Check your malibu trailer bunks

[spikew919]

As you can see in pics, there are staples in top side of my bunks that are damaging hull of brand new 2017 boat along with right beside the staple is hole in carpet where bolt head is also coming through whe trailering, staple is circled in pic and arrow pointing at bolt head. Have 3 or 4 staples in each bunk doing damage. Just thought everyone needs a heads, up, I find it hard to believe that mine is only trailer that some incompetent person stapled carpet in from topside. ??‍♂️ Don't shoot the messenger. And  no I did not remove them all from lack of time. Second pic is staple after removed. The whites stuff is gel coat and maybe fiberglass? Look like fiberglass powder but may be just gel. ??‍♂️

Edited June 11, 2017 by spikew919

[DUKENO1]

Wow

[bamabonners]

And these guys will be making engines...

Too soon?  Just kidding.....

[ahopkins22LSV]

These are in the areas that touch the boat? Can't see with the super zoomed in pictures. 

[teamerickson]

Do you have panned out pictures?

[spikew919]

26 minutes ago, teamerickson said:

Do you have panned out pictures?

28 minutes ago, ahopkinsTXi said:

These are in the areas that touch the boat? Can't see with the super zoomed in pictures. 

Best I can do on panned out pics. Bolt heads are circled and are white from gel coat grindings. Took those panned out pics 2 weeks ago. 

And of course it is the  area that touches the boat. How else would it be grinding into hull. And it's random staples. Like 3 or 4 per bunk as far as I could tell today at ramp. 2nd pic is bolt head where staple was next to that I pulled out today. There is another staple between there and next bolt also on that bunk. 

Edited June 11, 2017 by spikew919

[Rednucleus]

Maybe a Monday trailer? Or 1st day on the job high school summer internship or bring your kid to work day??

Wow; Really really wow!

I congratulate you for not showing up on the news yet for torching the dealership. Someone owes you a new trailer and a boat bottom re-do.

[MalibuNation]

Have you had time to talk to your dealer?  Best of luck.

[ahopkins22LSV]

That sucks spike. I wasn't doubting you I was just curious. My guess is the staples were doing the damage to the carpet and the hull. Because like we have said before I don't understand ho the bolt head could do any damage to the hull without wearing through the carpet. And honestly it's crazy to think that a staple did the damage you've taken pictures of, but I've never experienced it before. 

Like MN said, did you talk to your dealer about this?

[spikew919]

Been talking to dealer, for two weeks now, and also malibu customer service. Dealer wants boat and trailer to go back to factory for repairs and trailer redo or whatever.  Customer service just wanted to ship out new bunks and carpet to dealer and let them  do rest. After customer service spoke with dealers malibu sales rep. Now customer service says they are waiting on trailer shop again to give them a permanent fix to trailer. Maybe after dealer explained to them braces are bowing under middle of bunk they realize new bunks still aren't Gona be strong enough. 

I still really would check my bunks for staples if you have a malibu trailer. 

[billjames]

Strange, you put the staples at the bottom of the bunk not on top where the boat sit. The bowed braced is much more problematic, as it seems a design issue and not a production issue (staple).

Definitively a summer internship job, on Monday morning job if you are positive. If you are negative, Malibu just hired very low paid guys to build their trailers and those guys f...ing do not care about what they are doing because at that salary level Malibu will not find anyone else to hire :).

[Lablvr]

Our trailer bunks looked like this too along with the carpet torn in the corners and the wood rotting underneath. We went back to dealer and they said bunks are not covered under warranty so we are replacing them ourselves. Poor craftsmanship on these boatmate trailers in my opinion or the dealer gave us a used trailer.

[bcoppess23]

5 minutes ago, Lablvr said:

Our trailer bunks looked like this too along with the carpet torn in the corners and the wood rotting underneath. We went back to dealer and they said bunks are not covered under warranty so we are replacing them ourselves. Poor craftsmanship on these boatmate trailers in my opinion or the dealer gave us a used trailer.

The OP is having issues on Malibu built trailers, not Boatmate.

[bcoppess23]

On a positive, yet frustrating side of the coin, with this being a Malibu built trailer, you have one throat to choke and Malibu cannot pass blame to anyone other than themselves on this issue.

[powbmps]

So is it normal for the carpet to wear that quickly on the bunks?  That is more worn than what I just pulled off my 2003 trailer.  

[spikew919]

22 minutes ago, powbmps said:

So is it normal for the carpet to wear that quickly on the bunks?  That is more worn than what I just pulled off my 2003 trailer.  

Definitely not normal. Especially not the staples ? 

[solorex]

Wow.. that's bad.  Doesn't even look like the carpet is wrapped that well on the ends.

