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Our new 2012 VLX

Brett B

By Brett B,
in General Discussion Area

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Night Rider Crew Regular

Night Rider

Posted
Posted

CONGRATULATIONS!!!Glad to hear you pulled the trigger. can i get a pull the next time i'm in columbus? did you get a new tow rig to go with it?

Pete

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blagrata Deck Hand

blagrata

Posted
Posted

Thanks for all the kind words guys, I'm in Columbus.

With the hoop removed and the speakers installed it pretty much balances there, you can set it all the way down or partway up like in the pictures. Without the speakers or hoop it would stand itself mostly up. For getting under the garage door it needs to be all the way down, so for now the wifey rides in the boat while backing in to make sure it stays down. With the new straight hoop installed it should stay all the way down on it's own.

Great looking boat Brett! You're going to love it. Fantastic to have a nice garage to keep it in. If the bar doesn't weigh the tower down enough you might just have to hang another pair of speakers on there. :)

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Brett B 'Bu Savant

Brett B

Posted
  • Author
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Thanks again for all the compliments guys.

Fman, no kids yet. Just a stressful ~60 hour/week job that takes up way too much of my time (like plenty others here I’m sure). I actually enjoyed getting some weekend time that I could spend at home fixing up the garage! Figured I better get it all done before the boat showed up since now the rest of my house projects and my lawn will be neglected. :lol:

It took some convincing but Malibu made the straight hoop for me. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my dealer of course. It’s not really straight, just less curved than the standard one so that the tow ball is lower than the windshield when folded. I told my dealer they should call it the “Garage clearance hoop” and offer it as a standard option. For some reason it doesn’t seem like Malibu wants to but if enough people ask for it maybe they will. Since this was an additional hoop (not just substituting for the standard one) they charged me $450 for it which isn’t cheap but I feel it’s worth it since every time I remove the hoop I almost scratch or gouge something. If I ever sell the boat the new owner would probably want the standard one, and I figured I would sell the straight one to somebody who needed it. Not sure why it wasn't done with the rest of the boat but it’s supposed to arrive this week so I will post up some pictures and my thoughts on it when it gets here.

I can’t take credit for the idea though, as I first saw a picture of it here on the Crew of course. I sent those to my dealer and said that I wouldn’t buy the boat without it since we plan to take the boat out 3X per week this summer. Here is the thread:

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/30465-will-g3-tower-folded-clear-a-standard-garage/

The bimini will still mount to the tower with the straight hoop but the hole for the tow ball will be in the wrong place, so you would need to add a second hole. I won’t use the bimini much except for the long weekend trips during the heat of the summer such as the WOW. So for those few occasions I will probably just put the standard hoop back on and then use the bimini as normal.

IXFE, I like the windshield mirror a lot. I intentionally didn’t order the tower mirror. Thanks to good friends like Pete (Night Rider) and Tony (blagrata) I was able to try out both options. Pete’s 2009 VLX had the windshield mirror, and Tony’s 2011 VTX had the G3 tower mirror. After getting to drive both I thought the tower mirror was cool but I actually liked the windshield mirror better. I’m pretty tall so maybe that’s why it works well for me. I also figured the tower mirror would be one more big clunky part I would have to remove and stow somewhere for garage storage. The extra cost and seeing the issues some have had on here sealed the decision. On Aaron's (Love2Ride) 2007 VLX with the Titan tower the tower mirror seems like it's positioned in a better spot than the G3 setup.

Pete, you can come ride with us anytime! Thanks Tony, wish we had the big garage clearance like you but for now this setup is working pretty well. Great idea on the speakers! :lol:

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Fman Waaaaay Too Many

Fman

Posted
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She is a beauty! I like how you went white on the bow, looks great! And of course the great VLX wake!

and regarding the straight crossbar, great idea, but Malibu needs to make it work with the bimini top.. We use ours all the time because it roasts here in nor cal during the summer. Would be great for Malibu to offer this for buyers.. My garage is 7'4" and it barely fits... I would have been really bummed if it did not fit in our garage....

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  • 4 weeks later...
Brett B 'Bu Savant

Brett B

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Finally getting some sunshine and warm weather so here are a few more pictures.

I installed the rear air bags on the 4-runner so no more rear squat. It was cheap, install went quickly, and they are easy to adjust so the ride is still smooth when not towing. Works for me!

Got the "garage clearance hoop" installed and it definitely makes things much easier/faster not having to unbolt the hoop each time. Especially since I changed to the dual Exile tower speaker brackets to mount the speakers in the upper corners. Loving the Exile XM9's as well, can't wait to hear how much louder they are when the Harpoon amp gets here!

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And here's Aaron and Matt getting some good air with just the stock wake. The extra ballast bags and pumps should arrive today and hopefully I can get it installed within the next week. That should be fun!

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Edited by Brett B
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MalibuTime Seeking A Life

MalibuTime

Posted
Posted

Thanks for all the kind words guys, I'm in Columbus.

With the hoop removed and the speakers installed it pretty much balances there, you can set it all the way down or partway up like in the pictures. Without the speakers or hoop it would stand itself mostly up. For getting under the garage door it needs to be all the way down, so for now the wifey rides in the boat while backing in to make sure it stays down. With the new straight hoop installed it should stay all the way down on it's own.

Nice looking ride!

I suggest you don't get in the habit of raising the tower at all when it is in your garage since it won't fit out the door that way. If you do, flag your hitch with a removable tag that says "lower tower" so you don't accidentially try to pull your boat out of the garage and hang up the tower.

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Brett B 'Bu Savant

Brett B

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  • Author
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Thanks for the advice. With the straight hoop and the tower speakers on, the tower has just enough weight that stays down on it's own now. It's still balanced well enough though that my wife can raise it up without any problems.

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wakbord11 Crew Regular

wakbord11

Posted
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I would like to see some pics of your "straight bar". I thought about doing something like that with my Illusion XS,,but never got around to it.

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