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Get a GM Heavy Duty. The IFS is nice. The ride quality difference between my Silverado 2500HD and my previous half ton Denali is much less pronounced than I expected. I'd argue the dampening is even better in certain situations (crossing speed bumps, for instance).

HDS. Hydrophonic Dampening System?

With information provided its difficult to diagnose but here's a few ideas: Transmission fluid level is the quickest/easier check just to ensure it has enough fluid to engage the clutches. Ensure the shift cable attachment bolt is tight on the 'shift arm' at the transmission. Typically, there is one bolt that ensures the clamp mechanism is tight onto the transmission shift arm. I've seen where that is loose and simply spinning on the transmission shift arm. If you find this bolt loose you will have to properly align it before retightening. I recommend you have someone shift the transmission at the helm (boat off) and you watch how the shift cable/arm operated. The engine torque plate (dampening plate) is somewhat of a sacrificial part designed to protect the transmission. I would be surprised if this failed and it not be very clear to you that something happened. Typically this happens at speed when the prop stops quickly (i.e. hit something) or they fail sometime from age related failure mechanisms. Either way, I would not expect this failure while the boat was off.

I had a strange failure where the transmission and engine come together. The boat (2005 Response LXi) made a noise like something hitting a pully and then it started to make a screeching sound. The noise was coming from the starter area so I removed the starter and found a piece of wire in there that looked like a piece of heavy coat hanger. I took this piece of wire to the dealer and they said it was a failure of the dampening plate that resides between the trans and the flywheel. The boat is running fine with no vibration but he recommends changing it immediately. If the springs in the dampening plate come loose they can do more harm. I was also told the old design has the exposed springs while the new design has the springs enclosed. So now it's time to change out this part. I know I need to support the engine and separate the transmission. Has anyone had this problem and can anyone recommend any shortcuts or procedures that will make this replacement go easier? Thanks.

Got a lot of work done over the last few weeks...finished the glass work and sanded it as smooth as could be before applying fairing compound. Fiberglass cloth going on...about 6 layers of very thick cloth Below is the Rubber Isolator (or so I believe it is...its a large chunk of rubber fiberglassed under the engine directly above the props rotation...believe it to be a dampening piece) In order to do this part I fully wrapped the engine in ceran wrap to prevent as much fiberglass dust on the engine. Cut it out and got rid of all the delaminated glass with a angle grinder (very tough in such a tight area) then gooped up some resin with shredded fiberglass and slapped the bad boy in there. Then glassed two thick layers over it. Purchased fairing compound from Total Boat on Amazon and its been good. Easy filler to use similar to bondo but meant for marine applications. Probably 2 more days of application and sanding to fill in all the low spots and get it near perfect. Plan then is to use Awlgrip primer and paint to respray everything below the rub rail.

Could you be more specific on the location? My Echelon has a cooler under the passenger / observer seat but nothing under that as a compartment, it does have a drain. There is a ski locker between the captain / passenger seat in front of the engine, it has a drain plug at the rear to drain to the bilge. A compartment that does fill with water is the HDS box, which is where the prop shaft enters from the engine compartment and exits underwater. HDS = Hydrophonic Damping System or as some may think of it as 'PIA to keep sealed' (search HDS on this site and you will understand:-). Congrats on your purchase, the RLX is a great slalom / barefoot boat.

Headroom and dampening are big elements also in quality, safe audio. When something like 3dB makes a difference, music source and preferences add to the equation of choosing components. All that said, gain is sensitivity to an incoming signal. Especially side-chain devices like an eq start acting like a compressor/limiter when they start to saturate with signal. Then you turn it up to 11. That may be ok for some sound preferences 🙃, but may leave you nowhere to go when you ask for that last doubling of sound power. So so many variables .

To dampen your mood, the sound dampening features apply less as the boat gets higher up (so on waterski plane) That said, as long as you don't buy the single piece, it's reasonable to adjust the center down spout up and back manually to target avoiding a wake or speed impact. On my vRide, the exhaust will be in the water creating drag starting in the early 30s, I don't ski 36 off or 34/36 mph very often, but I think you'll see more center spray.

I switched from flappers to turn down tips and noticed that the higher frequency popping is gone. The exhaust note is now lower and much more mellow. I still have the stock mufflers. The noise in the boat reduced greatly when I changed my exhaust manifolds to Marine Torq Stainless manifolds (possibly still available in the group buy). I wasn't expecting that, but it was a very pleasant surprise. The consensus is that the greater water volume inside the manifolds does a better job of dampening the exhaust sound than the cast iron manifolds do. Your 2005 model probably has ETX aluminum manifolds, so I don't know what the difference would be for you.

Search "HDS leak". Maybe your Hydrophonic Dampening System is compromised.

Leaking Hydrophonic Dampening System.

I know some have had success doing it themselves. If you type in hydrophonic dampening in the "search" box above you'll find all kinds of folks with the same issue. If you have a dealer close by they are probably familiar with it also. Search link: https://www.themalibucrew.com/index.php?/search/&q=hydrophonic dampening Steve B.

