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Vinyl ripping at the seems on my new wakesetter


bobbysky

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This winter I purchased a 2009 Wakesetter LSV with 79 hrs on it. So far I've put about 70hrs on it. So right now it's sitting at 150hrs. Last night I noticed, my backseat in the middle, the vinyl is ripping and pulling away from the coping. The middle seat is the worst but the two on each side of it are starting to show that it will happen there as well. I've read threads about this happening on 2008 but not 09's. I'm not the original owner on this boat but I'm assuming the warranty will still work because my paperwork shows the original owner boat the boat in Oct 2010.

So my question has Malibu beefed this up somehow or am I looking at getting skins ever 150hrs? This seems like a terrible design flaw for seats that obviously everyone who gets in and out of the boat will step on. Do you think Malibu will step up and take care of this problem?

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Stop stepping on those seats. People stepping down off the back deck onto those cushions puts a ton of stress on the seams. I have 2 of these on my boat. They get tossed onto the seat between riders. Everyone has been told these are the steps, and don't step on the cushions. It works out pretty well. Currently at 250 Hours on my 2010, and zero signs of wear on my vinyl.

http://seatsaver.com/

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cw, those look like a good idea. I'm going to pick them up after I figure out what Malibu will do. Like I said it seems like a design flaw that they don't have some sort of step, or the ability to flip the seat over to step on it.

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Stop stepping on those seats. People stepping down off the back deck onto those cushions puts a ton of stress on the seams. I have 2 of these on my boat. They get tossed onto the seat between riders. Everyone has been told these are the steps, and don't step on the cushions. It works out pretty well. Currently at 250 Hours on my 2010, and zero signs of wear on my vinyl.

http://seatsaver.com/

Is it heavy enough that it won't blow out every time I start the boat and no one is sitting on it?

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Stop stepping on those seats. People stepping down off the back deck onto those cushions puts a ton of stress on the seams. I have 2 of these on my boat. They get tossed onto the seat between riders. Everyone has been told these are the steps, and don't step on the cushions. It works out pretty well. Currently at 250 Hours on my 2010, and zero signs of wear on my vinyl.

http://seatsaver.com/

Never seen this. I've seen people flip the center seat over as well.

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Is it heavy enough that it won't blow out every time I start the boat and no one is sitting on it?

Yeah. It's fairly heavy. It has a stiff plastic core in it.

If we don't have a boat full, they frequently just stay on the rear seat, and we've never had one blow out. the only time I worry about them blowing out is trailering, but we always stash them inbetween the driver's seat and wall then, or put them under a seat.

They seem to be a great product. I stumbled upon them when I was searching for ideas to build my own. I had planned on building my own out of wood wrapped in marine carpet, but then I found these, and they were cheap and easy.....

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Interesting idea, Charlie. We do basically the same thing with a towel. I'm sure all that does is keep the vinyl clean & doesn't spread the load out across the seat at all.

Would be cool to have a reversible seat in the back side corners. Would be tough to support the padded cushion when it was upside down though.

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Worth a try, but I doubt Malibu will warranty it since your boat is 5 years old now. Find a good vinyl shop in town, I bet you can get it fixed for less than $100...

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Interesting idea, Charlie. We do basically the same thing with a towel. I'm sure all that does is keep the vinyl clean & doesn't spread the load out across the seat at all.

Would be cool to have a reversible seat in the back side corners. Would be tough to support the padded cushion when it was upside down though.

Yeah- A towel would keep the seat clean, but doens't do anything to distribute the load from your foot. This does distribute the load well.

The plastic inside is stiff, but still somewhat flexible, so when you step on the center of it, the seat saver flexes and gives a little, and the edges don't dig into the seat.

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Well called my dealer and the boat is 2 months out of warranty. I would hope that Malibu will step up on this since the obviously they are having an issue with this happening. Very frustrating since I thought the vinyl was very nice, and figured it was going to be super durable. :mad: Guess I'll wait and see what Malibu says.

