Test report on Malibu 25LSV

[malibudog]

Test drove a 2016 Wakesetter 25 LSV yesterday.

Several things were new to me (we own a 2009 247), so I thought I would take a minute and summarize my thoughts on a few of those features/issues. There were lots of positives:

1) The Surf Wake is great. Unlike my 247, we had to put some weight in the nose of the 25 (in addition to the plug and play in the back), but once we did, it threw a really tall, long wake, with an improved lip. Transition at the bottom was a little sharper, but it was firmer at the top, and easier to get airs. Extremely good push all the way back. You feel like you will never fall out the back. On my 247, the goofy wake is much better than the regular wake. On this 25, the regular wake and the goofy wake were much more comparable, and both were great. Great results, and we had little time to really tune the wake.

2) Surf gate transfers were quick and fun. Beeps to let you know when wake was switching were easily audible to surfer, but not annoying in boat. Wake switched quickly. Did not play with the remote.

3) Driver’s seat – one of the best small innovations in a boat I have seen for a long time. Seat is already far higher than my 247, raises probably 5” at the touch of a button, and has a bolster on top so you can probably get almost 8” of travel. Can easily see over the windshield, and makes nose up surf driving far easier. Windshield seems a little lower overall, but that may be due to the seating set up.

4) Control screens. I am not a big fan of digital/computer/electronic screens on boats, but was really impressed with Malibu’s execution on this one. Main screen tilts nicely for differing seat heights, and seems to have all the functions you want visible on a single screen. Once you get the general layout of the screen, changing surf sides, changing speeds, moving the wedge, etc. were all very easy, just by touching intuitive touch portions on the screen. Compared to other car and boat screens I have seen, this is a keeper. Smaller screen to the lower right seemed mostly redundant and unnecessary, but wasn’t really on the boat long enough to get much use out of it. May be good for functions we just didn’t get around to needing.

5) Tower – rock solid. Nice size bimini, larger than what was available from the factory on my 247. This one did not have surf pockets on top (although it had some small gear pockets underneath). No head clearance issue even for 6 footers. Clamping Board racks worked well.

6) Storage – Substantially deeper and bigger than my 247. Even with comparable ballast in the back compartments, there is still lots of room on top for jackets, etc. Battery placement improved for more storage in front of co-captain.

7) Rear view camera. Nice if you have a calf fetish.

8) Wakeboard wake. Hard to tell, as lake was fairly blown out, and conditions were not good for riding. Appeared to be more of a plume where wakes meet. Similar somewhat rampy shape, made peakier with wedge adjustments. A little more depression between wakes (less of a tabletop). Didn’t really take anything out of these observations – would need to see the wakeboard wake on a calmer day.

9) Passenger seating – definitely an extra 5 or 6” of room in the ­bow over the 247. Flip up bolsters to allow rear viewing were comfortable. Sliding rear view bench seat was nice, although I am not sure how much we would use it. Rub rails appear to be about 4-6” taller as boat sat in the water, as compared to a fixed dock.

10) Interior vinyl work appears to be upgraded throughout. Nice textures and patterns. A little more square-edged than in 2009.

11) I personally didn’t really like the faux teak flooring, but everyone else really liked it. Smoother texture than my friend’s G23.

12) Wedge lift feature on acceleration seemed to make a difference in how quickly boat planed.

13) Boat backed up much straighter than my 247 – may be due to being gated.

14) Multi-function knob – really great to be able to mute the stereo with a tap. Speed, wedge and gate functions seemed to be intuitive, but the screen itself is so easy to use at a glance, not sure I would use the knob all that much, but it worked well.

There were only a couple of things I didn’t like as well as my 247. First, the 450 Raptor engine was loud. Noticeably louder both while coming up to speed, and while on speed surfing (10.4-11.0). Loud enough we couldn’t hear what the surfer was saying, and vice versa. Not sure what if any options Malibu offers for quieting down the engine (turn down tips, silence pkg, surf pipe, etc), but would need to investigate one of those for sure. Second, considerable exhaust was noticeable while surfing, and that is never the case with my 247. FAE would likely fix this no problem. Third, and this seems minor, but if the co-captain sits facing forward (there is a backrest which allows this), then the co-captain has no access to a cup holder. This would be nothing but trivial, unless your co-captain likes facing forward, likes having a beer now and then, and likes to have input in the boat buying decision.