When we surf our 99 RLX, the rubrail is definitely under water when the boat is listed. Maybe you have a void where the top deck and hull meet? Or if this is regular event without the Wedge, then you could have a leaking HDS - Hydrophonic Dampening System. If you are a first owner both would be covered under the mfg. warranty.

Do some searching here. It's a hydrophonic dampening box. The intent was to mitigate vibration frequencies from coming into the boat where the drive shaft penetrates the hull. On the impeller that @jayR mentioned, he's talking about the raw water impeller. That boat is open cooled so raw water is drawn from the lake via the raw water pump. In the raw water pump is an impeller that requires maintenance. The water goes from the raw water pump through the transmission cooler then into the engine circulating pump at which point the cooling system works much like an automotive cooling system less the traditional radiator and antifreeze. The circulation pump sends water through all the cooling jackets in the block and head and sends the water out through the exhuast. There's a wealth of information on this site. Searching is your best friend.

The boat is 100% fiberglass, including the stingers. There is the HDS - hydrophonic dampening system in the boat IIRC. I'd look for leaking.

Some of you may have seen my other posts on this boat from hell. I'm a new boat owner and this first one is a 1996 sunsetter lx. I knew it had some issues, mainly bent prop shaft and rudder issue. When I back it into the water to test run the engine (which incidentally has water getting into the oil ?) I notice water seeping back out of the small louvered vent into the engine compartment which I think connects it to ducted air coming in from the observer seat area. I'm guessing this is a hollow stringer and I've heard that a cracked water box will leak into the stringer. Has anyone here repaired the water box ? I've also heard that a fiberglass repair is too rigid and will not flex enough and the the remedy is to grind out the waterbox and coat it complete with 3M 5200 because it will flex and is water tight. Any experts on the site ever made that repair or paid to have it done?

I didn't say anything about a 60 year life. I said that she originally had a wide, white sand beach, then a partial wall after about 30' of erosion, then a rip-rap revetment. The revetment gets rebuilt about every 15 years, and each time it is very costly to do (and the labor is free). I agree that a wall without rip-rap is a very poor choice, and it also reflects waves back into the water without dampening them. By the way, limestone rock is denser than concrete rubble, so it holds much better than concrete does. The whole point is that I only see the rocks moving around when big wakes hit them. Hurricanes bring high water, so the wave action against the rocks is reduced. The reach inside that bayou is not long enough to get even one foot waves due to wind, so even in thunderstorms and no high water, the rocks don't move. Telling me that a boat wake isn't causing damage doesn't fly because I can stand there and watch it happen. I shouldn't have to do extra maintenance or have an accelerated maintenance schedule when I have done everything correctly and the wakes just keep getting bigger and bigger, and they won't even drive down the center of the waterway. They seem to insist on driving just outside the edge of the docks. It is just like skateboarders at a downtown office building; scraping the edges of steps, bending handrails, and generally trashing decent looking architecture. They can stand there and claim that all that stuff was going to look like heck in 20 years anyway, so it isn't their fault. The whole point is that they are causing an accelerated maintenance or damage repair that shouldn't need to be done for a long time. Your argument is precisely the same as the skaters who wonder why they got banned from downtown.

The dampening suspension might be nice. I don’t really see a need for the others? To me it is just adding more cost to an already expensive truck. It will increase repair costs as well. If Someone is worried about going over payload on a regular basis they should be in a HD truck not a 150/1500.

I have a ‘16 22VLX currently. Swapped props from a 2249 to a 2419. Even being completely bagged out with dual 600s in the back, it has plenty of torque for surfing. At wakeboard setup, the holeshot has enough power to rip your arms out of the socket🤣 The engine is a little loud (they ended up adding dampening in future years), but it’s a fantastic engine and super easy to winterize.

Biggest possible "gotya!" is the HDS - Hydrophonic Dampening System. It works until it doesn't and then you take on water. Lots of water. But a rock solid boat otherwise.

Google HDS - hydrophonic dampening system

Google "HDS" and "Hydrphonic Dampening System"

Does anyone know when they did away with the hydrophonic box on the response (closed bow) or response lx?

I would bet that if you look at your fuel crossover lines between the two fuel rails they will be solid stainless steel from one side to the other with a slight arc between the rails. There was a known problem in 1997 which is called fuel Hammering. It's like water rattling in the pipes of an older building when the flow is turned on or off. The fix is a crossover line that should be available from Indmar that starts and ends with stainless but has a rubber hose approximately 1/2 diameter about 4 inches long in the middle. This rubber area provides a dampening of the fuel crossing from one rail to the other and should fix your problem. I've seen it, installed it and fixed it several times. I have a 1997 Echelon with the same engine. The scenario you describe is text book for this problem.

Can anyone advise me if my 2003 Wakesetter VLX VDrive has a Hydroponic Dampening System.