thing turns much better with the wedge up or down like a dream. On a side note I often end up operating in tight tournament lakes while heavily loaded, so this may not have been anything some of you have noticed. It also chops through rough water and double-ups much better. The surf wake is also easier to dial. I love this boat!

Trentster

That is good news. I do run my boat loaded on a tourny lake every year and last year I did get chine lock with the boat ending up on the shore. Fortunately no damage and I haven't done it again since then. It would be nice not to have to worrry about it happening though.

Thanks for the review, although it gets me thinking about an '09. Actually if the proposed legislation to restrict essentially wakeboarding and wakesurfing goes through, I may be looking at a VTX again and do more skiing.

what are you talking about in this? is that just in oregon? scary! Dontknow.gif

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He's talking about certain sections of the Willamette River between Salem & Portland. We haven't seen any talk of it on a statewide level (yet).

Exactly.

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what does chine locking mean?

No an issue you'll worry about w/ a DD, I never had it in SLXI even w/ 2k of ballast.

Not exactly true, My iRide has chine locked several times. It's usually when I'm pulling a tube (which doesn't happen very often) and I'm circling back around to pick someone up that has fallen. It's a very strange feeling not being able to turn your boat. It seems to only happen when I turn starboard, I don't think it's ever happened turning port. must have something to do with the rotation of the prop as well.

Weird I'd drive the SLX many times heavily weighted and never had that issue rear it's ugly head. You say circling, is this after the rider is down then make a hard turn under hard throttle?

I had it happen going around a turnaround island on a private ski lake on a RLX I was driving a few years ago. Scared the hell out of me. I managed to get the boat stopped about 8 inches from the rocky shoreline. I didn't have a skier in tow at the time. We had about 4 guys in the boat, all standing/sitting on the right with the boom hanging out that side and I was making the turn to the right at about 15 MPH to set up the longest possible barefoot run for a guy. It can happen with a DD. Just ask MasterCraft. Didn't one of their boats end up on the shore at the WSM tests when it chine locked at slalom speeds one year?

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what does chine locking mean?

No an issue you'll worry about w/ a DD, I never had it in SLXI even w/ 2k of ballast.

Not exactly true, My iRide has chine locked several times. It's usually when I'm pulling a tube (which doesn't happen very often) and I'm circling back around to pick someone up that has fallen. It's a very strange feeling not being able to turn your boat. It seems to only happen when I turn starboard, I don't think it's ever happened turning port. must have something to do with the rotation of the prop as well.

This is called a "power turn" It's something most people wouldn't do to others... Tongue.gif

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I've been out the last few days on the boat. The wake is so sick!!! I love it!!! The auto wedge works great (if you turn it on Thumbup.gif ).

Rockon.gif

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Ohhh, Tracie- If there are customization options for the Malivue I haven't figured it out yet. I didn't get an 09 boat manual. If you want depth you can get it big and huge. It includes a nice little picture of your boat on the lake (with lake temp and air temp) and a map of the bottom of the lake as your depth guage surveys it. On the bottom of this screen you still have your cruise set and actual. It's slick! I can also speak for the surf wake now. We surfed both sides with only two people in the boat. I weigh 230 and I have never been able to do that. I always needed extra weight on my 06-08 VLX's in order for me to surf. I hope to weight the boat down really heavy in the next week to see how much it can handle both surfing and wakeboarding, Surfing.gif

Edited by Trentster
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Easiest way to fix chine lock is not to stop or freak out, but to just steer a little farther into the turn after it rocks over on to the chine. Not a big deal and the boat will come around. I drive max ballast and wedge all the time. The Acme 1235 14.25x14 prop helps have more control in turns when heavily sacced also.

Edited by dustin s
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Easiest way to fix chine lock is not to stop or freak out, but to just steer a little farther into the turn after it rocks over on to the chine. Not a big deal and the boat will come around. I drive max ballast and wedge all the time. The Acme 1235 14.25x14 prop helps have more control in turns when heavily sacced also.

This isn't practical/work when you get chine lock coming around a turn island on a tournament lake. There just isn't much room to work with.

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Easiest way to fix chine lock is not to stop or freak out, but to just steer a little farther into the turn after it rocks over on to the chine. Not a big deal and the boat will come around. I drive max ballast and wedge all the time. The Acme 1235 14.25x14 prop helps have more control in turns when heavily sacced also.

This isn't practical/work when you get chine lock coming around a turn island on a tournament lake. There just isn't much room to work with.

Plus1.gif The locations where I've experienced this don't give you the room or the time to do much of anything.

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Yep!!!! Almost been on the shore myself a few times. I thought I was on one occasion and threw it in reverse real quick! I blew water and gravel all over the shore from under the boat, but no damage. For me this resolved issue in the new design is awesome. I operated yesterday in Blackfoot, Id. at Jensen's Grove in the slalom part of the lake because the wind was blowing. I had no problems turning, and when I slowed down slightly the new auto wedge put the wedge all the way down. After the turn I sped up and the wedge went back to the position we had it set at. SLICK TO SAY THE LEAST!

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