I have numerous stress cracks on my BU, is this normal? How and why do you get them? It's not like I'm ever in rough water. Anyway I was just wondering if this is common on other boats...

Not common and you should get it checked out by your dealer.

Not common at all. Our 06 VLX with 400 hrs on it does not have a single stress crack.

I've been having the same problem on my 06 Wakesetter! <BR> <BR>First time they appeared it was right around the tower bracket and they fixed them. According to Malibu they where superficial and not structural but they looked ugly. <BR> <BR>Now I've got one nasty one on the side they already fixed and my swim platform looks like its held on by a spider web and Malibu says they only cover these stress cracks for the first year so they won't fix it? They said if I had less hours on my boat they probably would fix it though even though its out of warrantty. <BR> <BR>I'm a little upset, needless to say if you don't use your boat its warrantted but if you use it and try getting your moneys worth they don't want to cover it? <BR> <BR>Wish you luck dealing with Malibu. <BR> <BR>p.s. I still love my Malibu don't get me wrong but I think with the economy in the tank Malibu has started to neglect the people that already supported them.

By the way I have almost 800 hours on mine!

Thanks for the info from all- <BR> <BR>Robert I'm just under 300 hrs and 1 month before my warranty expires so there may be hope yet. <BR> <BR>My feelings about malibu are mixed. I guess time will tell if it's a solid boat or not.

Malibu is definitely getting stricter on their warranty policies. Where they showed some leniency before they are following their policies to the letter now. I'm sure most companies are like this in these times though.

Robert knowing that you baby your boat, I have no clue how something like that could ever have<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/rofl.gif" border=0>

Please read <a href="http://www.islandcoastboatworks.com/Newsletters/marina2_article.htm" target="_blank">Stress Crack Article</a> <BR> <BR>Bob Lacovara is the man when it comes to stress cracks! <BR> <BR>(Message edited by wakeboardsam on May 27, 2009)

Yea for sure? lol <BR> <BR>Guess thats what happens when you have 20 plus girls on the swim step at one time! lol <BR> <BR>Plus I got like twenty feet of air this weekend, not me on the wakeboard but jumping the boat in the stockton channel! lol j/kidding

Sam good find on the artical

Thanks sam, that info is very helpful! I spoke with the dealer this morning and he was very helpful and thinks we can get them fixed. Thanks to Sam's article I now realize that mine may be worse than I thought. Time will tell.

Interesting read. <BR> <BR>Recently, the entire back, upper corner on the port side of my 2002 Malibu VLX has started to spider. I don't know what changed. Nothing there before. I'm sure I'm on my own for getting that fixed, but to be honest, I don't have much confidence that it can be truly fixed, just band-aided and probably come back. Unless I end up with Bob Lacovara fixing it haha. I doubt a random shop really understands this all that well.

I have an MC X-2 03' Stress cracks the 1st few days I had it down on the floor by the open bow. Have really bad ones down the side by the tower mounts. I think the way we sack out and hit dubs its inevitable. Judging by the responses on this thread though, seems I'm in the minority with that opinion.

Sorry, horrible english above. lol

He also has this <a href="http://www.islandcoastboatworks.com/Newsletters/marina1_article.htm" target="_blank">article</a> and this <a href="http://www.islandcoastboatworks.com/Newsletters/marina3_article.htm" target="_blank">one too!</a> Now please note that he doesn't say anything about running into something or something running into you. He talks about boat construction, not about neglect or misuse.

Just got off the phone with malibu, turns out on our 06's the warranty was for 3 years or 400 hours whatever comes first, so I'm way out of warranty. <BR> <BR>Asked them about there previous repair that came back and they said the dealer was already paid to fix it and they should warranty it so i guess that means I'm on my own! <BR> <BR>Also they said all the spider webbing on the swim deck is not structural its just ugly and won't effect anything. Thats nice to know. My boat is fine just ugly! lol <BR> <BR>I guess when i put her back in the spray booth to add some more color I'll be doing some gelcoat work too!

BTW, how about some pictures?

Here is some pics of the crack around the tower, the pics by the swim deck are really hard to see in the pics but they look like they all radiate out from the bolt holes on the swim step bracket. <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/700607.jpg" alt="Text description"> <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/700608.jpg" alt="Text description"> <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/700609.jpg" alt="Text description"> <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/700610.jpg" alt="Text description">

For stress crack pictures that hard to see take felt tip non permanent market and draw over the cracks.