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Need some bimini advice


hants82

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I just bought a 2011 VLX with a G3 tower and it doesn't have a bimini.  The dealer found a used oem bimini (said to be in great shape) for me that I can buy and shipped to my door for $1000.   I can buy a new one from Bakes for that cost.  Any thoughts/experience on the Bakes bimini vs the oem? I'd rather have new than used for the same price. 

Any feedback would be great!

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I don’t know about you, but I reserve the right to determine a great beer and a great deal. If the OEM Bimini was used alot like mine the canvas is most likely getting grayed out and thread bare. Is it a full Bimini like the Bakes $700 version? IMO, the short biminis are worthless especially if you have kids or boat in a very sunny region. Are all of the pieces with the it, or do they think it’s all there? Finding parts and pieces for a good deal could be an expensive PITA! Looking at the Bakes piece it appears to be OEM in all respects. For me it would be a no brainer and if it comes short a few pieces Bakes will take care of you. JM2C

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WDR - thanks for your comments! 

The Bakes full bimini is $900, that is my preference - i agree with your comments. I am hoping that someone has the Bakes bimini and tells me that it’s great! That makes it a super easy decision.  

 

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I bought a bimini from Bakes a few months ago for my 2007 VLX.  I previously had a 2005 VLX with an OEM bimini and the quality of the new one from Bakes one is comparable to the OEM and so far so good.  I have also purchased a bimini from towerbiminis.com many years ago for a 99 Sunsetter that I added a tower to and it was a perfect fit and never had a problem but that was more than 15 years ago so not really relevant for their biminis now. 

The only negative I have about Bakes was that I was told it would be 2.5 to 5 weeks but it wound up being 9 weeks (with the only updates coming when I pestered them with calls/emails about the latest status) so I got it just in time for the summer to be over and not really need it for this year.  If I had know it was going to be 9 weeks I would have gone with towerbiminis even though they were a little more expensive.  I would assume that this time of year there won't be a backlog at Bakes and you shouldn't have the same experience.

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On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 9:10 PM, hants82 said:

I just bought a 2011 VLX with a G3 tower and it doesn't have a bimini.  The dealer found a used oem bimini (said to be in great shape) for me that I can buy and shipped to my door for $1000.   I can buy a new one from Bakes for that cost.  Any thoughts/experience on the Bakes bimini vs the oem? I'd rather have new than used for the same price. 

Any feedback would be great!

hants82, something to be aware of. The 2011 era G3's came with at least two different types of bimini, one that folds forward and stows near the front loop and one that folds up and stows about 3' aft of the loops and right in the way of you walking around. My boat came with the aft stowing version and it was a huge nuisance. You want to make sure that the bimini you're considering stows forward. After an extensive amount of poking around, I ended up having to cut mine and putting hinges in that lets it stow fold forward but it still doesn't stow as cleanly as the ones originally constructed like that.  Just thought you might want to know this as I'm sure you'd be immensely disappointed if you got the one I have. 

My profile may have a few shots of the before and after mod. Well maybe it would if I actually paid for a membership this year. 

Edited by jgates237
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