Malibu to marinize own GM engines

[Cory]

On 12/27/2016 at 5:57 AM, MadMan said:

In addition to the engine, Malibu will also be responsible for transmission and v-drive selection.  I would be very surprised if they started building these.

 

If Malibu offered a choice of spin direction on their tranny/vdrive, then I would certainly purchase another boat.  Every time I take a goofy friend out, I'm irritated, as the owner and the one who paid for this boat, my wife and I get the inferior wave...

[The Hulk]

On 7/7/2017 at 5:38 PM, Cory said:

If Malibu offered a choice of spin direction on their tranny/vdrive, then I would certainly purchase another boat.  Every time I take a goofy friend out, I'm irritated, as the owner and the one who paid for this boat, my wife and I get the inferior wave...

X-80 solved this problem years ago...before the surfing age =) 

[ahopkins22LSV]

On 7/7/2017 at 5:38 PM, Cory said:

If Malibu offered a choice of spin direction on their tranny/vdrive, then I would certainly purchase another boat.  Every time I take a goofy friend out, I'm irritated, as the owner and the one who paid for this boat, my wife and I get the inferior wave...

The new hulls have made the regular wave, much much better.

[Sixball]

On 7/7/2017 at 5:38 PM, Cory said:

If Malibu offered a choice of spin direction on their tranny/vdrive, then I would certainly purchase another boat.  Every time I take a goofy friend out, I'm irritated, as the owner and the one who paid for this boat, my wife and I get the inferior wave...

As a skier that would be one of the biggest improvement to me! Making our boats lite and most defiantly if you are not using a spotter my Rlxi is not good, the wake is compromised enough to make skiing without a spotter poor if you don't weight the boat. We ski a CC 196 A lot and its amazing how that boat performs. Its not affected with peoples weight other than if you put five or six people in it. As with the power plant the raw product would likely be manufactured outside but to a standard dictated from Malibu. The mating and final assembly would occur at Malibu's  house.  If I was back in my racing days and always playing with parts I would pull my boat apart over the winter and mount a CC trans and try the reverse rotation in my boat.

[ahopkins22LSV]

6 minutes ago, Sixball said:

As a skier that would be one of the biggest improvement to me! Making our boats lite and most defiantly if you are not using a spotter my Rlxi is not good, the wake is compromised enough to make skiing without a spotter poor if you don't weight the boat. We ski a CC 196 A lot and its amazing how that boat performs. Its not affected with peoples weight other than if you put five or six people in it. As with the power plant the raw product would likely be manufactured outside but to a standard dictated from Malibu. The mating and final assembly would occur at Malibu's  house.  If I was back in my racing days and always playing with parts I would pull my boat apart over the winter and mount a CC trans and try the reverse rotation in my boat.

That is why I have 150lbs of lead that I can use when we "allegedly" ski with just two people.

Personally I can't stand reverse pulling me towards one of the few blind spots in a ski boat. I would much rather have reverse pull me in the right rear direction were I can see everything that is going on. Now a ballast tank for the observer side would be a good option so I don't have to lug lead around!

[Sixball]

Just now, ahopkinsTXi said:

That is why I have 150lbs of lead that I can use when we "allegedly" ski with just two people.

Personally I can't stand reverse pulling me towards one of the few blind spots in a ski boat. I would much rather have reverse pull me in the right rear direction were I can see everything that is going on. Now a ballast tank for the observer side would be a good option so I don't have to lug lead around!

This is true I always am thinking witch boat and how do I approach my skier. But its kind of like driving a car after a short time you get a very good feeling how close you are to something. I do like the Malibu for that but then I would rather have the best ski and work with my pickups. I would need to reevaluate all my docking also. 

[oldjeep]

20 minutes ago, ahopkinsTXi said:

That is why I have 150lbs of lead that I can use when we "allegedly" ski with just two people.

Personally I can't stand reverse pulling me towards one of the few blind spots in a ski boat. I would much rather have reverse pull me in the right rear direction were I can see everything that is going on. Now a ballast tank for the observer side would be a good option so I don't have to lug lead around!

Yeah, I don't understand why an observer locker tank isn't an option.  Mastercraft has had one available for years

[Dare2goBare]

26 minutes ago, ahopkinsTXi said:

Now a ballast tank for the observer side would be a good option so I don't have to lug lead around!

Now there's a grest idea. ... I never thought of... might have to look at a Fat Sac to fit  under the spotters seat. Hummmmmm....

wounder what the volume  / weight would be under the seat. A good winter poject.

