Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

2019 Malibu 25LSV maiden voyage


Dfowkes

Recommended Posts

I mentioned earlier in this thread (I think it was this thread), how poorly my new 25 turns to the left when surfing.  It is understandable to some degree because it is fighting the surfgate.  I noticed yesterday that the turning to the left was poor when ballasted at idle.  I confirmed the surfgate was retracted. 

My usual MO when a surfer falls is to back off the throttle, turn to one side and let the wave pass.  This usually gets me turned 90 degrees or better.  I then idle back to my rider and off we go.  If I do this to the left, the turn radius is so poor that I can't get back to the rider.  I got under the boat to check things out and it is clear that my rudder does not turn as far to the left as it does to the right.  Pics might be a little tough to see, but if you line up the rudder with the bolts of the rudder box, you can see that it is just short of being even with the rear bolt in the first pic on the left, but 15-20 degrees or so past the rear bolt on the right.  In person, it looks pretty significant.  Is it supposed to be that way?  Does this explain my issue?  I can accept it while surfing, but cannot accept this lack of handling at idle speeds.  

 

This pic is taken from the right side of the boat, with the rudder turned as far as it will go.  

20190421_120725.jpg

 

This picture is taken from the left side of the boat, with the rudder turned fully to the left.  

20190421_120651.jpg

Edited by TallRedRider
Link to comment

@TallRedRider That is your issue. Your steering is set up wrong. In fact, your rudder should turn considerably more left than right. This is to compensate for prop walk. 

At center of steering at your wheel, the rudder should be sitting at about 5-7 degrees left of center.

yours has been set up with the wrong offset..... 

Link to comment
55 minutes ago, wdr said:

Not normal. That was most definitely banged, dropped or otherwise bent some how. This one took about a 3k pound log to bend. 

 

It looks kind of bent in the pictures, but I don't think it is.  Do they ship them with the rudder on?  It hasn't hit anything since I have had possession of it.  

24 minutes ago, TenTwentyOne said:

@TallRedRider That is your issue. Your steering is set up wrong. In fact, your rudder should turn considerably more left than right. This is to compensate for prop walk. 

At center of steering at your wheel, the rudder should be sitting at about 5-7 degrees left of center.

yours has been set up with the wrong offset..... 

Looks like I definitely will be getting the shop guys to look at it.  Thanks for the input.  

Link to comment
2 hours ago, TallRedRider said:

I mentioned earlier in this thread (I think it was this thread), how poorly my new 25 turns to the left when surfing.  It is understandable to some degree because it is fighting the surfgate.  I noticed yesterday that the turning to the left was poor when ballasted at idle.  I confirmed the surfgate was retracted. 

My usual MO when a surfer falls is to back off the throttle, turn to one side and let the wave pass.  This usually gets me turned 90 degrees or better.  I then idle back to my rider and off we go.  If I do this to the left, the turn radius is so poor that I can't get back to the rider.  I got under the boat to check things out and it is clear that my rudder does not turn as far to the left as it does to the right.  Pics might be a little tough to see, but if you line up the rudder with the bolts of the rudder box, you can see that it is just short of being even with the rear bolt in the first pic on the left, but 15-20 degrees or so past the rear bolt on the right.  In person, it looks pretty significant.  Is it supposed to be that way?  Does this explain my issue?  I can accept it while surfing, but cannot accept this lack of handling at idle speeds.  

 

This pic is taken from the right side of the boat, with the rudder turned as far as it will go.  

20190421_120725.jpg

 

This picture is taken from the left side of the boat, with the rudder turned fully to the left.  

20190421_120651.jpg

I have the same problem on 2019 25 lsv. On Friday, I was returning to a rider with the wheel turned all the way to the left. I was going just above idle speed turning fine when all of a sudden my boat just starts going straight with the wheel pinned to the left. It felt like I was on a track that started to go straight. It was weird, so we briefly checked the prop at the end of the day and my other two experience boaters told me to take it in and have it checked out. 

Link to comment

After a second look, the rudder adjustment tab is adjusted crazy out side of the norm that I have seen. My last 3 boats had the tab adjusted barely a credit card thickness to port. The new rudder that replaced the one pictured was adjusted the same way and tracked like a laser when I replaced it. I am no boat mechanic, but I have never seen a rudder trim tab adjusted that far to one side or the other. 

Edited by wdr
Link to comment
7 minutes ago, wdr said:

After a second look, the rudder adjustment tab is adjusted crazy out side of the norm that I have seen. My last 3 boats had the tab adjusted barely a credit card thickness to port. The new rudder that replaced the one pictured was adjusted the same way and tracked like a laser when I replaced it. I am no boat mechanic, but I have never seen a rudder trim tab adjusted that far to one side or the other. 

That little tab won’t change anything for low speed turning. That tab is only for a very slight adjustment to compensate for pull on the steering wheel. It won’t change the handling characteristics of the boat. (at least not this particular low speed tight maneuvering type)

I did a quick drawing of how it should be set up (Roughly). Excuse my terrible drawing skills....

If your rudders are not set up this way, it is the reason why your boats turn a lot better to the right..... This is assuming that Malibu is continueing to use left hand prop rotation. If an inboard has a right hand rotation, it would be set up opposite of this. 

If it is more than one boat that is set up this way, there could be a reason why. I wouldn’t think this is the case, but it is possible that the new hull might be susceptible to chine lock or something, and they are purposely limiting rudder travel to port. This is unlikely, but it is weird if multiple boats are set up with rudder offset in the wrong direction.

 

1EAA7FB4-8E5B-4121-A702-B84159FF54A9.jpeg

Link to comment
25 minutes ago, bbattiste247 said:

I have the same problem on 2019 25 lsv. On Friday, I was returning to a rider with the wheel turned all the way to the left. I was going just above idle speed turning fine when all of a sudden my boat just starts going straight with the wheel pinned to the left. It felt like I was on a track that started to go straight. It was weird, so we briefly checked the prop at the end of the day and my other two experience boaters told me to take it in and have it checked out. 

Interesting.  Mine doesn't track straight, but I can do a circle to the left that has a radius of about 50 yards or more while idling.  

Link to comment

I understand that the tab is for fine tuning or pre loading the rudder for higher speed tracking. I don't think it is normal to have that much tab adjustment applied unless it is purposely put in to counter act some other action occurring. Maybe the torque of the M6 with the 17” prop requires it? I would of thought that, that would of been a known issue by now with as many people that are dialed in on here.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
50 minutes ago, TenTwentyOne said:

That little tab won’t change anything for low speed turning. That tab is only for a very slight adjustment to compensate for pull on the steering wheel. It won’t change the handling characteristics of the boat. (at least not this particular low speed tight maneuvering type)

I did a quick drawing of how it should be set up (Roughly). Excuse my terrible drawing skills....

If your rudders are not set up this way, it is the reason why your boats turn a lot better to the right..... This is assuming that Malibu is continueing to use left hand prop rotation. If an inboard has a right hand rotation, it would be set up opposite of this. 

If it is more than one boat that is set up this way, there could be a reason why. I wouldn’t think this is the case, but it is possible that the new hull might be susceptible to chine lock or something, and they are purposely limiting rudder travel to port. This is unlikely, but it is weird if multiple boats are set up with rudder offset in the wrong direction.

 

1EAA7FB4-8E5B-4121-A702-B84159FF54A9.jpeg

My boat was ordered in early October and arrived in early January. I think mine may have been an early batch that may have this problem.  

Link to comment
ahopkins22LSV

These are bad pictures, but on the starboard side rear of the engine this thing should be mounted to the stringer. It’s a carrier (lack of a better term?) for your steering cable. I had the silver lock nut and forward back plastic nut come loose on a 2017 we were demo’ing. Wife was driving for me surfing and one time I fell she had no left turn steering. I’m not saying make any adjustments to this although you might be able to to get it more towards 1021’s setup, but I’d double check it to make sure nothing is loose. We were able to makeshift tighten it on the water by turn the wheel to lock right as the rear nut was tight and I assumed that would set the position ok. I’m pretty sure it was to the right, but I don’t fully remember. We double checked we had full turns both directions before going again. It worked but it was a pain! It was right below the exhaust manifold on the raptor engine. 

D79218A6-3394-40ED-A2A0-A1754F555A27.thumb.jpeg.f57b069d8e14bb9dbb431a8318f1deae.jpeg

807CE629-4313-4465-912E-985BCD051341.thumb.jpeg.8714f9a8abbdc67de11d4f1182cfcab6.jpeg

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

^ That's a good picture to add. It shows that the cable ram is adjustable as well. Even if the nuts are not loose, it might be that they just need to make a simple adjustment to have the rudder in the better position to offset prop walk forces. I'd just make sure the dealer checks with Bu to make sure their isn't an outside reason that it was set up that way in the beginning, before just jumping in and adjusting the steering dynamics.

