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Recently had the privilege to tow this set up and go ride this boat.
Truck first: Ford F-150 Eco Boost. So sick. It is really solid feeling and quiet, only thing you hear is the turbo spooling up, and that is a great sound. I towed the A24 for about 10 miles, up and down some little hills and on a highway for a little bit. I come from a Dodge 2500 Diesel and I would say this F150 tows this boat just as well. I tow my A22 with it and have 800 lbs of lead in it, so the weight of my A22 and this A24 was probably fairly close. I was really shocked at how well and effortlessly it pulled. You always hear us diesel guys saying "I can't even tell its back there" when towing our boats... and that is true, but it is equally true with the F150 plus the truck is SO much quieter than my diesel. On top of that, it allegedly gets up to 25 mpg highway and here in California, pump gas is usually cheaper than diesel by 30 cents a gallon. Also, the brakes were great.. not sure if it was the A24 trailer brakes or the F150 brakes... or a combination of both, but it stopped so easily.
The boat: 450, 2419 prop, full fuel, 2 dudes, stock ballast plus all plug n play (Sumo 750's in rear and the under-the-seats- bow sack 750), 600 sumo sack on floor of bow (its a walk thru unlike the A22 and A20 series) plus the sumo 800 floor sack. We rode at gps 23.5 at 78-81'. (81 turned out to be the preferred length for this setup) and no wedge. The wake is huge. It is very similar to my A22 loaded up and no wedge, but definitely has a steeper upper half. The smooth axis transition is still there, but it just keeps going and going and gets a little steeper the whole way. My A22 keeps going but levels out and doesnt' have the lip on it. I would say it is like a wedged wake except it is not. A lot of wedged wakes I have ridden have that smooth malibu transition and then have a little kicker at the top, sometimes it could be a little bit frothy at the lip, and sometimes you can blow right through the last few inches of a wedged wake. The A24 shape is similar but the lip is solid, and longer. It just goes and goes and then boots you at the top. I rode 78' and I probably would have liked it a lot more at 82 or so. I had to slow down my cut to prevent from going into the trough on every landing, I was getting that booted.
Fit and finish of the A24, and Axis in general, for 2014 is really improved, especially over my 2011. The boat is huge and drives very nicely, as expected of Malibu products. I only had time for one set but I hope to take many more behind this boat. The wake was honestly just plugged in an hour before we rode. Just plugged in Sumo sacks, hit fill, and rode. I know with a few months of tweaking and playing with the wake, it will get even bettter. (my wake is finally dialed, imo, and it took me 2 years... the Bro Boat will be dialed fairly quickly, I am sure).
We used all Straight Line SUMO sacks because they are just flat out better than the fly highs...(and I have fly highs in my boat, except for my mushroom bow sack, that is the Sumo) especially since Axis and Malibu went to 1 inch inside diameter hoses and fittings and bigger pumps. Now the Sumo's with their 1" I.D. fittings and ports are the perfect matchup for the Malibu's and Axis'. They just "plugged and played" as advertised. We used the 750 bro sack, but they make the "bro stock" edition in 450, 600 and 750 i believe. The 750 fit way better than it does in the A20 and A22. In those 2 boats I recommend to all Axis owners to go with the Sumo 600 because it fits perfectly, but in this A24 I would recommend the 750 but probably the 900, the lockers can easily handle them.
Last edited by johnny_defacto; 11-07-2013 at 9:15 PM.
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