looking to buy a new bu

[wakedude101]

me and my family are looking into buying a new bu we were looking at the 09 vtx and the 09 vlx. we wanted to no which one of those two have the biggest wake. if you could post pics of the wake it would be awesome.

[johnsvt]

VLX will ultimately have a bigger wake, but the VTX does well also. A VTX is more than capable of putting out a wake more than good enough for 95% of the population.

[obski]

I have not demoed the 09 VLX, but I do have a 06 VLX and took a 09 VTX out for a demo yesterday.

The VTX came with Maliview and auto power wedge on a Cut Diamond hull. It also came decked out with a heater, tower speakers and a big subwoofer. It was a beautiful sunny day with the air temp at 63F and water at 57F, but was fairly windy with choppy water.

The fit and finish are typical high quality Malibu. The v-drive layout is great and very roomy for a 20 foot boat. We had 5 out in the boat and one of our regular crew who had never been in the VTX before didn't think that the cabin felt any smaller than the VLX. It feels roomy and uncramped. It also had swing away racks which the crew really liked although one complaint with them was that they noticed that there was more water dripping into the boat when a wet board was placed into them. I'm not sure why there was a difference, but it was noticeable.

The Maliview is sweet, as is the auto wedge feature. With the push of a button you can get the ballast, wedge, and speed settings entered and carried out for each rider (with the ability to put in and memorize custom settings). The auto wedge worked well to allow the boat to get on plane faster and with less drag. I can see where it would allow for improved fuel economy.

I was disappointed in the heater. It didn't put out any significant heat at idle. I didn't check how the hose was connected to the hot water source, but I assumed that the Y-adapter is situated incorrectly in relation to the impeller. You would think that Malibu could take care of this issue at the factory.

Onto the wake. For wakeboarding we used the 'advanced wakeboarding' setting, which fills all of the ballast and sets the wedge full as well, and sets the speed at 22mph. The wake was wider than our VLX by quite a bit. We all found the wake to be of a different shape than on the VLX. It seemed to be a steeper ramp with a sharper, harder lip. I guess it was just different and we weren't used to the shape, but at least yesterday I have to say that I didn't really like it and neither did the other riders. Now then, the water was choppy and we didn't really play around with different settings, such as putting the wedge at different positions or not deploying the wedge at all. I think that we could get used to the wake.

For skiing we used the 'slalom skiing' setting, which emptied all ballast, had the wedge all the way up, and set a speed of 32mph. I had skied behind a Cut Diamond VTX a year ago and found it to be a very skiable wake. Your not going to mistake it for a DD, but still very nice. I thought it was a bit nicer for slalom skiing than my 01 SS VLX on a SV23 diamond hull. This time I drove the boat and let someone else do the skiing. It got onto plane and up to speed very quickly and easily and had a very nice looking negligible wake. The skier said that he felt the wake to be very soft and easy to cut through.

For wakesurfing, we used the 'surf left' setting, which filled the center tank and the left rear as well as setting the wedge partway down. We didn't actually surf, but thought the wake looked quite nice with good height and length.

The boat handles very well. It is fast and nimble like a sports car. I liked the handling and responsiveness more than my VLX. My VLX handle quite well, but this was noticeably better. There is a definite 'fun factor' just like with a sports car.

If you are looking for a boat mainly for wakeboarding, then I would go with the VLX. I don't know about the VTX with the wake hull as I have not been in or behind one. If you are looking for a boat for wakeboarding, surfing, and skiing, then I wouldn't hesitate looking at the VTX on a Cut Diamond hull. If I didn't already have a VLX, that is the boat I would be looking at. I'm not sure that it makes sense for me to go from my VLX to a VTX. It is a very nice boat with some great, very cool features. I think if I and my crew had been blown away by the wakeboarding wake I would be more tempted. Now, as I stated earlier, it is very possible that given some time that we would grow to love the VTX wakeboarding wake. For now, I will probably stick with the paid for VLX with a great wakeboarding wake, and keep on the good side of my friends with DD ski boats.