buechsr

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.

JT is a respected TC. IF there’s a place that’s dead on, I’d take his backyard in prep for Worlds.

Main lake at Travers has not 1 but 2 jumps deployed virtually all the time (as it has for decades), as it did this weekend, in the same positions. Would also strongly suspect the setup will be the precise same in 2 weeks. If for nothing else, I'd bet they wanted to create the precise same sightlines for Worlds. It is not an uncommon set up. The set up is such that the far side boat guides (from jump) is the inside jump course buoys. Absent that setup, that lake would be chock full of buoys, and trust me, it's got a lot going on already, and no more width to move it out. Nate turned a fast (bad) 1 and couldn't get back to boat guides. Jump is virtually where a right sided 2 ball would have been. He just didn't make it to the wakes. While it may have caused a distraction for him yesterday, it was a bad one ball. Given the number of pros who ski this site daily, if there were complaints/safety issue, it would have looked a lot different there than what it has for years.

Can they not match strut specs from another OEM? ie, if you need a 16 degree 1", is there no other brand with those specs? That'd surprise me but sounds like you're on it.

3 words: Discount inboard marine (skidim.com). I bet Vince can steer you right.

Andre, totally agree, but in the absence of regular judges, you can't have events, and in the absence of events, you can't can't get your asst.

yes, or a handheld unit. software is diacom. I have no idea what information could be garnered from an automobile OBD reader. https://www.rinda.com/marine/diacommarine.htm

@Jordan @Horton And has a "real" job.

Given your year, I would think it'd be a plug shaped like this: https://www.rinda.com/rindashop/shop/adapter/94005 I don't think an auto OBD would be much help. If you've not done the cap and rotor yet, it needs to be done. If you haven't changed both fuel filters, that needs to be done. I'd change plugs as well. If after all that you have same issue, then hook up a fuel pressure gauge. Everything above are standard maintenance items that in light of the FCC filter findings, suggest to me your boat needs some service TLC before even chasing this problem further. If all the above don't fix, I'm still in crank position sensor camp.

Despite filters being suggested earlier, and which are fine suggestions, if the cap and rotor have not been changed to solve this, absolutely put a new one on. They're like $50-75. I was including those in my simple things description but should have been more clear.

The point is, with it, being a one to one transmission, RPMs are slightly lower and slightly lower on the torque curve, unlike the Mastercraft and nautique which are higher in the torque curve. Therefore, it could give the perception that it is a slightly softer pull, hence a move up to the Bs. But it’s hardly “soft” or underpowered, just a different feel for them. It’s not a deficiency necessarily that Malibu doesn’t use a reduction transmission. They never have, even when, for example, the power slot begin usage for Mastercraft long ago. Malibu was able to save weight and generally run a few miles an hour faster than MC and cc, and hence was the preferred inboard barefoot boat for a long time, save for the specialists like Sanger. The real difference will be in jump.

Seems I'm seeing more nautique footage than Mastercraft today, lol.

Maybe, lets face it though it could have been more entertaining than Top Gun and the fact it was "pushed" on "us" would have yielded the same complaints.

I understand you're willing to lob an alternative idea, which is to be applauded. I'm just pointing out that it's not just about USOC requirements.