05 VLX help

I have an 02 Xstar and have been wanting a new one but my dealer is the worst on the planet. I looked at a couple of new VLXs and really like them but I haven't been in one. I have a few questions for those that have been around Malibu's in general and also the 05 VLX specifically.
1 - How is the overall reliability
2 - Is the 340 Monsoon enough motor for extra ballast
3 - How is the surfing wake
4 - How does the wake compare to my Xstar(x2)
5 - I have really liked the MC Trailers and have heard some bad vibes about Malibu trailers. Quality of the trailer and drive is really important for me.
6 - What have others paid for a loaded vlx with the Monsoon
Thanks. This forum is great

Also I have heard the 05 is much better than the 04. What did they change

you can write a letter to MC, and tell them you don't like your dealer. Then you can buy a boat from another dealer... just an option!

I have been all the way to the top at MC and have actually had other dealers far away send me stuff to help me because of the lame treatment at my dealer. This only worsened things. Regardless of where I buy it I have to get it serviced and the owner is a total idiot. If there was another dealer closer I would already have an 05 x star

I checked out the 05 VLX pretty hard. Awesome boat. You will love it. We test drove and rode behind it and it rode great. We just rode with the wedge and front, middle, rear ballasts. No extra weight so I can't tell you about the motor and how it will handle extra weight, but I am sure it will be plenty. When you pick the trailer go with Extreme. It is a great trailer. We picked a Supra, but I tell you I had a very difficult choice.
Loaded is a matter of opinion. I was able to haggle the boat down to about 48-50k loaded.
illusion x, 4 tower speaks, sub, two amps, heat, front ballast, tower lights, docking lights, fiberglass platform
Sweet boat!

The main differences from the 04-05 are that the boat itself is bigger. It is 6in longer and 5in wider overall and also is a little deeper. For 05 all of the Ballast tanks are under the floor, and also they now offer the bow ballast as an option. Titan redesigned the tower for 05. There are a few other little things but those mentioned above are tehe main differences.
Also for trailers I personally would only want an Extreme or a Boatmate. I have had very good luck with the Boatmate trailers in the past but if you are on the westside of the Mississippi River the extreme is the way to go.
Pricing depends on your dealer. Typically they are going from 49k to 53k and up to 55k with the new HH 383. The monsoon is a very strong motor at the low end so hole shot is not a problem but you can never have too much power. I do not have a personal experience yet with the 05 loaded down but without additional weight it is not a problem and on our last boat with the monsoon we put roughly 2k pounds of ballast and never seemed to need more power. The 05 about 500lbs heavier than the 04 so I cannot see that making a hughe difference.

The 05 VLX is a great boat. I had an 03 VLX, and this one is heads and shoulders. I am 220lbs and loaded the boat still yanks me out of the water. The storage is great, as is the design. Trailers are not a problem, most in Texas come with a Dorsey, the ones out west come with Extreme trailers. I have never heard complaints with Extreme's and Dorsey's.

Shane
Your boat looks amazing. Do you mind pm'ing me what you paid with all of those options. My only concern right now is that I cannot find one with the 383 and at my elevation (6100ft at one lake near me) I need the xtra motor to run the extra ballast or I will have to change props.

Andrew shoot me an email sodonley@comcast.net

Here is the link to Shane's post about his '05 VLX with the NVS speakers.

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/220152.html?1112318638

Shane, hope you don't mind, but that tower setup looks great.

www.dallaswakeboarding.com

andrew, here is what i got. 05 vlx
340 monsoon
pp
board racks
popup bow light
removable carpet insert
illusion tower
mls rear and middle. did not want front ballast
6 speaker am/fm/cd, amp, and mp3 hook up
depth finder
docking lights
painted dash
towable sunbrella boat cover
2 pair of pop up cleats
bimini and cover
transom remote
fiberglass platform
t/a extreme trailer with all l.e.d. lighting
swing away tongue
$54,499 out the door

Went to look again today. They have exactly what I want. It is a lot like Shane's except more black. A couple quick questions. Does anyone miss the bow storage with the bow ballast? Has anyone owned or spent significant time in an X2 and an 05 VLX that could compare both. I really like my x2 but I am itching for an upgrade and the Malibu is a tremendous value. Also for those that have the Illusion x tower. What are your thoughts on it

Andrew, as for size, an x-2 is not as big inside as a vlx. Dont worry the "local" MC dealer manager didnt give me the time of day, "probbably just some dumb carpenter with no money". They flaked out on a test drive twice and were more expensive before the final adjustments on items. I have purchased an 05 vlx that I p-up on Tuesday. Cost was $53,400 with Liquid Force stereo setup on Illusion tower.bimini cover, Monsoon, heater, pul up cleats(well worth the $220),depth finder,boat cover, and carpet saver. this was out the door tax etc. inc. Mastercraft is a good boat and I am not so opinionated to disuade you from the purchase of one but you got to look @ all of the angles. Besides the guys @ Salinas Valley Marine were very cool and worked with me on pros/cons, me changing my mind back and forth and not trying to shove the product down my throat. I am guessing that you ride @ Tahoe or resivoir outside Park City ? by your 6100 (brrrr) elev. Try to get the 383 otherwise the 340 might gasp a bit. Also the motor upgrade is alot less from malibu tha M.C.

my regular riding buddy has an 03 x2. I don't think there is any comparison between my 05 and the 03, I think my 03 VLX was close in a lot of ways except interior space, the VLX has more. I think the upgrade in handling was a huge improvement for 05 VLX. I hated the illusion when it first came out and has grown on me, it is rock solid. I have not ridden behind the 05 X2, but did spend extended time at the boat show looking at one. The dash on the 05 X2 is cleaner IMHO than the VLX. Interior seem to be nicer than the 03 X2.

Andrew, I am in the same situation as you, the MC dealer in my town is dumb. So if I go 1.5 hours away I have another MC, BU, & CC dealers. I have never heard that you have to write a letter saying you are not happy with your regional dealer to buy from another one, you don't have to do that with cars do you? I haven't been able to be on the water on a VLX but I have spent many hours in the show room and the boat show checking them out. The only complaint I have is the tower is a bit tricker to fold down if you need to and harder to get acc. for. I really love the wake of X-2 so I am waiting until I can get out in a VLX to make the call, just have to wait for last ice to go off the lake. If the BU dealer is much better than the MC go with that.

Just got my new 05 VLX and you don't need any more ballast. The wake stock is as big as my 04 with 1800#. The boat handles great, lot's of room, and since you don't have anything in the back lockers, you have plenty of room.

Andrew, I spent the last few months researching, negotiating, and buying an '05 VLX. I'll give you my take on your questions, and hope it helps.

"1 - How is the overall reliability"

Well, I've only had mine for a month, but rock solid. Based on previous Malibu's they have a very good reputation. I've noticed a very high attention to detail in the way my boat was built.

"2 - Is the 340 Monsoon enough motor for extra ballast "

In most cases, yes. If you plan on running 2k extra lbs, and 11 people, you might consider the 383. The 340 monsoon is very strong motor however.

"3 - How is the surfing wake"

The V25 wake hull debuted on the LSV last year, and has quickly developed a reputation for a killer surfing wake, but I haven't tried it yet.

"4 - How does the wake compare to my Xstar(x2)"

Probably a LITTLE more rampy, but if you ride with ballast and wedge, the wedge makes the wake very solid and lippy, depends on how you like it. World class wake, but you need to ride it on a well-setup boat. Most people don't like the wedge alone, but when used with properly setup ballast, it gives you a lot of extra kick off the wake.

In other ways it's hard to compare these two boats, since the VLX is way bigger.

"5 - I have really liked the MC Trailers and have heard some bad vibes about Malibu trailers."

Malibu does not manufacture trailers. Each dealer buys whatever trailer they want, so ask. Most use nice trailers, but it depends on your location. I personally have an Extreme, which is one of the best on the market.

Waterski America in Dallas sells nicely loaded VLX's for around $50k -- Monsoon, illusion tower, bimini, racks, cover, bow ballast, docking lights, perfect pass, dual batteries, tandem trailer, etc.

I added a few more options, and got a similar discount from Central TX Watersports in Austin. Be aware MSRP is very high, but there is a LOT of room to negotiate.

Good luck! I love the freaking boat so far, it's awesome.

At Wakeside we just finished our 2005 VLX. We had two LSV's before that. This is definitely the best Malibu yet. The wake is huge. We took the boat out with 1,250 pounds of hard-tank (under floor) ballast, plus the wedge, plus 8 people in the boat and the Monsoon with 340 HP is plenty. The wake is shaped perfect and is very big without any extra ballast.

Here are a few pics:

More pics

Here is a pic of the new Skylon Tribal tower. They did a good job of following the windshield and switched to fat 2 3/8" tubing:

Mike the new boat looks sweet. This is what we will be taking delivery of next week. This picture was from earlier today.

