buechsr

Now imagine your Centurion being impaled on your dock from the same wakes. A few posts ago you were alluding to lawyers taking away freedom? Freedom is all well and good when it doesn't damage other people. Then, the perspective (must) change. I say that as a wakeboat owner, long time public lake property owner, and recipient of wake damage from totally ridiculous operation. Personally, I lay substantial responsibility on the manufacturers. Whereas the PWC industry knew they had to tone back the speeds of what they were capable of or else they'd find themselves in governmental crosshairs, wake boat manufacturers provide zero helm reminders (to my knowledge, and I've had 15+ wakeboats) to people of some basic damage/reputation mitigation. Had we seen for the last 10 years some basic helm reminders to avoid shorelines, avoid boats at anchor, use discretion when using your $10,000 stereo, some face could have been saved that guns don't kill people, people do (wake boats don't cause damage, people do). They've been pumping boats out to people, many with simply limited understanding of "most" people know. And, as a result of clearly insufficient educational efforts, governments will start throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Hardly a surprise.

Yes

A new one, absolutely. I got a bro deal on a single axle very basic Ski Nautique trailer a year ago that was 7500. A dual axle Wakeboat trailer could very easily crest 10.

That could be the case, or it could not. 2001 was the first year that the VLX was available with the diamond hull. While, no one is going to confuse even a diamond hull with any slalom specific tractor, if it is the diamond hull, it skis very well. There’s still one in my family. It is slightly firm, but at 32 and above it flattens out nicely. I’ve had multiple VTXs, and skied behind the so-called crossovers of the other big three, and no one can say that any of them ski any better than a 2001 two 2004 VLX with a diamond hull. There could be individual preferences, but the boat listed is as good of a slaloming vdrive as has ever been built. The hard part is determining whether it has the diamond hull, or not. The giveaway is the angle of the downturn of the most lateral strakes. I cannot see any pictures of the hull in that listing. If you can post them here, I can tell you. However, the Malibu crew is a great resource for anything and everything Malibu. Personally, if that’s a diamond hull in decent condition, I think that’s an “OK” buy, given the unknown price of a trailer. I can tell you that a new boat mate will run around $9000.

They're nothing to worry about. My daughter literally had to jump off the starting dock in a tournament last year with one 50 feet away. Gator-fear is irrational, particularly in football, lol.

Am I reading that right?

if possible, leave it direct sunlight. Its the UV that makes it go away not just "airing" it out.

Are you actually leaving it in the sun or just uncovered in boathouse?

It's not. Its chemical. It's not permanent. I've had it on multiple Malibus in the 04-07 era. Put it in the sun and thats it. Not "outside" in a boat house (though that will help), in direct sunlight.

Don't fret, it'll be gone in an hour or 2 of direct sunlight. Some have suggested replacing black cover with a lighter, less heat generating color, and letting interior dry as much is reasonably possible before covering.

All setup and installation is same for both. it’s just additional software. Get 3 event without a doubt. Skiing in wakeboard mode is a disaster. What feels good for a wakeboarder as to throttle timing sucks for skiing and you’ll get perpetually gassed late and have crazy slack in every turn.

PPass doesn't make classic anymore. You have to get stargazer. Unless you're speaking to Zbox specifically? Stargazer is a simpler install too. No hull drilling.

Higher prices?

I’ll soon be listing my 2008 196. 230 hours on new 5.7 (w/ new manifolds). 1230 on hull. Prior engine expired due to previous (original) owner’s overheat. 2 owner boat. Zero off Rev S. I can almost guarantee that it is the most outstanding gel on a 15-year-old boat in the country. Previous owner used a touchless cover, and I have always used a waterline cover from Skip Dunlap. Interior is a 7.5-8/10. Needle gauges. Brand new boat mate trailer (less than a year old), which was $8,000. Will post link once I snap some pics. Interest in meantime, PM me. Black main, blue accent. Beautiful boat. Selling to move into a new SN.

10,000 a year? Where are you getting your information that seadoo sold (or could) a bunch of switches? My large public lake has seen 1 and that person sold it with 2 months. Local Sea doo dealer can't move them. In the same time that lake saw 2 new prostars and a new txi (in addition to scores of new V drives). My local "Ski boat" dealer also sells multiple off shore/center console lines. None of those ordered for inventory are ever stripped. They're actually loaded up with tens of thousands of upgrades, even though most upgrades can be done at the dealer level (helm master, multiple chartplotters, radar, etc.). Who is running the show in the pontoon market? Bass Tracker or Bennington? Four Winns or Cobalt? People buy premium boats. Not entry level cost-cutting exemplars. It is what it is. Has anyone actually seen a Heyday in the wild? I sure haven't. And yet they're 1/4 to 1/2 the price of a typical big 3 V drive. People just don't buy stripped down boats. They just... don't. Again, see Axis as a case study on this exact phenomenon.

