Malibu 247 Demo
Sorry for the delay on this ... been a little hectic!
For those that were following this thread, my son and I demo'd the 06 Malibu 247 LSV a couple of weekends ago. I'll try to do as good a job as Wrangler did on his "head to head" a few weeks back.
First and foremost, this boat is BIG. It feels much bigger from the windshield to the back seat than our 23V. And Malibu has done a very nice job on the fit and finish and comfort of the interior. I like the fact that the cup holders are built into the sides of the boat rather than on the floor like our 23V - We can't open the side storage and ice chest on ours without first removing a tall one in the cupholder.
We didn't demo the 24Ve, but I did go to the dealer and look it over on the trailer. I personally like the Malibu dash better. It's a little edgy, which I like, and I particularly like the Malibu cruise. It held speed very well at both slow surfing speed (10 MPH) and wakeboarding (22-23 MPH).
The glove compartment is really nice as well ... it's big, locks, and has a power outlet inside for your cell phone ... a nice touch!
Driving the boat was easy. In the harbor, it manuvered much better than my current ride, turning well in both directions, even at idle speed. My boat has a hard time turning left at slow speeds.
The Hammerhead engine was smooth, powerful, and seemed plenty strong. The throttle is all electronic (fly by wire) which was nice, but took a little getting used to as there is no resistance from a cable when accelerating. The boat was very quiet. I'm not sure I like that ... I love the gutteral sound our Tige makes.
The wakeboarding wake was, IMHO, great. It doesn't curl at all, even at slow (17-18 MPH) speeds. This is important to me because my wife likes to wakeboard, but not very fast ... she senses even 1 MPH changes!
With the ballast full, and the power wedge set, it had a nice, steep wake. And it seemed that you could play with the wedge setting to change not only the size, but the shape of the wake.
And this baby turns on a DIME! I couldn't believe how the boat handles turns. The dealer was driving and warned us that he was about to make a left turn, and my 14 year old son thought he didn't have to hold on. Wrong. He went flying!
There was no wind, so very little lake chop to test rougher water, but we did cross some other boat wakes and the Malibu felt solid. There were no creaks or rattles.
Storage was very good, especially considering the boat has ballast tanks built in under the rear compartments. They seemed to be as deep as our 23V with no ballast.
Nice amenities include a tall kitchen sized trash can under the rear corner seat, grab handles along both sides, and a compartment at the transom for your binding lube and gloves.
My biggest concern with the boat is the wake for surfing. With the standard ballast full on one side and the wedge down, the wake still wasn't as good as my 23V's wake w/no ballast. I'm regular and my kids are goofy, so screwing around with extra ballast sacks may be more of a pain than I want to deal with.
Other than that, and the price
, I really like the big Malibu. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'd look at the 23 LSV, but with no storage up front, it isn't a viable option for my family.
Sorry for the delay on this ... been a little hectic!
For those that were following this thread, my son and I demo'd the 06 Malibu 247 LSV a couple of weekends ago. I'll try to do as good a job as Wrangler did on his "head to head" a few weeks back.
First and foremost, this boat is BIG. It feels much bigger from the windshield to the back seat than our 23V. And Malibu has done a very nice job on the fit and finish and comfort of the interior. I like the fact that the cup holders are built into the sides of the boat rather than on the floor like our 23V - We can't open the side storage and ice chest on ours without first removing a tall one in the cupholder.
We didn't demo the 24Ve, but I did go to the dealer and look it over on the trailer. I personally like the Malibu dash better. It's a little edgy, which I like, and I particularly like the Malibu cruise. It held speed very well at both slow surfing speed (10 MPH) and wakeboarding (22-23 MPH).
The glove compartment is really nice as well ... it's big, locks, and has a power outlet inside for your cell phone ... a nice touch!
Driving the boat was easy. In the harbor, it manuvered much better than my current ride, turning well in both directions, even at idle speed. My boat has a hard time turning left at slow speeds.
The Hammerhead engine was smooth, powerful, and seemed plenty strong. The throttle is all electronic (fly by wire) which was nice, but took a little getting used to as there is no resistance from a cable when accelerating. The boat was very quiet. I'm not sure I like that ... I love the gutteral sound our Tige makes.
The wakeboarding wake was, IMHO, great. It doesn't curl at all, even at slow (17-18 MPH) speeds. This is important to me because my wife likes to wakeboard, but not very fast ... she senses even 1 MPH changes!
With the ballast full, and the power wedge set, it had a nice, steep wake. And it seemed that you could play with the wedge setting to change not only the size, but the shape of the wake.
And this baby turns on a DIME! I couldn't believe how the boat handles turns. The dealer was driving and warned us that he was about to make a left turn, and my 14 year old son thought he didn't have to hold on. Wrong. He went flying!
There was no wind, so very little lake chop to test rougher water, but we did cross some other boat wakes and the Malibu felt solid. There were no creaks or rattles.
Storage was very good, especially considering the boat has ballast tanks built in under the rear compartments. They seemed to be as deep as our 23V with no ballast.
Nice amenities include a tall kitchen sized trash can under the rear corner seat, grab handles along both sides, and a compartment at the transom for your binding lube and gloves.
My biggest concern with the boat is the wake for surfing. With the standard ballast full on one side and the wedge down, the wake still wasn't as good as my 23V's wake w/no ballast. I'm regular and my kids are goofy, so screwing around with extra ballast sacks may be more of a pain than I want to deal with.
Other than that, and the price
, I really like the big Malibu. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'd look at the 23 LSV, but with no storage up front, it isn't a viable option for my family.
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