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2017 Malibu recommendations


aarondouglasdds

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Hello.  I'm in the market for a new boat.  I'm looking for a boat that will be used mostly for surfing, however I have three young daughters (5,3,and 1 y.o.) that will be learning to ski/tube/wakeboard /whatever they want to do.  So I'd like the boat to be reasonably flexible.

I've owned Supras in the past so I'm looking at the SA/SE.  I decided against the G23 due to it being so much more of a beast to handle on the water.  And feel the same way about the new ri237.

So I have a few questions, which Malibu would fit me the best?  I do not live near a deal (other than Nautique) so my ability to look at any of these boats is quite difficult.  Considering the 23 or 25 LSV, or the 24 MXZ.

I gravitate toward the 25, but the carpet...yuck!  Why?  Will that change for the 2018 models?  Is there a benefit to the carpet?

The MXZ seems great but is it worth the price increase over the LSV?  The 2016 25 LSV can be had for around $115.

Is the LSV an old hull?  One that'll be hard to surf?  My Supras had to be heavily weighted to really get a decent (at best) wave.  I don't want to spend over $100k to recognize I should have bought something different.

Thanks all!

Aaron 

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The 23 LSV hull was new in 2014, the 25 LSV was new in 2016, and the 24 MXZ is all new for 2017. All 3 of these boats will put out a great wave. What do you mean "carpet"? On the seat bases, or the flooring itself? If you see one with carpet for flooring in dealer stock, it's because they ordered it that way.  It is an option to upgrade to Deckadence, Aqua Mat, or Seadek. It can easily be changed. How many is in your normal crew? If it is more than 8, I'd opt for the MXZ or 25 LSV. 

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Thanks for the input!

Carpet on the seat bases and wraps into the storage areas under the seat cushions.  The ones I'm looking at have sea deck as the flooring.

It just strikes me as have and outdated feeling to it.  No other manufacturers have it.  The M  and the MXZ boats don't have it...

One thing about the g23 that I love is the sea deck that is in the storage areas.  

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Carpet around seat base has been a Malibu finish for years, many prefer and like it.  It adds a nice custom finished look imo.

The 23 lsv is the #1 selling boat in the Malibu lineup, sounds like a good candidate for you.  With 5 in your family, it can easily seat 10 comfortably.  It handles great for a 23' boat.  The surf wake is also very good along with the wakeboard wake.  I have read a few posts about power wedge 2 users are using LIFT mode to tow kids and produce a smaller wakeboard wake which is great for beginners.   I never tried this but sounds like a great option for kids just learning.

And all the storage areas in any newer Malibu will not have carpet on the floor, you won't have any problems with mildew or odors.

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Carpet helps with noise and vibration dampening IMO.  Seadek could be easily added to any model as they all have snap out carpet anyway.

 

As for waves, it's been a while since I was on a Supra but you will have turn key great waves.  Can you make even better, yes, but the wedge, PNP, and SG on the boats you're talking about make better waves than the industry had ever seen 3 years ago (with the slight exception of maybe an fs44).  

If you just have 3 small kids, I have to ask, why looking at such big boats?  Big water?  With your crew I'd go VLX.  I have a VTX with 3 kids and friends and even I don't lack for room. You'll like whatever you get though, I'm sure.

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There is an important sub question?  How long don you plan to keep it?  If only 1-2 years then 25 LSV having the giant lake limo with minimal bow space would likely be better.  IF you plan on 4-5+ years then 24MXZ.  Having the ability to divide and conquer as kids get older is awesome.  Kids like having thier own space, and you can easily get 4-6 8 year olds in the MXZ bow 

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FWIW, I like the carpet. I hope it's never taken out of the options. One of the reasons is that I have been in a few boats with Seadeck. These were boats that have been used as Demo's. I noticed some cuts in the Sedeck from boards or maybe board fins. Those will never go away and it will be expensive to replace the whole floor section of Seadeck to make it go away. I'm sure these boats weren't used as gingerly as some of us use our's but those cuts would drive me crazy.

