Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Upgraded to a V-DRIVE


G-Pac

Recommended Posts

Last season we purchased our very first Malibu and fell in love with it. We bought an '05 XTi for its crossover abilities (skiing and wakeboarding), and found ourselves wakeboarding only and never skiing during the first full season. My wife and I really caught the wakeboarding bug, and quickly outgrew the XTi wake for boarding and made the decision to upgrade to the V-drive for the long-term.

Just "spec'd" out the boat this weekend and the dealer took very good care of us in terms of pricing as a result of the recent boatshow incentives and b/c we are return customers after only a single season.

Here is the detailed order:

2006 WS LSV

Hammerhead

Fresh Water Cooled

Power Wedge

Illusion Tower

Dual Optima Batts w/switch (wired correctly at factory, dealer to install the Optima Blue Tops)

3-Outlet Heater

Depth Finder

Driver Seat Heater

Fiberglass Swim Platform

Docking Lights

Bimini

Trailer (Extreme Trailer not a viable option out east due to shipping charges) w/ LEDs, spare tire carrier, etc.

Rankin Cover (We are ordering our own since our dealer does not deal with them directly)

Carpet Inserts

I hope we did not miss out on any "must have" options. We do ride mostly in brackish waters. The boat actually priced out $2k under where I was expecting it to.

We should have a order # soon and will post build pics as they become available.

Thanks to all TMC member posts on building out boats and great discussions on options etc. We got a lot of great ideas and insight from all of the collective knowlegde found on this site!!!!

Cheers-

G-Pac

Link to comment

What kind of stereo system are you going to put in her and what about board racks. I seen the swivel style at the show that looked sweet, but then Stewart was saying the nice racks had the best swivel racks.

Link to comment

Sounds like my boat. :)

You are going to LOVE that Hammerhead.

Since your in brackish water do you get a transom flush to flush out the heat exchanger?

Everything else sounds great.

Pop up cleats are standard.

Edited by stewart
Link to comment
Last season we purchased our very first Malibu and fell in love with it. We bought an '05 XTi for its crossover abilities (skiing and wakeboarding), and found ourselves wakeboarding only and never skiing during the first full season. My wife and I really caught the wakeboarding bug, and quickly outgrew the XTi wake for boarding and made the decision to upgrade to the V-drive for the long-term.

Sorry to tell you this, but that's NOT an upgrade. Tease2.gif

Sounds like a nice rig - congrats

Link to comment
Don't need it in '06, the stock speed control is excellent.

Congrats G-Pac, looks like a good list. I'll add to the cleats, you'll need them front & rear on that boat. Do you have colors in mind yet?

The WS 23 LSV come standard with rear cleats and midship cleats. If anything, you could add a pair to the bow.

Link to comment
Sorry to tell you this, but that's NOT an upgrade. Tease2.gif

:lol: I wondered if someone would post that. Biggrin.gif I was thinking it.... ;)

Going from a d-drive to a v-drive is absolutely the biggest upgrade you could do! Welcome to the "Real" Boat Owners Club now. Tongue.gif

Link to comment
Sorry to tell you this, but that's NOT an upgrade. Tease2.gif

:lol: I wondered if someone would post that. Biggrin.gif I was thinking it.... ;)

Going from a d-drive to a v-drive is absolutely the biggest upgrade you could do! Welcome to the "Real" Boat Owners Club now. Tongue.gif

It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Joe

Link to comment
It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Perfect description of my buddy's 23' Chaparral I/O! Tease2.gif

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

(BTW, I'm one of the few that "upgraded" from v-drive to DD and never looked back.)

Link to comment
It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Perfect description of my buddy's 23' Chaparral I/O! Tease2.gif

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

(BTW, I'm one of the few that "upgraded" from v-drive to DD and never looked back.)

Done and wow.

Joe

Link to comment
It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Perfect description of my buddy's 23' Chaparral I/O! Tease2.gif

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

(BTW, I'm one of the few that "upgraded" from v-drive to DD and never looked back.)

Now THAT's an upgrade Biggrin.gif

Link to comment
It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Perfect description of my buddy's 23' Chaparral I/O! Tease2.gif

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

(BTW, I'm one of the few that "upgraded" from v-drive to DD and never looked back.)

Now THAT's an upgrade Biggrin.gif

You saw the light Yahoo.gif

Link to comment
It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Perfect description of my buddy's 23' Chaparral I/O! Tease2.gif

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

(BTW, I'm one of the few that "upgraded" from v-drive to DD and never looked back.)

Now THAT's an upgrade Biggrin.gif

You saw the light Yahoo.gif

I wonder what he had to pay to get $crewed...

Innocent.gif

Link to comment
It's only an upgrade if you like lots and lots of room, comfort, quiet, and oh my what a very nice big wake. Yahoo.gif

Perfect description of my buddy's 23' Chaparral I/O! Tease2.gif

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

(BTW, I'm one of the few that "upgraded" from v-drive to DD and never looked back.)