I can't tell whether we are saying the same thing or not. It's NOT a good value to save whatever, $20,000-$30,000 to have a bathtub with an engine. See the numerous people in this thread who have said they'd rather have a 5 year old boat than a new econobox. Again, anyone, right now, can order a stripped down tractor. No one does. I'm in the market for a late model SN right now. I have come across exactly zero that are not optioned to the max. And I am personally fine with that. My criteria is not everyone's, but I'd much rather pay for a 4 year old SN loaded up than a stripped down tractor, even if it saved, whatever, 20%. I totally disagree that a bathtub option is "extremely low risk". It's a low margin, low volume entry that the market has demonstrated repeatedly, people don't want! R&D is not cheap. New molds are not cheap. Tooling for a low volume model with extremely limited profit potential is dumb. Even before Centurion did the CP, they built years of Tru Tracs, etc. Same for Gecko, Supra, Tige, Sanger, Infinity, Svfara, Toyota, Hydrodyne, Calabria, MB sports, etc. All sold at a significant discount to the big 3 (particularly MC and CC). All those brands went away except for those who went all in on the wakesurf market. Then Centurion designed and released the CP to much fanfare and appreciation, priced well below the big 3, and in a few years, poof. There is not a market demand for stripped down cheap (er) ski tractors. There's just not. Clearly demonstrable by the lack of big 3 ski boats in the wild that are remotely lightly optioned. Axis wakeboats are a good example IMO. They started out basically a decade ago, with cheaper engines, archaic ballast, limited options, priced under $40,000. In 10 years the market DEMANDED that it now provide touchscreens, sport dash, surf gate, power wedge 3 (same as Malibu) and now priced for most models, well in excess of $120,000. The people buying watersports boats simply don't want stripped down stuff to save money. That doesn't mean that there's not a place for the NXT line, GS line, or Axis, but people do not want a $75,000 NXT wherein they have to drop pumps over the sides and use a carbed 5.7.

There's nothing stopping anyone from ordering a closed bow txi exactly like that. But people don't. It doesn't save nearly as much as you'd think. And very few dealers are willing to floor model a ski boat, particularly one w no options to save a relatively small %. I think "we" greatly overthink our importance to cater to. Malibu is a billion dollar company. Packaging a stripped down ski boat for 50 sales a year (at best) and 30,000 GP per unit, is a lot of effort to make $1.5M. Good for Sanger, but its laughable to think our microcosm would ever justify a cheap boat from the big 3.

Have you exhaustively looked for an in line filter all the way back to the tank? I'm going to be very surprised if you don't hit one. It may require removal of rear seat or trunk basement panel to confirm. If you in fact can't find one after exhaustive looking, I'd suggest adding one. Either case, glad you're purring.

Of course its an abrasive. Hence use it gently and only if not grained. OP can do what he likes. There's a balance to steps needed to remove mildew and potential damage, before vinyl is permanently stained. Everyone can do what they will.

Yes you have, and it will, hence gently, and only if not grained, which most Malibu vinyl is.

1) sunlight 2) Grained or not? Ungrained try a magic eraser, gently. Grained try a power washer. Unfortunately there's a difference between mildew and a true mildew stain.

Is 3 feet of rope the distinction? Was Nate really going that much faster than Andy 20 years ago? Point being, is there really a difference turning 1 ball at 43 than 41, from a jump location perspective at a hypothetical (right sided) #2? Until we use a radar gun from shore, I really can't see it being that big of a delta. I kind of have to disagree as to the latter highlighted sentence. When you think about where everybody skis, there's a lot of jumps around...even on Nate's lake. A plurality of the finalists train or have trained significantly at Travers. This setup was not an anomaly, nor something they weren't used to seeing even for those who don't ski at Travers regularly, particularly after Mastercraft at Fluid, and Malibu at Lymanland.

Do you advocate removal of all turn islands? rip rap? Docks? Excess buoys? Or to widen the shoreline? Because all of those are hypothetically in the skier's path, too.

Look no one wants to see anyone hit a ramp, but it's not as if the jump was obstructing "where competitors may ski to score points in a slalom event". Look at Lymanland's set up for Malibu, or Fluid for Mastercraft. In looking at Lymanland's setup, I'd concede it appears the jump is slightly wider from some shots, but actually closer to 4 ball than travers was to 1 ball. At fluid, if someone had a very hot 6, the jump is basically at the gates. I'd concede a one ball at 43/36 is something I have zero experience with, but these skiers know where stuff is, they've skied around jumps in similar places for decades, they also know what is and is not feasible to score if they're so out of position that a jump is an obstruction. All that said, if a site can easily move a jump for slalom, sure, why not do it. On the other hand, as to last weekend, thats the precise look they'll be getting during worlds, and I bet most would say they're glad to have skied a replica of the set up in 2 weeks.

As has been suggested by multiple people multiple times, change the cap and rotor. These backfiring symptoms make that even more likely the culprit.