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2 hours ago, 85 Barefoot said:

If you just have 3 small kids, I have to ask, why looking at such big boats?  Big water?  With your crew I'd go VLX.  I have a VTX with 3 kids and friends and even I don't lack for room. You'll like whatever you get though, I'm sure.

21VLX or 22VLX? :whistle:

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9 hours ago, hethj7 said:

We have our 6, 4, and soon to be 2 year old out in our 23LSV all the time.  We just hose off the seadeck floor and away go all the snack crumbs.  And as mentioned above, the storage compartments don't have carpet in them.  The new vinyl also cleans up nicely - we want the kids to be comfortable so all kinds of snacks and drinks are always on the boat.  The 23 will put out a great surf wave, but to really dial it in you need extra bow weight. 

3D899562-5BA8-45EA-98A8-9D86F7B1C6EC_zps

Wanna pm me your setup? :) killer wave

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I agree with the other guys here, a 22 or 23 would be plenty of boat for your crew size....and more flexible for a young family.  We had 9 adults on my 15 22 VLX all weekend with plenty of room to spare.  The 22 VLX is so much bigger than my 13 VLX was.  I've had this one two seasons now and it blows away anything I've had previously. 

I usually get a new boat every 2-3 years.  I'll probably go with another 22 this round despite us having a 23' limit on our lake.  Getting time for me to sell this one and order the next, but to be honest I'm having a hard time wanting to go ahead and list if for sale!

I would recommend saving some cash and going with a smaller boat.  Spend that money saved on boards, upgrades, accessories, etc!  You'll probably end up getting another boat in a couple years anyway.  :)    

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Kids = 25lsv you will appreciate the floor space and never look back. 

25s are Best value for the money currently.. period.. especially the 2016s..  and best wave or similar to the M and maybe the mxz could beat it but a pickle fork is a harder resale around here..

Carpet.. floor can be changed. I have a battery powered vacuum works awesome to keep clean.. the search foam stuff I'm still wondering how this holds up and seems it would be more difficult to clean although I could be wrong..

I'm confused when u say the G23 and ri23 are beasts but your looking at a 25? Granted the 25 still drives like a sport boat. The older Gs I drove were not as responsive but they were on different. Geared tranny. The 25 drives like a 23 when u get up on plain. Otherwise it's just plain bigger but not too big. 

With kids the 25 storage is much better than the 23 u can leave seats popped up for access to all your kiddo toys and not loose room in the boat.

Best if all the 25 wave is simple impossible to mess up. It's consistent with few or tons of weight. But u need at least 750+ PNP. MY 23 required weight if we were only a few the 25 is much better even on light loads..but when u do get weight it's like Whaaawhaaat.. also keep in mind u will need a 5ft extension for your rope if u get a 25 because your that far back from the boat. U will need to learn to surf up to the back of the boat to toss the rope in then go back to surf..

If u can get the 25 for 115 that's similar to a 23 you'd be crazy to get a 23 then IMO.." too large a boat with 3 kids trapped out on the water?...said nobody ever."

Edited by The Hulk
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15 hours ago, Fman said:

Carpet around seat base has been a Malibu finish for years, many prefer and like it.  It adds a nice custom finished look imo.

The 23 lsv is the #1 selling boat in the Malibu lineup, sounds like a good candidate for you.  With 5 in your family, it can easily seat 10 comfortably.  It handles great for a 23' boat.  The surf wake is also very good along with the wakeboard wake.  I have read a few posts about power wedge 2 users are using LIFT mode to tow kids and produce a smaller wakeboard wake which is great for beginners.   I never tried this but sounds like a great option for kids just learning.

And all the storage areas in any newer Malibu will not have carpet on the floor, you won't have any problems with mildew or odors.

My dealer showed the lift mode and said it can be used to Slalom ski to produce minimal wake.. although u will get a warning.. interesting and the wake looked tiny like a ski boat! 