 

I have done this very thing to myself in the past. I changed the steering cable on a friends boat, and I had set everything at center. I didn't even think about the fact that I should offset to left, until we went on a water test. The steering was a half turn to the left when going straight, and the boat turned 2x better to starboard than port. So, we checked a couple other boats, and adjusted the cable to be centered at about 6 degrees to port..... All good after that.

On the boats we checked (15 LSV, 12 230, and a Mondo), the rudder would turn almost a full 90 degrees to port, and only about 65-70 degrees to starboard. Center was +/- 5 to 7 degrees to port.

Link to comment

Along the same line, is anyone experiencing steering lock with the SG deployed? I wasn't driving yesterday, but my son had the wheel turned all of the way left to get the boat to track straight in the "surf left" gate mode. Probably have to add this to the punch list when I head down to the dealer for the first service.

Edited by wdr
Link to comment
13 hours ago, TenTwentyOne said:

That little tab won’t change anything for low speed turning. That tab is only for a very slight adjustment to compensate for pull on the steering wheel. It won’t change the handling characteristics of the boat. (at least not this particular low speed tight maneuvering type)

I did a quick drawing of how it should be set up (Roughly). Excuse my terrible drawing skills....

If your rudders are not set up this way, it is the reason why your boats turn a lot better to the right..... This is assuming that Malibu is continueing to use left hand prop rotation. If an inboard has a right hand rotation, it would be set up opposite of this. 

If it is more than one boat that is set up this way, there could be a reason why. I wouldn’t think this is the case, but it is possible that the new hull might be susceptible to chine lock or something, and they are purposely limiting rudder travel to port. This is unlikely, but it is weird if multiple boats are set up with rudder offset in the wrong direction.

 

1EAA7FB4-8E5B-4121-A702-B84159FF54A9.jpeg

I should add that this picture is the most eloquent description of the problem.  My rudder does the exact mirror image of this.  I do have an email out to my dealer.  They are closed Mondays.  

 

The tab on the rudder was adjusted the day I picked up the boat and complained it did not turn left well when loaded for surfing.  That is why it goes so far out.   In retrospect, I think maybe the mechanic was  not using his full cerebrum.  Even good dealers can benefit from the collective intelligence of The Crew, so I figured I would get a jump on it by asking here.  

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Boulder Boats got back with me today.  They will have their tech look at it Friday for me.  I am very pleased with that.  Hopefully he confirms my suspicions and is able to resolve the problem.  I am also going to put the tab so that it is not so far out, and is more in line with what the stock factory rudder adjustment was.  

Link to comment
1 hour ago, TallRedRider said:

Boulder Boats got back with me today.  They will have their tech look at it Friday for me.  I am very pleased with that.  Hopefully he confirms my suspicions and is able to resolve the problem.  I am also going to put the tab so that it is not so far out, and is more in line with what the stock factory rudder adjustment was.  

do you have to pull to LV and back or do they have someone local for you?

Link to comment
1 hour ago, shawndoggy said:

do you have to pull to LV and back or do they have someone local for you?

One of my reasons for going with them was that they have someone local.  I understand that for certain bigger projects, it may have to go to the main shop, but most routine items can be taken care of here.   For those not familiar, I live about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Las Vegas.  I have a Nautique dealer 8 minutes from my house, but that is a different story.  

Edited by TallRedRider
  • Like 3
Link to comment
On 4/17/2019 at 5:28 PM, gregtay said:

We had my 2019 23LSV out on the lake today that was built last week with an M6di and screen showed 14.2 volts the entire time.  So maybe they changed something in the newer builds (or the 25LSV is somehow wired up differently which seems unlikely.) 

7.thumb.JPG.6e9edee54927461b80c4070cfdc4944d.JPG

Put another hour in my 23LSV with the M6 and confirmed 14.2v regardless of extra equipment on or off. Curious if someone with a newer build 25LSV is seeing the same thing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
8 hours ago, gregtay said:

Put another hour in my 23LSV with the M6 and confirmed 14.2v regardless of extra equipment on or off. Curious if someone with a newer build 25LSV is seeing the same thing.

I have ‘19 25 LSV built late 2018. It reads over 15. Is there a way to check firmware version? Wondering if I am due for an update to get to your gauge levels. 

Link to comment
On ‎4‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 3:02 AM, gregtay said:

Put another hour in my 23LSV with the M6 and confirmed 14.2v regardless of extra equipment on or off. Curious if someone with a newer build 25LSV is seeing the same thing.

4000rpm at 25Mph, they still seem to be revving high

Link to comment
15 minutes ago, AussieSkier said:

4000rpm at 25Mph, they still seem to be revving high

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.

Link to comment
1 hour 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.

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

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...