It is going to have the polished Titan III with 4 Titan boardracks.

Hey, that's my boat, tower, and racks! Well, close. I almost went with the 5's, but am very happy with my 4's. Great tower also.

Congrats on the new ride! Very nice!

How about the diff between the 05 VLX wake and the 05 LSV wake?

What MC dealer are you guys dealing with?

not sure I want to name mine because I still have the x2. I am too upset that if you get me started I may rant for hours

Andrew,

I can't speak for the Bu you are looking at, but I've owned two Extreme trailers for my Tiges and have been very pleased. They make a high quality trailer.

Wakeside,

Is that an illusion(pardon the pun) or does the Malibu have a silver exhaust port sticking out there? I think that's what I see on the pic of the transom on the trailer. If so, what is the purpose of that?

(Message edited by talltigeguy on April 09, 2005)

Tigeguy
I'ts a stainless exhaust, the other one is behind
the wedge. you can also get SS turn down exh.

This was my third Extreme trailer and I have been pleased with each one.

I think the exhaust tips are chrome but they may be stainless. I didn't look at them that close. It's all for looks (on the trailer), and doesn't add any performance.

I think the wake is a little bigger on the VLX than the LSV because the boat is smaller. You may need to add extra ballast on the LSV to get the same size wake, but the shape is near perfect on the LSV.

Chris,

You must be excited to get your new boat. The Titan Series III looks great. You had an Illusion on your last boat, what made you go with the Titan Series III? Are you going with the Battle Rack or the Cruiser Rack?

The Malibu is a great boat as far as interior design. You would be hard pressed to find a better boat as far as design fetures inside. The interior is first rate they put extra attention to detail in the boat. You get netted pockets. Storage that goes all across the seats for long things the seats are high for comfterble sitting positions. The interior lights are put into great places. The monsoon should have enough power for stock but as far as using the wedge and adding like another 1000 lbs on top of stock quite frankly I'm not sure any of the available engines will be not be straining quite a bit. We had ours with the ls1 engine and you could put any amount of weight in the boat without the wedge but once you throw that wedge down the boat is MUCH slower. However like most are saying the stock ballast with some people in the boat is going to most likely be fine they did redesign the hull for 05 and if you want to go huge you could upgrade the motor and just floor it more often.

I have an 05 with the hammerhead and it is ultra powerful and as everyone said the wake is great and features, etc well thought out. It does feel heavier than my last vlx, but for the added wake, room, and features I am happy and handling seems to be on par with the old one, but this new motor is amazing, tons of torque and a really strong pull, plus a nice sound when idleing.

Wakeside,

We went with the Titan Cruiser racks. Titan instead of Illusion was for two reasons: Accessories and Folding. I wanted to run from stated in the other thread either the NVS or Skylon Reference seires and also we have to fold it down to get in the garage and the Titan is just a lot easier.

I heard that the hammerhead is based on same engine as the Vortec 6000 found in the Escalade and GMC Denali. That is a great engine, I have one in my truck. Maybe I should have upgraded the engine in our 05 VLX from the Monsoon to the Hammerhead but I heard horror stories of the hammerhead on quite a few forum threads. I believe that the 2005 hammerhead is totally new - they just kept the same name. It might have been better to come up with a new marketing name since the new engine probably won't have issues. My 2c.

Yea, the hammerhead is all new and really seems better. I was leary of it and drove vlx's with the monsoon and felt they were a good pair, but then got to run one with the motor and spoke with indmar about it. It is a "stoker" crate motor from gm and unlike the old hammerhead is a 6.2, not a 5.7 and so far it seems great and really has more power than i expected

MikeO: "Just got my new 05 VLX and you don't need any more ballast. The wake stock is as big as my 04 with 1800#."

I had the first chance to try my 05 yesterday and my initial impression just looking at the wake is it didn't look much bigger then my old boat (loaded) or any of the other Malibus I've been in lately. However a friend of my daughter who is a fairly proficient rode behind it and announced that he thought it was the best wake he's ever riden.

One handling aspect I was thrilled to see was no porpus-ing when going down Victoria (Delta) in spite of the current. I even power turned a few rollers myself just to see if I could get it to bounce and it was all good. That alone makes the boat worth having to me. With my 01 sunsetter the wedge was unusable there on a busy day as we would just bounce down the river!}

The stock wake on the 05 is definitely bigger than the 03.