V-drive vs. D-drive

scheister · Criminal Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 92 City: Indianapolis

I've searched quite a bit here, and didn't seem to find the answer. What is the main difference between the 2? pros and cons of each? I'm looking for a boat for primarily wakeboarding, but also skiing, tubing, and just cruising. Trying to figure out what the best setup would be...

thanks

Bambamski · Posted: Feb 01, 2006 11:17 am Post subject:

main Difference
V-drive engine in the back of the boat vs Direct drive in the middle of the boat.

Pros V-drive
more storage
better seating for everyone
engine weight in the back of the boat
Better resale value
Can hide the weight of fat sacs much better
Handle rough water a bit better
Decent cruiser
Better surf wake

Pros Direct drive
Easy to work on
Handle like a race car
Better ski wake
no bow rise

Cons V-drive
harder to work on
More expensive
Don't handle quite as nice
More parts means more things that could go wrong
bow rise

Cons direct drive
Harder to weight, fat sacs lying everywhere
big hump in the middle of your boat.
Don't handle rough water well
Take a little more of a hit on resale
Not a great cruiser
a bit noisier due to the engine the middle (trying to talk to people in the front vs back)
Surf wake not very good

There is so much more demand these days for V-drives over direct drives. Look at the market place now. How many new direct drives have been introduced in the past couple of years? How many new V-drives? I can't think of a single new Direct Drive that has come out vs every boat company has on average 3-4 new V-drive boats just in the past two years.

CRAMM · Posted: Feb 01, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject:

Thats right on! I cant belive there is no threads disscusing this already.

srh00z · Outlaw Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Posts: 128 City: Birmingham

Well Bambamski pretty much covered it. I like my DD for many of the reasons that he listed although I don't ski, the only thing I dislike is the lack of storage. I like the engine cover in the middle, I made mine into a seat on the back ledge and it is usually the most coveted seat when someone is riding because you have a straight shot. I really like the interiors of the Tige and Malibu DD's from the last few years as they have rear facing seats built in. I completely rebuilt my interior and put hard tanks in the back so I don't have to worry with the fat sack problem, but with the newer boats you wouldn't want to completely redo your interior (it was fun, but I don't know if I would do it again). Somebody here posted once that DD's were more fuel efficient than V-drives, but let's face it by the time you weight 'em down and pull people up all day long it doesn't really make that much of a difference. Best of luck choosing.

scheister · