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2016 25LSV or 2017 23LSV


krward

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I used to be pretty active on here but have been out the boating world for a while. Looking at a 2016 25LSV with the 575 motor and G4 tower with lots of options ~300hrs or 2017 23LSV with the 450 motor and G3.5 tower and similar options and 250 hours. Both are similar in price. I am leaning towards the 25, but appreciate different perspectives from this group the  best direction. I know the 23 is super popular and they are selling fast in most markets. 

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Give us a little more direction about how you believe you will use your boat:  surfing, boarding, skiing, tubing, tie-ups, etc.  Large groups for crew, or small groups?  Trailering or on a lift at your dock?  Long trips on rough water?  I don't think that the hour difference, the year difference or the size difference is going to be a make or break factor in determining which is best - both are great boats, so I would pick what fits your personal situation the best.  If you are leaning toward the 25, then it is probably the 25.  And I say that even though I love my 2016 23.  

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Last summer we demo'd the 23 then the 25.  My wife was originally dead set against the 25, said it was just too big, but agreed to demo it just to shut me up. We bought a 25 that day. 

IF you can go demo the 25, then get in the 23 and still consider the 23, then you should get the 23. Personally i think if you demo both, you will end up in the 25.

Either way, both are great, so no real downside either way. 

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Thanks all. Demoing will be tough, but definitely want to do it. Boat use with be surfing mostly and occasionally we will have another family so 9-10 people is a big group when that happens. Normally just 4-5 of us. We have always had 21-22 ft boats prior to this, so hoping the 25 handles the rough water and Lake Powell 
Thunderstorms we seem to hit every year better than the 21 ft boat. 

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15 hours ago, krward said:

Thanks all. Demoing will be tough, but definitely want to do it. Boat use with be surfing mostly and occasionally we will have another family so 9-10 people is a big group when that happens. Normally just 4-5 of us. We have always had 21-22 ft boats prior to this, so hoping the 25 handles the rough water and Lake Powell 
Thunderstorms we seem to hit every year better than the 21 ft boat. 

when you start getting 4-5 adults the boat feels filled up fast even the 25 starts to fill up cant imagine 9-10 on a 23 footer

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11 minutes ago, camcruiser13 said:

when you start getting 4-5 adults the boat feels filled up fast even the 25 starts to fill up cant imagine 9-10 on a 23 footer

All day and twice on Sunday's in a 23!  :thumbup:  

IMG_0602.jpg

IMG_1342.JPG

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1 hour ago, camcruiser13 said:

when you start getting 4-5 adults the boat feels filled up fast even the 25 starts to fill up cant imagine 9-10 on a 23 footer

I'd prefer the 25, but the 23 can handle that load as well.

396ABB5A-1C9D-45C7-ADCF-B9D2C8C751DA_1_105_c.jpeg

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19 hours ago, asnowman said:

Last summer we demo'd the 23 then the 25.  My wife was originally dead set against the 25, said it was just too big, but agreed to demo it just to shut me up. We bought a 25 that day. 

IF you can go demo the 25, then get in the 23 and still consider the 23, then you should get the 23. Personally i think if you demo both, you will end up in the 25.

Either way, both are great, so no real downside either way. 

Almost the exact same thing happened with us. MY wife was dead set against a 25. 
I never even demoed,  or sat in a 25. I just wasn’t impressed with the wave on 2 different 23’s. A 17 set up by a friend.  And an 18 set up by the dealer.  After talking to quite a few people on here. I ordered a 19 25 without a demo. 

SO GLAD I DID. 

We spent about 4 hours in our 25 for break in. Then we parked it because of bad weather. During this tome we went to the boat show to look at boats. When we walked up to the Malibu booth, my wife looked at a boat and said “that boat looks small. What is it”. It was a 23 that she wanted. 😂😂 

We still laugh about it. We could never go back. 

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So I am demoing the 25 LSV and if everything checks out will be taking delivering next Monday. Here are the questions I have:

  • Supercharged raptor motor with 375 hours. Not bothered by the hours, but not finding much info about reliability or lack there of. Any input?
  • Saw a couple posts about transmissions failing shortly after warranty expired. Any known concerns with durability of the vdrive and the SC raptor?
  • I am somewhat mechanically inclined and will be checking obvious stuff visible stuff, any other recommendations on items to check that are not so obvious?

I will be the second owner and will get the warranty transferred (only 1 year left), but want to minimize as much as possible buying someone's problems that aren't disclosed.

 

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1 hour ago, krward said:

So I am demoing the 25 LSV 

I will be the second owner and will get the warranty transferred (only 1 year left), but want to minimize as much as possible buying someone's problems that aren't disclosed.

 

Warranty transfer, document any issues as they arise, let the dealer resolve those issues. 

