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Malibu cruise vs. Perfect Pass for slalom


usnacs

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I am considering a 2006 Rlxi with Malibu cruise. I am wondering how well it works. I will use it for slalom course, but not for tournaments. I am not too sure how it works. Can you preset your speed and release the throttle when you are near the speed? Is it accurate? Will it hold the speed well during pulls? Is it a mistake to not have perfect pass? Thanks for the input.

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I do have some limited experience with the Malibu cruise, but only pulling boarders. If you are going to be course skiing you should get PerfectPass. The PP has a much more sophisticated method for holding speed under skier pull. As far as I can tell, the Cruise will hold a preset speed, but has no way to tailor the response to load. Just my $.02

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What experience do you have with Perfect Pass in relation to pulling through the course?

I have little experience with perfect pass. I have been mainly an open water skiier, but want to begin course skiing. That is why I wanted to find out about the Malibu cruise. Will it be acceptable? I don't need perfection, but do want to make sure it will be adequate.

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Well, given that you don't have a lot of experience with PP, then the stock system will probably be fine, at least for a while. But what you find with PP is that it's got settings that adjust for not only the skier's weight, but the weight of the people in the boat. It's also got the sensors for the magnets in the course to really get the timing right, as well as a myriad of other settings to really fine-tune the pull. The stock system has none of those settings (it's just a very basic system in that regard), so as you progress you may find that you'll want it. I believe that PP can be added later, so I don't think that it's something that you need to worry about if the boat doesn't have it OTD. Make sure to talk with your dealer about that.

EDIT: To answer your question about how the stock system works, I think that it works pretty well on my boat. Others may not agree & maybe in their setup it doesn't hold speed as well, but I've got a good match of prop & engine, & I've found that in our case it works pretty well. I would like to have some of the tweak-ability settings that PP offers, but not enough to spend the $1200 to put it in. :) YMMV

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Get the PPass Digital Pro now, when you take delivery. You'll probably only pay more for it later, and you can use the RPM-based slalom mode for open water & your early forays into the course. If your course has magnets, use them- much easier to calibrate & saves a lot of hassle for the driver who's learning the course.

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The cruise system uses the paddle wheel for control and will drastically lag the skiers pull. Slalom skiers could have been using this for years in PP but have gone with the RPM version of "speed control". PP isn't really speed control it's RPM control. The magnet sensor also has nothing to do with the rpm control, other than to provide feedback- not real time, to the driver for the next run.

Now, let me also say that I, myself have never tried to ski with a speed based control( the paddlewheel) at anything over 21mph with a wakeboard strapped to me. I think you'll find the flucuations to be on the order of 1.5mph, with rpm based control you can tune it to 15-20 rpm( about .2mph) fluctuations and by hand you may be on the order of .5mph fluctuations, unless my wife is driving you and then you'll get what ever speed you want. +/- .2mph.

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Skisix,

You do know that the Cruise system has an rpm mode, right? It doesn't work very well for wakeboarding, but seems to hold pretty good for a skier.

Well, now there you go making me look bad-I knew I should have thrown you in the water when I had the chance! I didn't know it had a rpm mode, that probably would work ok. It doesn't work for wakeboarding because the boat wants to start planning.

Once again WG delites us with her allknowing knowledge! You da man, er... Chick!

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Skisix,

You do know that the Cruise system has an rpm mode, right? It doesn't work very well for wakeboarding, but seems to hold pretty good for a skier.

Well, now there you go making me look bad-I knew I should have thrown you in the water when I had the chance! I didn't know it had a rpm mode, that probably would work ok. It doesn't work for wakeboarding because the boat wants to start planning.

Once again WG delites us with her allknowing knowledge! You da man, er... Chick!

ROFL.gifROFL.gif

It actually does work pretty well, even when we pull Joe behind Rosie (Rosie is our pet name for the VLX, as in AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" :lol:). Doesn't track like a direct drive & I'd never attempt to drive her through the course, but with the Hammerhead it holds pretty good. Like I said, if a person is used to PP then they probably wouldn't like the lack of features, but it's decent for a stock system, IMO.

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I am considering a 2006 Rlxi with Malibu cruise. I am wondering how well it works. I will use it for slalom course, but not for tournaments. I am not too sure how it works. Can you preset your speed and release the throttle when you are near the speed? Is it accurate? Will it hold the speed well during pulls? Is it a mistake to not have perfect pass? Thanks for the input.

I just purchased an 2006 Response LX with the cruise control this summer. I ski the course about fifty percent of the time. The stock cruise control system seems to work well enough for me and the guys I ski with. It does function as a speed control or as a rpm based control. The speed can be set to the even numbered tenth of a MPH.

None of the guys that I ski with had any type of speed control before this season. We all seemed to like the cruise control and adjust to it. None of us our professionals but we tend to ski from 22' off down to 32' off.

Malibu dealer told me not to buy perfect pass unless I skied on a course with magnets.

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The only problem with the Malibu cruise is the timing, there is none. There is no way you can equate a certain rpm with a certain speed without the timing. If you want the speed to be accurate then you need the perfect pass for the timing system alone. I'm a Malibu dealer in Indiana and this is what we recomend to all our customers. If you are just free skiing then it's not a big deal, but if you plan to ski the course the exact speed is very important.

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