Advice on buying Malibu Ride XTi 2006

[SimSim]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and new to wakeboard boats. I have owned an I/O for a while now, but would like to switch to wakeboard boat, or in this case more specifically cross over, so I would really appreciate any input regarding it. Boat is Malibu Ride XTi 2006 with little bit more than 500h on the clock. It has:

1)     Four tower speakers

2)     Integrated bow ballast

3)     Manual wedge

4)     Tower with wake racks & mirror

Other than that I think its all stock equipment.

We usually use boat in a company of 6-8 people, 80% wakeboarding, 20% tubing, would be really interested to wake surf, if it is possible with this boat. So here are my questions.

1)     Is the wake good enough to accommodate intermediate wakeboard riders with no additional ballast?

2)     If not how much ballast and where should be added?

3)     If possible, how much ballast should be added for wake surfing?

4)     Any common flaws or problems to look at before buying? Also afterwards, when using.

5)     Can you explain the difference between same year Wake setter XTi vs Ride XTi? Hull, ballast, wake, etc….

[Nitrousbird]

Your focus is wake surfing and wakeboarding.  Wrong boat to choose - get a Vdrive instead. 

[itznowonder]

I agree with nitrosbird, if you are 80% wakeboarding why think crossover with an XTI?

If you have your heart set on an XTI my experience has been good using a DD for surf. With me and my 2 daughters we have roughly 375# worth of ppl. we are all goofy.We can surf just using our wedge, keep in mind that one of those ppl will be the surfer so take that number down to 230#. After years of playing with the surf wake I have added 400# bag under the storage next to the motor box but moved as far aft as possible. I think I could increase this bag to #750 and be ok. (to put that weight for a regular rider the bag will be in the walk area) I also added another 400# bag in the very back. I have thought about adding more but the freeboard is low and is worrisome to me to add more. with that weight we run the wedge at 3. I also have a mission delta wake shaper. honestly for the mission delta to work well you need to bring ballast buddies and move them around to get that thing at the perfect depth to make the wave. I run my mid ship ballast,450# at about half.  This video was taken before the rear 400# bag, but you can see the wave is short and the push is really close to the stern of the boat, i can occasionally lengthen it out but its work, I won't lie.

 

[SimSim]

Thanks Guys for the input!

I am looking at XTI as in my country used wakeboard boat market is almost non existent, there are very few boats available. 

But the main question is, weather the wake for wakeboarding will be nice with the built in balast an let say one more 500 pound sack?