Simple things, like check prop, and overall conditiin, check board racks work, bimini goes up as it should.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Brought the 25 LSV home overall I am satisfied. There are few things (some learning curve, some just minor annoyances that my dealer has been great about so far) to work through, but happy. I will of course do some searching, but here are the things I am working through:

  • Surf wave. Heard great things and with stock ballast is an improvement over the 21 vride we came from, but plenty of work to do here as I thought it was just ok so far with factory tanks full, 5 people in the boat and wedge at one click from "vert" position. I have read a lot of opinions on what is "best" with speed, pnp bags, wedge, water depth. 
    • PnP Ballast Bags: Recommendations? Wakemakers only has the 770lb option for the 2016, but other options for newer years. 
  • Stereo - Boat has the digitally tuned amps and they seem to be turned way down. Sound quality is good, but volume is pretty embarrassingly low for a boat with 4 rev 8s, sub, and 6 cabin speakers. My old boat was just as clear (2 rev 8s, 4 cabin speakers, 12' sub with custom built box on it) and WAY more volume. Don't need to blow my ear drums, but when you are wakeboarding it is tough to hear the music if it is maxed and even surfing the music could be a little louder.
  • Storage compartments - seems like a lot of room, but still sorting this out. Any block off the drains in the compartment behind the captains chair?
  • Touch Screens: Starting to see a few issues and got the additional warranty here as I am pretty confident I will be seeing the lower screen replaced in the near future
  • Decadence Flooring: Bit of a love hate relationship here. May swap this out for gator solution
  • LED Docking Light: Dealer is working on it, but one went out the first trip we had it on. Anyone see aftermarket stuff that will work

What I love way more than I planned on - The overall size on the water just seems perfect for public water and all these damn surf boats throwing big waves  :whistle:, the super charged 575 motor as I am high elevation, the G4 tower, flip up seats, 5-port heater for my kids as the water is still cold, and the triple axle trailer is dope AF for towing to Lake Powell which was our first trip on it last week.

 

Edited by krward
Tried to add a pic
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2016 didn’t have the “digitally tuned” amps. You should have the older Rockford Fosgate amps as the new Wetsounds DSP system didn’t come out until 2017. 

Regardless, I’m not surprised to hear you’re underwhelmed. 

Got any pics for the crew...?? :whistle:

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I am going to sign up as paid member again as I get plenty of value from the crew and I like the ease of posting the pics. Stand by. 

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2 hours ago, asnowman said:

@krward congrats on the purchase! Check out this thread by @The Hulk for a great set-up.  I know i have a pile of weight bags waiting to go into our 2019. 

 

Thanks man. I read through that entire thread. Lots of good info and lots of “entertainment” posts to read through. I have missed this site the last few years. 

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5 minutes ago, krward said:

Thanks man. I read through that entire thread. Lots of good info and lots of “entertainment” posts to read through. I have missed this site the last few years. 

I am sure @The Hulk would be happy to help you dial in the wave. I have read that and many other threads to figure out how to dial in our wave, i thought we had a good wave on out vtx, but really looking forward to getting our 25 dialed in this summer.

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@krward congrats.  
 

I loved my 2016 25. Couple thoughts based on my relevant experiences;  

  • 10.8-11.2.Wedge 3~4 clicks from lift  
  • 12 ft min depth.  
  • I ran the 770 WM (100%  full on surf side and 75 or so on non) normal crew 4 adults 5 kids under 12
  •  1100 lbs of lead- 400 under observer seat as far forward as possible, 300 throughout port lockers, 200 behind drivers seat, 200 in bow.  


I upgraded from the factory flooring to gator step and was a huge improvement. Highly recommend. Factory was slippery and hot.  Agreed on the Stereo- went to 4 Rev10’s and the DX2.3 HP. 

I lost two tires last year on my trip to Powell from Colorado- if your on the originals I would bring a spare, impact and a floor jack if you can.  I ended up buying a floor jack in Page because the bottle jack I brought turned out to be completely useless changing tires on the triple axle.

After you’ve finished surfing or loading the boat I would recommend a high speed empty (ballast) run to clean out the 575.  We had some O2 sensor issues before starting that practice on ours- we put 280 hours since and had no O2 issues.   

Any questions happy to try to help.  Have a great trip and enjoy. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

56CF1A5C-C8F8-4A6C-9600-B5A029001445.jpeg

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14 minutes ago, Jmo617 said:

@krward congrats.  
 

I loved my 2016 25. Couple thoughts based on my relevant experiences;  

  • 10.8-11.2.Wedge 3~4 clicks from lift  
  • 12 ft min depth.  
  • I ran the 770 WM (100%  full on surf side and 75 or so on non) normal crew 4 adults 5 kids under 12
  •  1100 lbs of lead- 400 under observer seat as far forward as possible, 300 throughout port lockers, 200 behind drivers seat, 200 in bow.  


I upgraded from the factory flooring to gator step and was a huge improvement. Highly recommend. Factory was slippery and hot.  Agreed on the Stereo- went to 4 Rev10’s and the DX2.3 HP. 

I lost two tires last year on my trip to Powell from Colorado- if your on the originals I would bring a spare, impact and a floor jack if you can.  I ended up buying a floor jack in Page because the bottle jack I brought turned out to be completely useless changing tires on the triple axle.

After you’ve finished surfing or loading the boat I would recommend a high speed empty (ballast) run to clean out the 575.  We had some O2 sensor issues before starting that practice on ours- we put 280 hours since and had no O2 issues.   

Any questions happy to try to help.  Have a great trip and enjoy. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

56CF1A5C-C8F8-4A6C-9600-B5A029001445.jpeg

So lots of info suggesting not running any additional bow weight, but you put 200lbs more in the bow. Wave looks pretty good in your pic. I could get a decent size wave that was long, but little push. Running the wedge one click less than “vert” with full stock ballast and no passengers in the bow seemed to help out. 

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That loaded at 5000’ elevation I needed the bow weight and a couple kids or it would struggle to get over 10 mph with 575.  PnP bags will make a significant improvement in push, size and you won’t need so much wedge. 

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