[surfdude]

Wow! Liquid roller won't help you out in that situation 

[Steve B.]

Ya, looking at it again too. Any update on the fix?

Steve B.

[spikew919]

23 minutes ago, Steve B. said:

Ya, looking at it again too. Any update on the fix?

Steve B.

I very seldom get a reply from Malibu cs by email, but 2 weeks ago they were checking on bunks to see when could ship to dealer, "which I still don't believe is Gona fix issues" but I replied ok what about gel. To which he said they are trying to figure what to do with that. Same day I have another guy I have been in contact with, with same exact wear on bunks of m235 trailer. So I sent Malibu his pics and their response was do we use same ramp. To which I replied no, he is in another state never even seen his boat in person. 

Now Malibu cs has been silent, and I literally email them ever couple days to see if are any updates. Today actually got an automated reply stating Gary is out. 

Mean time the other guy had used go pro to prove his boat is floating over bunks. So his dealer is going to recarpet bunks and see if that fixes his. 

Just odd his wear areas are in almost identical spots as mine. Which still says it's the high spots on bunks and happening while trailering and speedo sensor, sonar sensor and thru hulls resting on bunk edges rubbing also. 

Thats where I am in a nutshell after 2 months. 

[Fman]

4 hours ago, spikew919 said:

I very seldom get a reply from Malibu cs by email, but 2 weeks ago they were checking on bunks to see when could ship to dealer, "which I still don't believe is Gona fix issues" but I replied ok what about gel. To which he said they are trying to figure what to do with that. Same day I have another guy I have been in contact with, with same exact wear on bunks of m235 trailer. So I sent Malibu his pics and their response was do we use same ramp. To which I replied no, he is in another state never even seen his boat in person. 

Now Malibu cs has been silent, and I literally email them ever couple days to see if are any updates. Today actually got an automated reply stating Gary is out. 

Mean time the other guy had used go pro to prove his boat is floating over bunks. So his dealer is going to recarpet bunks and see if that fixes his. 

Just odd his wear areas are in almost identical spots as mine. Which still says it's the high spots on bunks and happening while trailering and speedo sensor, sonar sensor and thru hulls resting on bunk edges rubbing also. 

Thats where I am in a nutshell after 2 months. 

Where is your dealer?  You should not be emailing Malibu on warranty repairs they should be handling all of this for you.

[spikew919]

6 hours ago, Fman said:

Where is your dealer?  You should not be emailing Malibu on warranty repairs they should be handling all of this for you.

My dealer is in tupelo MS, he was in contact and is still in contact with them, and he was getting no where with them either, they kept telling him would get with trailer shop and then was waiting on trailer shop. And they kept wanting pics, so then he would ask me for pics. That being said, we agreed would be better to cut out the middle man. But he is still in constant contact with them. He is a smalll dealer but closest one to me. 

[Judders]

What's the latest? Just about to pull the trigger on a new boat and this has me concerned.

 

[hethj7]

I checked my bunks - can't say for sure if bolt heads protrude or not, but my staples are on the bottom and the ends of the bunks are even chamfered to reduce the edge on the 2x4 when loading.    Other than some surface rust showing up already in some spots, I'm really happy with the Malibu trailer.    Hope you get to the bottom of your issue and if there are doing something different on the M235 line or just have one idiot that keeps working on your stuff.    Sorry it is such a pain, but for others buying, I would check your bunks at delivery, but wouldn't hesitate getting a Malibu over this. 

[gregtay]

On 8/7/2017 at 10:22 AM, hethj7 said:

I checked my bunks - can't say for sure if bolt heads protrude or not, but my staples are on the bottom and the ends of the bunks are even chamfered to reduce the edge on the 2x4 when loading.    Other than some surface rust showing up already in some spots, I'm really happy with the Malibu trailer.    Hope you get to the bottom of your issue and if there are doing something different on the M235 line or just have one idiot that keeps working on your stuff.    Sorry it is such a pain, but for others buying, I would check your bunks at delivery, but wouldn't hesitate getting a Malibu over this. 

Old thread but figured I would add a comment.  My 2019 had the same issue with the heads sticking up above the bunks... but even worse, they used the wrong bolts (they used big hex bolts vs rounded carriage bolts.  My dealer had been working with Malibu on this.  We finally received new bunks from the factory and (maybe not all that surprising at this point) the new bunks have the correct rounded carriage bolts but not at all countersunk.  Apparently this is just how MAlibu does it. The idea being that you just really torque down the bolts in in theory crush the wood enough that the bolt head sinks enough into the bunk.  Crazy.. but I guess this is just how they do it. So it is really up to the guy installing bolts at the factory and how hard the piece of wood is to determines if your bolts will be pulled down far enough to not be banging against your gel.