2019 Malibu 25LSV maiden voyage

[gregtay]

48 minutes ago, jwl019 said:

Acme 2401 would be the next step up I think if you wanted to lower the rpm's.

Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind, might want to try it. Most of the charts I have seen stopped at the 2277.

[bbattiste247]

11 hours ago, gregtay said:

And that is with a 2277 prop... it is driving like a have high alt/power prop. Wish I could go one step higher to get the RPMs down but I don't know if AcME has anything higher that the 2277.

I have an Acme 2401 that I used on my 2017 23 lsv. It lowers the RPM's significantly and increases top speed, but you may not get up to surfing speed if you are carrying  a lot of  weight. In order for the 2401 to work well, you need bow weight in proportion to the rear weight to keep the prop propelling straight in the water. I have an ACME 2401 for sale that I posted it in classifieds several months ago. If you are interested, PM me. It is a good price.

Edited April 29, 2019 by bbattiste247

[gregtay]

3 hours ago, bbattiste247 said:

I have an Acme 2401 that I used on my 2017 23 lsv. It lowers the RPM's significantly and increases top speed, but you may not get up to surfing speed if you are carrying  a lot of  weight. In order for the 2401 to work well, you need bow weight in proportion to the rear weight to keep the prop propelling straight in the water. I have an ACME 2401 for sale that I posted it in classifieds several months ago. If you are interested, PM me. It is a good price.

Thanks, let me play around with the 2277 a bit more.. but might pick up your 2401 just to compare.

[TallRedRider]

The mechanic fixed my rudder issue.  I was surprised that it did not seem to be much different from under the boat than before.  The turning radius seems just a little better to the left, not as much as I thought it should be, but it made a substantial difference in performance on the water.  

I can now turn left when idling, even when fully loaded.  I can even turn left when surfing on the left sufficiently to make a turn when I get to the end of my smallish lake, despite fighting the surfgate, whereas before, it would be a good 1/4 mile turning radius.  

He said that the rudder was tight, so he doubted that it had come loose, but was set up that way from the factory.  So if your boat won't turn left worth crap, it is worth a check from the dealer.  

[Raleigh]

On 2/22/2019 at 7:00 PM, Dfowkes said:

Just finally was able to get the boat wet today.  We are coming from a 2016 25LSV G4 and supercharged motor with 1.5 to 1 transmission.  New boat is 2019 25LSV with 6.2DI and GX tower with 2:1, 17 in prop, and PWIII.  I am super impressed with the changes.  I really wasn't sure what to believe when everyone was saying that the new DI motor was so much more quite and smoother than the previous generation raptor.  I had zero complaints about the raptor motor.  The supercharger did have a distinctive whine but it was a great motor.  This new 6.2 DI is more quite and is smoother than my previous combination.  The new motor, transmission combo, and 17 in prop truly are game changers.  The new boat has more hole shot and jumps on plane faster.  Some could be attributed to PWIII maybe but it is a very noticeable difference.  The GX tower is really cool.  I know it's an expensive option but you do get clamping board racks and 4 tower speakers with the upgrade.  Being able to trailer with tower down is great.  No more bugs to clean off the speakers and tower.  My previous 2016 with the G4 tower had the Z5 bimini.  I really liked the shade and coverage and versatility of the Z5 but it meant that it was either on or off and if on you could not lower the tower.  Looking forward to a great summer on the water with the family.  

Beautiful!

[dwc032]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but had our brand new 23 MXZ out this weekend and the boats steering wheel is 90 degrees to the left while under way at all speeds and will not turn left at slow speeds. Probably just an easy fix, but still a little frustrating. And the boat leans to Starboard like others have stated. Here are some pics. 

Edited August 11, 2020 by dwc032

[gregtay]

3 hours ago, dwc032 said:

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but had our brand new 23 MXZ out this weekend and the boats steering wheel is 90 degrees to the left while under way at all speeds and will not turn left at slow speeds. Probably just an easy fix, but still a little frustrating. And the boat leans to Starboard like others have stated. Here are some pics. 

The steering wheel being "not straight" like a car isn't a huge deal, someone at the factory was just a little lazy and didn't even get a close.  Boats are a bit different than a car and it is rare you will find a true "center" and have that work for all speeds.  My old 08 had a "directional" steering wheel and it drove me nuts that it was never straight so I finally put on a nice unidirectional one ( I was surprised to see Malibu go back to one in 2020.)  Yours does seem a bit extreme and your dealer should be able to just pull it off, rotate it and put it back on the way you want it.  Or you can do it yourself if you have a puller.

Need a little more info on "wont turn left as slow speeds": what is "slow" and do you have the ballast full or surfgate active?  

Some general answers:

In general (compared to boats from 5-10 years ago) these newer boats are pigs and don't turn as well at slow speeds (which is why they now offer thrusters... 10 years ago you certainly didn't need a thruster on a Malibu but I can start to see the argument for one (you still don't need one.. it is just a nice to have.)  You have the bigger prop and rudder so it should help with maneuvering... but sometimes if you are stopped and put it in gear (at idle speed) and you want to turn to the port it is just going to take some forward momentum to make the rudder effective. Toss it in reverse and that will start getting the boat to rotate the direction you want, then back to forward.  If the boat is full of ballast the boat is even less responsive.  If you are surfing with surfgate and the gate is deployed then the boat will not want to turn to the port. just the physics of the large SG acting as it's own to cancel out your rudder input.  Once you get the boat up to surf speed (10-11ish) then you can turn left but even then it takes some effort (you won't turn sharp.)

So what you need to do is find out if what you are experiencing is "normal" handling (just not sure how familiar you are with how a newer Malibu handles.)  If not, then it's possible your rudder control arm isn't set up correctly as discussed a page back in this thread.  Take a look at the rudder when the boat is out of the water and see what angle it is at when full port and full starboard.

As far as the lean/list,  depends on how bad it is.  There are so many things that can contribute weight in the boat, etc) along with the bigger props possibly causing some sort of torque lean.  When no one is on the boat and it is sitting in the water does it have a list?

 

[dwc032]

Greg,

Thanks for the post. You’ve always had good info to share. The turning left is when I attempt to turn around and grab a down boarded and yes full ballast. I had a 2013 23 LSV before this. Handled pretty good. I will check the rudder and report back. Thanks for the help!

[TallRedRider]

My boat would not turn left when surfing when I first got it.  If I ran out of lake and thought I was going to turn left, it would not go.  There was some adjustment in the rudder that fixed it.  It never steers great when surfing, but it did get a lot better.  There is a whole thread about this I contributed to somewhere here.