New VLX is here! (different thread)

Well the new one is here! 2003 with all the goodies showed up at the dealer last week. I took these pictures while I was preping the boat. It looks really funny without the tower, but I ordered a yellow tower with speakers and lights directly from Titan and they are not in yet. I will post new pics when it is finnished.

Tony, congrats on the new ride, it looks sweet! Nice way to bring in the New Year!

Congrats Tony & Angela, the yellow/white combo looks really good, and the tower is going to set it off. Very impressive. Now we just need to put some yellow racing stripes on the Envoy to finish the rig!!! (Or at least yellow Malibu stickers)Looking forward to getting a pull, hint, hint...

sweet ride tony...the yellow tower will make that boat even more awesome than it already is.

TONY, How you been,
man i was tempted to ride on sunday sweet weather, any who are you getting the forward swooping tower from titan? i realy like thoses.. my friend chad and I ended up buying a 02' SAN loaded up.. my friends and I are going to plan some organizer rides(partys). something like first Sat. of every month(well it still up in the air...) let me know if the have any input on days.. I'm going to try out the "ride the spot" camp in april.. if you think you might by intrested let me know...

peace
dave

Thanks everyone for your comments, I can't wait for summer now! GWR, been good, went snowboarding behing the Envoy last week in the snow, was tempted to ride over the weekend just so busy with the holidays, trying to make it out tomorrow. Would be interested in a "ride the spot" trip. Just let me know...

More pics... Malibu did some cool things this year, and I ordered a couple of cool extras on this boat... Let me know what you think...

...did you notice the lumbar adjustment knob on the edge of the seat? Beats the hell out of pumping up last years lumbar, just watch your toes, I'm sure I will kick that one a few times!

and a few more pics...

375HP... WOW!



Dash with new display in the speedo... displays Air temp, Water temp, Depth, and Clock.



Transom shot, notice their are no speedo pickups, Analog speedo now works off the paddle wheel. That will be nice! They also let me order it with a 14x16 prop (14x18 is standard), since I will always have it loaded down (alot) that will be nice.



A cool shot to support the sponsers!

Beautiful boat, I like the color combo! Here's what I don't get though...why did Malibu go to a steel rubrail for 2003? Kinda defeats the purpose of a "rub" rail, doesn't it? The way my buddies drive sometimes, that thing could easily get pretty dented up...

Nice!
Like the loss of pitots.
Where is the tower?

I ordered the new Series II tower from Titan, it is NOT the forward leaning one, it is basically the same as the previous Titan, but the rear poles kinda swoop forward, it makes the tower look a lot better. Ordered it in yellow so they have to ship it from the factory. I will post pics when it gets in and on!

Other things I noticed: Malibu now gives you a cloth bag to put the plexiglas wind break in. Last years got pretty scratched up whenever you would put anything in the rear compartment. The new brackets for the swimplatform are really nice, very easy to take on and off, no more is it level/getting hung up crap. New brackets just let it fall into place. Malibu changed from JVC to JBL stereos, still basically the same, but this year they added a MP3 player input on the lower dash pod (where the remote/depth gauage was last year) they still have a stereo remote there. The switch that used to change from left to right speedo pickup now toggles through display functions... air/water/depth/clock. Everything on the outside of the boat is Stainless Steel, ballast drain, bow lights, windshield rail, rub rail... I hear you Tom, but it looks GOOD!!! Besides with only about 300 screws you could replace it easy enough if it got really tore up! That is about all that I can think/or have noticed they have changed from last year.

Thought they went away from wood swim steps? Anyone notice the wedge door opens the other direction now?
How does the Envoy pull? Got enuff sack? scott

Tony,

I don't know which tower you ordered, but is it this one or similar to this one? If not, did you see this one before you ordered yours?

Duh, I'm stupid...you said Titan tower. My bad.

Nice boat, by the way!

Tony,

Too bad I moved to florida. it would have been fun to bum a ride off ya!

t

also, do the new swim step brackets look like they would have the same hole locations? I wonder if I could swap out the brackets easily?

I would also like to retro my speed to work off of the paddle-wheel. Thats sounds slick! My pitot speedos are always taking a vacation!