Now THAT's an upgrade Biggrin.gif

You saw the light Yahoo.gif

I wonder what he had to pay to get $crewed...

Innocent.gif

See that's the light. Sell the VD for the DD and still money left over Yahoo.gif

Link to comment
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

Maybe he wanted the room of the 23'. I wouldn't necessarily say that the VLX is the "flagship wakeboarding boat" now that the LSV has the same hull. If you consider what the pro's wakeboarders sponsored by Malibu use as "flagship", then you could even consider the LSV the new flagship. Besides, the wakes are very similar once you weight then proportionally (aka: put more in the LSV).

Link to comment

Thanks all for the great responses and feedback. To address a few questions posed:

D-Goose:

I am having the 6 Kicker speakers installed at the factory, and using an Alpine CDA 9851 head unit (I bought this HU for a truck 6 months ago and no longer have the truck) with Sirius for the new boat. I ordered the Skylon Ref speakers (for Illusion X tower) early last season (Spring 2005) for the XTi, and after making payment in full I waited 3-4 months for Wakeside to finally tell me that the speakers never went into production. Apparently they got held up in the design phase because the mounting brackets were not working as they expected. At least, that is the song and dance story I got from Wakeside. After cancelling the order, I received a shipment of incorrect Skylon speakers within a week. I could not use them and had to ship them back. Turned out to be a HUGE PITA.

Sooooo, our local dealer has a stereo guru that they just hired from the west coast, who claims he can set us up with a great custom system for a reasonable price that will work seamlessly. We are going to start pulling ths details together for the system soon and I will post a separate thread on that at that time. I plan to use a high end/power 5 channel amp to save space, and then just need to decide on a sub and the tower speakers I want to buy. Sorry for the lengthy response on this, but I have been meaning to post on the Skylon/Wakeside tower speaker issue for awhile.

John I:

Since we had the 23 XTi and found that we liked and needed the space it had, we elected to go with the LSV. Just to be sure, I arranged a trip down to Orlando to ride Gerry Nunn's 23 LSV since I had not seen the LSV wake up close and in person, and wanted to ride it. That trip sold me on the LSV for both wake size/shape as well as overall boat size. For what it is worth, Gerry is an awesome teacher and a really great guy. I paid for a full day of teaching with him and got a lot out of it.

General:

Upgrade? - I can see why this switch from XTi (DD) to LSV (V-Drive) may not seem like an "upgrade" to some. Poor word choice I guess, but it is in fact a more practical setup for us and certainly a step up in perfomance and price. However, as for the wake, I stand by the characterization of "upgrade". :)

Color - My wife is a huge Pittsburgh Penguins/Steelers fan and thought that a black and gold color scheme would be a fitting tribute. We placed the order last Saturday, the day before the Superbowl. Not my first choice, but she wanted black and pink (ala Dallas Friday) and we had to find some middle ground. This is where we ended up. Not too bad as far as I am concerned, but keeping her clean and shiny will be a chore I am sure.

Hope this addresses all questions.....thanks again for the great feedback!!

G-Pac

Link to comment

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if one truly "caught the wakeboard bug" why not buy Malibu's flagship wakeboarder, the VLX? Dontknow.gif

Maybe he wanted the room of the 23'. I wouldn't necessarily say that the VLX is the "flagship wakeboarding boat" now that the LSV has the same hull. If you consider what the pro's wakeboarders sponsored by Malibu use as "flagship", then you could even consider the LSV the new flagship. Besides, the wakes are very similar once you weight then proportionally (aka: put more in the LSV).

Yeah, the VLX being the "flagship" is a little played. The 23 LSV was hands down Malibu's best seller last year.

In fact, what boat does Darrin Shapiro use as his personal wakeboarding boat? One hint, its not the VLX.

G-Pac, you made the right choice. The LSV is an awesome boat.

Don't take any grief from these single plankers. There DD only has one purpose, planking. Try riding in one of whose thing when the lakes starts kicking a 6" wind chop :lol:Tease2.gif

When the sun is setting and the party is starting, they would rather be in your V-drive. :)

Link to comment
Try riding in one of those things when the lakes starts kicking a 6" wind chop...

Slider ran 6" wind chop at 50 mph last year at WOW. Shocking.gif

:lol: But he's "special". Crazy.gif

Link to comment
Try riding in one of those things when the lakes starts kicking a 6" wind chop...

Slider ran 6" wind chop at 50 mph last year at WOW. Shocking.gif

:lol: But he's "special". Crazy.gif

Special enough to know that he needed to upgrade from a DD to V-Drive in just a couple of weeks after that :)

Link to comment
Try riding in one of those things when the lakes starts kicking a 6" wind chop...

Slider ran 6" wind chop at 50 mph last year at WOW. Shocking.gif

:lol: But he's "special". Crazy.gif

I was more comfy on the ski at 50mph then bouncing around in the little go cart. Tease2.gif Mike a am just kidding. If I ever get to where I can have two boats I'll happily buy your Sporty. (for smooth water days only of course)

Joe

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...