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Go Back   WakeWorld > >> Boats, Accessories & Tow Vehicles Archive > Archive through July 08, 2003

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Old    lani            06-05-2003, 3:08 PM Reply   
If I were looking at used boats, how many hours is considered average per year on a WB boat? Which type of Hull is optimal for pure wakeboarding (if I am at the Colorado river most often)? The Centurion dealer said Malibu has the same hull (I like Malibu) and I don't know anything about hulls. Thanks, you are really helping me-
Old    xtremrider            06-05-2003, 3:23 PM Reply   
you can probably find a boat with 60hrs a year, got to love the hull of a nautique and the Malibu. for a good boat for the buck with a crist wake that gets big with weight, Sanger V210.
Old    flipout            06-05-2003, 3:26 PM Reply   
We ski alot. Our average is 50-70 hours per year. I have always been told that 1000 hours on a boat would be like a car having 50,000 miles. I am partial to malibu's because I own one. The man that tought me how to ski and board had a malibu and he had 2000 hours on it before he replaced the motor. It was a 1988. I bought a new one in 1996. If I had enough money to buy any boat it would be a Malibu wake setter. Good luck. If your looking at a good used boat that is bigger and has a good wake, look at an older supra. My friend has one for 11,000.00 and it looks new. He has it set up for boarding. Or I would look at a supra in your price range if your looking for an older boat. Early 90's or late 80's. good luck.
Old     (tigeal)      Join Date: Jul 2002       06-05-2003, 3:33 PM Reply   
Around 100hrs. is probably avg. yearly for most. I got mine 1 year old with 63hrs. while other 02s I looked at had up to 300hrs. The highest hour boat was a wakecamp boat though. The Malibu VLX is a awsome boat and you can't really go wrong with it, IMHO.
Old     (rodmcinnis)      Join Date: Sep 2002       06-05-2003, 3:34 PM Reply   
That can vary dramatically. When you have to drive 4 hours to get to a body of water that you can ride on you tend to not go very often. Figure two weekends a month, four days total, probably only 4 hours of motor time per day is 16 hours a month. Do that for 5 months is about 80 hours.

Someone who lives in the south who has a lake in their back yard could ride for an hour a day, 365 days a year!

There are a lot of things that don't really depend on the number of engine hours. Rubber things, like engine seals, will deteriorate with time. The sun will degrade upholstery and fade the fiberglass. A boat that sits in the water all the time can end up with blisters or other hull damage. Any boat stored in an area that gets freezing temperatures could have had freeze damage.

I suggest looking for a boat that was either stored in a garage or always with a cover on and out of the water. I would look for an hour range between 25 and 100 hours per year (you don't want a boat that has sat idle for a couple years....).

As for the brand/model of boat, that can become a religious argument! For pure wakeboarding, the V-drive models are generally considered the best. If you can, get a ride behind a few different boats and find what you like.
Old     (lchamaschuk)      Join Date: Feb 2002       06-05-2003, 3:51 PM Reply   
Lani, it's really hard to find a boat that does everything. I know you want it for wakeboarding, diving and fishing. We had a I/O in the past that we used for wakeboarding, fishing and cruising. It wasn't great at any one thing, but it did them all ok. When it was stolen, we replaced it with a wakeboard boat because we spent 95% of our time wakeboarding! Why compromise? But it sounds like you're not planning on compromising!

In the past, we used our I/O around 75 hours per year. I think this year in the new boat will top that! But we have a short season, boats in Cali could easily put on much more than that per year.

Rod is right - it's not just the number of hours per year. It's whether it's been in salt water, stored in or out of water, whether it has been looked after. Good luck!
Old    byerly03            06-06-2003, 8:10 AM Reply   
An inboard engine can go well past 200,000 hours as long as it was taken care of. Just make sure to get a compression check on the engine before you buy one, any dealership can do it for you. I usually pay around $60 for the test. On most engines anywhere between 130psi and 150psi is a good result from the test.