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6 minutes ago, The Hulk said:

My dealer showed the lift mode and said it can be used to Slalom ski to produce minimal wake.. although u will get a warning.. interesting and the wake looked tiny like a ski boat! 

The warning alarm is pretty annoying! Don't know if that can be disabled?

Edited by teamerickson
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I thought he said u could hit dismiss..but haven't been skiing yet.. I'll check next time I'm out.. hard to get anyone to ski anymore.. it's 95% surf and 5% tubbing these days.. I dont even keep my skies in the boat anymore they are all collecting dust in the garage.. that's what happens when u ride a 25 surf wake though..

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21 hours ago, aarondouglasdds said:

Hello.  I'm in the market for a new boat.  I'm looking for a boat that will be used mostly for surfing, however I have three young daughters (5,3,and 1 y.o.) that will be learning to ski/tube/wakeboard /whatever they want to do.  So I'd like the boat to be reasonably flexible.

I've owned Supras in the past so I'm looking at the SA/SE.  I decided against the G23 due to it being so much more of a beast to handle on the water.  And feel the same way about the new ri237.

So I have a few questions, which Malibu would fit me the best?  I do not live near a deal (other than Nautique) so my ability to look at any of these boats is quite difficult.  Considering the 23 or 25 LSV, or the 24 MXZ.

I gravitate toward the 25, but the carpet...yuck!  Why?  Will that change for the 2018 models?  Is there a benefit to the carpet?

The MXZ seems great but is it worth the price increase over the LSV?  The 2016 25 LSV can be had for around $115.

Is the LSV an old hull?  One that'll be hard to surf?  My Supras had to be heavily weighted to really get a decent (at best) wave.  I don't want to spend over $100k to recognize I should have bought something different.

Thanks all!

Aaron 

Easy. Just demo all the boats and go from there.

Steve B.

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5 hours ago, ponderosasurf said:

Wanna pm me your setup? :) killer wave

I'll just post it up here.    I can't say I really have a recipe that I always use as we always seem to have a different size of crew out, but in the photo above we had:

All stock ballast full, including Rear PNP - I have the custom fly high sacks, which I assume are just like the wake makers version (basically shaped like an upside down "T")

6 adults in the boat

That day we had a bow sack on the seats - it was my buddy's and I'm guessing we had around 4-500 lbs in it.  

Wedge was usually on the "ramp" setting, all the way down, 1 click up from lift, etc.  However you want to say it.  

Speed was probably about 11.2-11.4.   Riders were using surfband trying to push the boat faster, so I can't say exactly what speed it was in that photo.   

 

Now, all that said, I bought a 1,000 lbs bow sack since then.   With just my wife and I out in the boat about a week ago, we had all ballast full, PNP full, and the bow sack full.   With just a single adult in the boat, the wave was very nice, but not as nice as that photo.   I suppose that should seem obvious, in that 5 extra adults add weight and help the wave.  

 

To the OP, any of the boats being talked about would probably be great for you.  It may come down to the "deal" - do you take an okay price on a 25LSV with the gel scheme and options you want vs. a killer deal on a 23LSV, but missing some items you'd like and maybe not your favorite color combo? - those are scenarios to consider.   Are you usually out on big water and in chop?   That may steer you towards the 25LSV (I'm assuming it handles chop the best of the boats listed...maybe the MXZ).   Do you usually trailer or do you have a slip?   Slip length, lift capacity, etc. could impact your decision.   Likewise, towing the heavier 25 or MXZ could factor in to things as well.  My 23LSV tows really well, but let's not kid ourselves - it is still probably 7,000 lbs or so loaded up.   

Personally, unless the deal is just killer, I'd probably pass on a 2016 MXZ.    The 2017 redesign is so sweet, I'd always be thinking about what I was missing out on.  

Also, there is seadeck in my 23 in the observer's storage area.  The other storage areas have a rubber mat basically.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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