[Sixball]

58 minutes ago, Dare2goBare said:

Now there's a grest idea. ... I never thought of... might have to look at a Fat Sac to fit  under the spotters seat. Hummmmmm....

wounder what the volume  / weight would be under the seat. A good winter poject.

I have thought about putting one in but what is crazy is we go through work to get the boats light then turn around and add water or led? I sure would love to see what revers rotation would do for our wakes and balance? 

[oldjeep]

28 minutes ago, Sixball said:

I have thought about putting one in but what is crazy is we go through work to get the boats light then turn around and add water or led? I sure would love to see what revers rotation would do for our wakes and balance? 

For all the effort people go through to make the boats light most of the skiers I know are 40 lbs overweight

[Sixball]

5 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

For all the effort people go through to make the boats light most of the skiers I know are 40 lbs overweight

I wish only 40 lbs !     I am not that bad now but two years ago! I can get down to 205 but one day I would love to get back to 180. Might be the day they put me in a box!

[Woodski]

Just my observation, I don't think people really do spend much time really working to make their boats light, pretty much all the boats I see have quite a bit of excess stuff stored in various locations.  In addition, the actual weight of the tournament ski boat has increased quite a bit over the last few decades.  They all hover around the 3k # level now, used to be under 2,500 # for a decent one.  It does take some effort to make sure the boats are balanced, even a 196 & 200 need help with a 200# driver.  Reverse rotation does offer some help, I agree with Hopkins on skier pickup & backing direction.  I moved my battery from center to gunnel to improve balance, that way don't need additional weight for balance for those 2 skier days.  No question, the lighter the better for wake performance, particularly keeping the transom light.  As for skier weight, we estimate 5# per buoy (is what those extra Krispy Kremes cost ...).

[Dare2goBare]

1 hour ago, oldjeep said:

For all the effort people go through to make the boats light most of the skiers I know are 40 lbs overweight

 

1 hour ago, Sixball said:

I wish only 40 lbs !     I am not that bad now but two years ago! I can get down to 205 but one day I would love to get back to 180. Might be the day they put me in a box!

Lol...lol.... Theses coments sure hit home with me this season...  Sixball... my prime was 180 too... Yup at age 21... I have no idea what that realy looks like anymore ?. ..

[Sixball]

1 hour ago, Woodski said:

Just my observation, I don't think people really do spend much time really working to make their boats light, pretty much all the boats I see have quite a bit of excess stuff stored in various locations.  In addition, the actual weight of the tournament ski boat has increased quite a bit over the last few decades.  They all hover around the 3k # level now, used to be under 2,500 # for a decent one.  It does take some effort to make sure the boats are balanced, even a 196 & 200 need help with a 200# driver.  Reverse rotation does offer some help, I agree with Hopkins on skier pickup & backing direction.  I moved my battery from center to gunnel to improve balance, that way don't need additional weight for balance for those 2 skier days.  No question, the lighter the better for wake performance, particularly keeping the transom light.  As for skier weight, we estimate 5# per buoy (is what those extra Krispy Kremes cost ...).

I have not skied a 200 but we ski a 196 two or three times a week and both myself and the owner are over 200 lbs. Nether of us effect the wake for a non spotter run.  We also ski A SS LXI and that boat also has no apparent wake destruction.  We are skiing at 36 and 35 off so may have something to do with all. Oh got to go bud just called coming down to pick me up for a ski!

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Sixball

[Woodski]

@Sixball:  we ski at 34 mph, similar line lengths.  200# Driver only in both a 196 (this particular boat had a lot of stuff in it so that may play a part) and 200 one can see the lean.   Not that the wake becomes bad, it is simply noticeable that it is slightly asymmetric but I have to note also, another skier did not notice until I mentioned it, then he noticed (maybe I just cursed you).  Enjoy the ski run!

[ahopkins22LSV]

I agree on the SS LXi, it doesn't seem to be affected by only having a driver. 

[UWSkier]

Our VLX is affected by this a little bit.  Two anchors in the port bow storage, a boom under the observer seat, and battery in the port stern locker keeps us pretty level though at speed.

[Sixball]

Yeper I don't know if the non ski fanatic would notice what we are calling a bad wake but if you are pushing and aware of things effecting your ski runs its very noticeable. Oh and isn't it always something other then us causing us to miss a would record run.      

Edited July 11, 2017 by Sixball

[oldjeep]

my vtx is pretty weight sensitive.  Don't notice any issues if my wife is the only one in boat but when we have 2-5 I tell them to pay attention to how level the boat seems after she gets up to speed and shift side to side accordingly.