I am partial to Malibu, I have a 95 Sunsetter, it has the same hull as the wakesetter and can throw a huge wake.
Old     (ndh2o)      Join Date: Oct 2001       06-06-2003, 8:15 AM Reply   
200,000 hrs ??? 2,000 yes, but 200,000...

Hopefully that was just a major typo.
Old    damnation            06-06-2003, 8:23 AM Reply   
Haha, I wish a boat would run to 200,000 hrs. These guys are right, between 50 and 100 hrs is normal. I would be skeptical of a boat that had very low hours. Competition boats really don't like to sit without being used. I also am very partial to Malibu and I'm on my second one. The other top brands are very high quality too, I just found that the attributes of the Malibu fit my needs.

One thing that might help a lot is to have a certified marine surveyor check out the boat. They can run all kinds of diagnostic checks and even analyze the oil (be careful here though b/c it won't tell the truth if the oil has just been changed).

Check out the nada guides and websites like flipsell and boattraderonline to see what comparable boats are selling for.

You mentioned diving. I will just say this, my Malibu will NEVER see salt water!
Old    6more            06-06-2003, 11:14 AM Reply   
Scrogg Dog - I have to disagree with you on hours vs miles. I agree with the 50-70 hrs a year ave. but I don't agree with 1000 hrs equaling 50,000 miles on a car.

A boat is run very hard and so even though the number of hours to get to 100,000 miles in a car is generally longer than 1000, it doesn't run as hard as a boat does. I am regularly running the boat within 15% of max while I am skiing in the slalom course, yet I bet my truck hardly ever get to within 15% of its max. Maybe just when I floor it merging into traffic. Generally I would guess that my truck is being run at about 30% full power.

Here is another way to look at it. Lets say a person drives the boat 70 hrs a year (the high end of your example). It would take a little over 14 years to put 1000 hours on your boat. A driver would have to only travel 3,571 miles each year to add up to 50,000 miles over the same 14 yr period. Now I understand that a boat isn't used all year, so lets double the number of miles per year (because a boat is generally only used 1/2 a year). That would still only be 7142 miles a year which is well short of the national average.

Old    hockeyruss            06-09-2003, 10:39 AM Reply   
BrianS, wb boats are not run that hard. My VLX, when I take off rpm 3100 then when we wakeboard at 21.5mph it drops to 2900. That is not overworking one of todays engines. I average about 100 hours per year also.
Old     (oldboarder)      Join Date: Apr 2003       06-09-2003, 11:36 AM Reply   
I don't know about you guys, but my gt-40 works pretty hard to plane with 1600 lbs of ballast and 6-8 people. When riders are trying new tricks, that's a large number of hard pulls. However the 390 (rebuilt 8 years ago) in my 76 Ford pulls that heavy boat up long grades every trip and probably works harder. It's still strong after all these years.

I agree, find one that's been used enough to keep it lubed. Mine was 5 years old and had only 90 hrs, which actually worried me a little, but it works great (60 hours so far this year). Change the oil and keep it clean. It'll probably last quite a while.
Old     (wakeguru)      Join Date: Feb 2003       06-09-2003, 11:51 AM Reply   
With regards to comparing the number of hours on a boat to miles on a car, here is some fuzzy logic:
You're required to change your oil every 50hrs. on a wake boat.
You're required to change your oil every 3,000 miles on a vehicle.
So, 1,000 hrs. on a boat engine = 60,000 miles on a vehicle engine.
Yeah, I know it's a bunch of cow poop.

On the subject of hours and years I agree with Dave C in that I'd rather buy a newer boat with higher hours from someone who took care of it and ran it often than buy an older boat with low hours that was well maintained. Low hours isn't always better.
Also, like WakeNup said, I don't think my boat is running anywhere near 15% of max when wakeboarding. Skiing the coarse at 36mph is a different story. I don't like to run my boat that fast. It was broken in at wakeboard speeds and that is where it should stay to have a long life IMO. BTW, it's a 310hp 5.7 ltr Vortec. I run with about 1,500 lbs ballast and it performs well at just over 3,000 rpm's out of the hole.

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