That Boss tower is sweet

The teak swimplatform is standard, the fiberglass one is an option. At least at the time I ordered mine the fiberglass one was included in the Just Ride Package. I wasn't to thrilled about that so I ordered everything seperate so I could still get the teak platform.

Didn't notice the Wedge door location... yet.

I don't think the new platform brackes will just retro to the older boats, their is somehting differnt, I think it is with the platform itself, I can't remember, next time I am at the boat I will check it out though.

dane-I hear ya man... those things were never working, I got really uesd to watching the PP speedo. Will be nice to have a 5" speedo that works and is accurate! I would think the Malibu computer that controls the gauges now has a different input to accept the paddle wheel speed sensor. I would think, and I am just guessing here, you would have to replace the main computer/module to get the paddle wheel pickup. Maybe not, someone at Malibu should be able to tell you what would be needed.

Congrats, looks sharp. If you haven't had it out yet your going to love the hammerhead.

Sweet ride Tony, who is the sponsor? (my monitor sucks!) Is that an extreme trailer? Congrats...
Pat

They had that color combo at the Expo in Orlando in Sept. with yellow wake designs tower and it really looked sweet! Nice choice, I always liked yellow!

Nigel-Oh Yeah! We took it for a test spin, it does real well! With the 14x16 prop and no weight it tops out at about 45mph on PP when the motor keeps hitting the rev limiter. I am going to have this thing so loaded down that I don't think that will be a problem in the future. But we will see.

Sponsers are www.dansboats.com or the local St. Louis Malibu Dealer that hooks me up with the Pormo Boat every year, and of course Malibu for offering the Pormo Boat, and Hyperlite.

The trailer is SMP, I think that is Southern Marine Products or something like that.

Mike O- that is where I got the idea! I had a completely different color all picked out and then I saw that one and fell in love! I think I heard that the one at the Expo is Chad Sharps boat. I have that exact tower combo comming also, it was the Titan Series II with their speaker, DST Lights, both painted yellow, and the Spinner board racks. The only difference in the boats is on mine I added the yellow accent color above the rubrail, I don't remember the Expo boat having that. That is an option this year by the way!

SMP = sweetwater metal products.

I have an SMP trailer for my BU and it is nice.

The door for the Wedge was reversed so that it opens away from the boat. That prevents the door from being forced open when the boat is running, even if the latch doesn't fit perfectly.

That is a great looking boat Tony, I can't wait to see all the pictures in your gallery.

Uh, what happened to some of the posts? I don't think anyone was "advertising" a site or shop.

blah!

What are you talking about? What is missing?

Here's a preview of what Tony's boat will look like (as seen in Chad Sharpe article in this months Wakeboardingmag), hope you don't mind Tony.

All I can say is SWEET!

I noticed that tower in the magazine (because it looked so sweet). Is that the old titan or the new titan (it is hard to tell from this angle).

It's the Series II. Look at page 77, you can see that the legs go straight down to the mounts instead of angling down to a vertical piece.

You can also just barely make out the smooth arc in the picture above.

Thanks. Very sharp.
Still wish the bimini poles were gone (seems like that could work).

You and I both like that bimini from Australia that doesn't use any poles. One thing I realized is that style of top can't be folded and stored against the tower like the Titan top can.

I almost always leave my bimini up all the time if I bring it out, but I know with a tower it would be nice to fold it into the boot and strap it up instead of having to remove it every time you trailered.

Sweet! Yeah that is it!!! They had that boat at the Surf Expo and I stole everything!

I just got my WBMag, I have it in my bag I was going to go through it today at lunch! I hadn't seen that picture yet!

I got all of my stuff in a while ago. I have everything but the board racks installed. I was waiting until I finished those to post more pics. It is looking good and coming together. Only difference in my Bimini is white with a yellow strip down the middle. I dropped the boat off this morning to have my cover made for it. It is going to be yellow snap on bow and cockpit cover. I can't wait to see it done! I will be posting more pics soon, thanks again for posting Chad's boat pic!

I just noticed one other difference, on mine I have what malibu calls "color above the rubrail" a small 4" yellow strip right above the rubrail. Just noticed and thought I would share.

I think the added color above the "rub" is a nice touch. Nice color scheme.