Anyway, overall, the 25 seemed to be a great boat for those who host large groups of people, or want lots of room to spread out.

[Lance B. Johnson]

Sounds BA to me.

[PrestigeLakeWide]

Great review, was the tower G4 or G3.2?

[Afun]

No bow weight needed, eh ?

[Afun]

Does the Eh, come before the sentence?

[Stevo]

Test drove a 2016 Wakesetter 25 LSV yesterday.

1) The Surf Wake is great. Unlike my 247, we had to put some weight in the nose of the 25

He said it needed bow weight

No pics

Edited August 30, 2015 by Stevo

[Afun]

He said it needed bow weight

No pics

So in that case the 247 needs bow weight too?

[Stevo]

Apparently not in his 247' Eh'

Edited August 30, 2015 by Stevo

[Afun]

Can you imagine the day a boat comes out that does not need bow weight...#gamechanger

[pennery]

No bow weight in the G23 eh!

[lerch]

What size bags were you running for the rear PNP and the bow for surfing?

Edited August 30, 2015 by lerch

[jonredcorn]

Holy cow - Malibu figured out how to put a rising seat in a boat! The future is now!

[Zac]

Does the Eh, come before the sentence?

No, you did it right. The Eh comes after the sentence. So it's fun, eh? Not ehfun.

[Sunscape fan]

Hey....nothing wrong with saying "eh", eh?

[Levi900RR]

Are you talking engine noise of exhaust noise? I really need to get a ride in one of these bigger boats in rough water...

[jcon44]

I saw one on the water this past weekend and was surprised that it didn't look as big as i thought it would. Maybe due to the added height or the colors of the boat (black hull, white and blue) but at first i thought it was a new VLX until i got up close. The 247 are typically easier to pick out that this one was, maybe they moved the windshield back to make it more proportional to the 23-22 footers?

[malibudog]

Great review, was the tower G4 or G3.2?

75% sure the tower was the G4, with only lower clamping racks. I haven't been in enough Malibu's with newer generation towers to be certain.

No bow weight needed, eh ?

My 247 with a home made gate seems indifferent to bow weight. Have tried up to 1000 lbs in bow, and wake does not get any better. I think because the nose is so long, and my homemade gate is so large. The 25 LSV wake was noticeably better when we added a bow sack.

If you want to learn how to use the term eh, go no farther than Doug and Bob McKenzie:

Are you talking engine noise of exhaust noise? I really need to get a ride in one of these bigger boats in rough water...

I really wish I knew which it was. How would I tell the difference? Boat was quiet at idle and at slow speeds going out of the cove. When you throttled up for surfing, it immediately became loud. When my wife got on the boat and drove it for the first time, she slowed down half way through pulling up a surfer because she initially thought from the loud engine noise that something might be wrong with the boat. We got used to it as the day went on, but it was loud enough that I would want to have it addressed. Don't know if the issue was just us and the noise level we are used to on our current boat, just the specific set up of the boat we tested, just this prop (think it was a high thrust prop, but not sure which one), or what Malibu might offer in terms of options to quiet it (turn down tips, etc). It was one a very few things about the boat that wasn't ideal, as compared to so many things about the boat that we really loved.

[catalac]

What was your 247 powered with, curious how the 450 raptor compares power wise, have heard the same loudness comment of the raptor motor vs the gm's.

[Pnwrider]

You almost made up for the lack of pics of the test drive by posting a clip from strange brew, almost.

[malibudog]

What was your 247 powered with, curious how the 450 raptor compares power wise, have heard the same loudness comment of the raptor motor vs the gm's.

383 Hammerhead ETX/CAT - 400 hp.