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2000 Malibu Excape Luxury


trejac

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Hi all,

New to V-drive's and Malibu because I'm thinking about trading my I/O for one. I found a 2000 Malibu Luxury Executive in my price range. I love the large size of it and shape it is in. I have a few questions,

1) Did these come with a ballast system from the facatory? I see no indiciation of one! If not are they pretty easy to install?

2) Does the wedge system throw enough wake to compensate for no ballast?

3) What other things can u tell me about them???????

4) Would I be better suited by buy the Natique they have? It is about 10K more expensive and in about the same shape. Let me tell u what I'm looking to do. I want to be able to take at least 7 (large 200+) peeople out at a time, I love to kneeboard, just started wakeskating and I would like to try wakesurfing, My 11 year old son wakeboards and of course we pull the tube at times. Large wake is not a must right now because son is young but when the kids get older I'll need a boat that can throw one.

Thanks everyone!!!!!!

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How many hours on the boat? What is your price range and how much is the boat?

If you want a big wake then you are going to need more than just the old fixed wedge in order to do it. Plumbing in ballast to your boat is not difficult as many people on this site have done it.

Also, what Natique are you talking about?

You need to get a little bit more specific with your information if you want people here to be able to help you. Otherwise the best anyone will be able to do is:

1. Maybe

2. Depends

3. Not sure

4. Possibly

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Soory for being so vague!

The two boat's I'm looking at are 1) 2000 Malibu with 300 hours (Price tag $20,000). It is in good shape and is certified through a thrid party boat inspection. It has been sitting on the lot for almost a year now. It has a galvinized two axel trailer w power assist brakes which I'm not too fond of because it makes me think it might have been used in salt water.

2) 20003 Super Air Natique with 300 hours ($30,000 which is very top of budget). This boat is in good shape as well (Show a little more wear than the other) and it is certified through the thrid party company as well.

I'm not too worred about wake at this point in time as my son is still little inexperience and young to be needing that. Wake will be very important in about 2 to three years. At this point I'm wanting a basic tow boat that I can place several older LARGE adults, my kids and a few others for a day on the lake. Most of the time that is how the boat will be used however there will be times that it's just my wife and little one's and we do more of the advanced watersports.

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I have a 2000 Escape LSV that I bought for a great price (because I was on a budget) and turned it into a wake boat. Others on this site will tell you that it's not the ideal hull for a wake boat because it's on the diamond hull instead of the newer wake hull, but it should work fine for what you are trying to do. To get a big wake out if it you need a LOT of weight. I don't have the wedge, but I add about 2600 lbs plus crew for wake boarding and 3400 lbs plus crew for surfing. I built my own custom ballast system for the boat which took some time, but was relatively easy to do with help from this site. I LOVE the extra room that a 23 foot (22.5 ft) boat affords and we do everything from skiing, wakeboarding, surfing, tubing, and even barefooting with our boat. I will say that mine has the bigger 383 hammerhead engine, so the extra hp is a plus for us when trying to get all that weight out of the hole. Let me know if you have any more questions!

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MW,

Thanks for the comments! :) One more thing, do they come with Perfect Pass or anything? It has some arrows/buttonw that looks like it, but I'm not sure!

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The arrows and button gauge was the MSCAN, which could have been integrated with Accu-ski speed control back in the day, but that's not guaranteed.

What size I/O are you coming from? You should probably take a test drive and let your son board behind it with just the wedge. You may be surprised what kind of wake it throws with no ballast if you're used to an I/O. Adding ballast later isn't that tough either.

As for your two choices, I say go for the Malibu, especially if it's in better shape. They look a million times nicer than any Nautique and will outhandle/outperform one any day.

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What size I/O are you coming from? 4.3 merc with the 2bbl and no ballast system! So yes, anything would be better at throwing a wake!!!

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The Super Air Nautique has a couple different models. Also, you say a big wake isn't important now but it will be in a few years. I think that means you could by the Malibu, save 10 grand, put ballast in it in a year or two, add anything additional you want, and still have plenty of money left over.

There are ways to tell if it has been in the ocean. I know there has been some forums about this topic so you can try searching for that. I know a lot of people that have galvanized trailers that never go to the ocean, so it may not have been in the ocean but it is definetly worth figuring that out.

Also, saving ten grand seems like a plus. If you were going to spend 30 grand then you might want to broaden your search to compare another 30 grand boat to the nautique to see how good that deal looks. But like acheforwake said, you can definetly turn the Malibu into a boat that kicks out a really nice wake.

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Again, thanks everyone for the info.

Another question, what is everyone's opinion of how it handles choppy water? do the passangers get beat to hell? With it being a 23 footer it should be better than my 19 shallow-V I/O but then again I hear that V-drives ride rougher than I/O's.

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v-drives do ride rougher than I/O. You said your I/O had a shallow hull, so they might be more comparable. In general though the I/O tend to have a deeper v hull that cuts through the water nicely. My 21.5 foot VLX handles chop nicely in my opinion and I can always seem to find a comfortable speed for everyone in the boat. At 23 feet I would expect it to be even better, but I will let someone that has more first hand knowledge with that boat answer that for you. My guess would be that you will feel lot more comfortable driving in rougher water with higher chop due to the big jump in size from your old boat to this one.

So passengers will be fine as long as you are willing to find the right speed. It may just take a little getting used to, just like backing up will take some practice.

Edited by wakeboy
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