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That sucks but.....I believe thats a wearing issue and it shouldn't be malibu's responsibility if you stand or jump on the same area every time it will give way. How far are people willing to go to get a warranty claim the dealers are going to go crazy.

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So am I suppose to tell everyone that comes off the sun deck or dock, including my eighty year old grandma, to jump directly to the floor? It's like saying well your fuel pump, blower, ballast pumps, malivue, etc... Shouldn't be covered under warranty because it's a WEAR issue because they get used constantly. I have read many threads of newer malibus having this problem so it's obviously an issue. Maybe they should design the seats to flip or some other fancy way of stopping this from happening. Until then they should be rectifying the problem.

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Bobby, are you the original owner? If not did you pay to have the warranty transferred? Does your boat have twin bucket seats up front?

3.6 Warranty Transfer Option

A transfer fee of five hundred dollars ($500.00) payable to Malibu Boats LLC. will

include the Limited Lifetime Hull Warranty and remaining three (3) year bumper to

bumper engine warranty supplied by Indmar Products for a period of three (3) years

from:

• The date the boat was originally delivered to the first owner; or

• The date the boat was first put into service - for example, as a dealer "demo" or as

a Malibu factory "demo."

All remaining warranties may be transferred, subject to a boat inspection fee to

be determined by an authorized Malibu Boats Dealer. Contact your nearest

Malibu Boat Dealer for tranfer details, including applicable fees and the

scheduling of a boat inspection.

Any warranty transferred pursuant to this section does not extend the length of

the warranties as specifically limited by section 3.

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That $500 fee is only to transfer the hull and engine warranty. Everything else the dealer can help you out with.. As frustrating as it is, if it's out of warranty, it's out. I'm just glad mine happened within warranty. Had it not, I'd have told my dealer to fix and and pay them. I'll still use Tillys even when my warranty goes. They don't rip you off, straight honest.

Sorry, got off track. A good vinyl shop can fix it too!

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Surfer,

Yes I do have dual captins. No I'm not the original owner and until talking with my dealer today was not aware that the warranty had a transfer fee. That was my bad. But obviously I'm out of the warranty period so the point is moot. I guess now I'm just making a point for people with the newer boats to watch their seats, and for Malibu to maybe try and think about an update to this problem.

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My 2011 VLX rear seats are also starting to separate at the seams from stepping on the seat. I definitely want to find a solution, so I do not have to pay for the replacemetnt after the warranty expires. I have been jumping from the transom down to the floor, but I can't expect everyone to be able to do that. I will try out the seatsaver for now until I find something better. Thanks for the seatsaver info cwkoch.

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To solve this problem, buy an older boat with stronger vinyl! You can keep your fancy vinyl I'll take my durable seats that have been stepped on for going on 13 years now with no problems!

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To solve this problem, buy an older boat with stronger vinyl! You can keep your fancy vinyl I'll take my durable seats that have been stepped on for going on 13 years now with no problems!

I have friends with older v-drives. They all split eventually if you let people step on the rear seats.

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This is an issue for most. I have everyone step on a tower as well. Not ideal, but better than just stepping.

One of the cooler idea I saw at the boat show was the Tige boat flip seat. The seat on the corners you could flip upside down, and the bottom side was stiff plastic with carpet so you could step on that. The seat fixture was designed to accomidate the shape on both sides, so it wouldn't work as easily on a malibu, but malibu should add that idea to their new boats.

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That's exactly what I'm talking about Indy. Just a better design. I'm also thinking that the cushioning on the inside is softer then the bolstered up outside, which makes it more comfortable to sit on but puts extreme pressure on the seam. Maybe it's as simple as making the cushion even throughout with the same stiffness. But once again I feel that this is an issue that Malibu needs to fix and rectify with all customers that are having this problem, with or without warranty. Similar to their make it right program they did in 08.

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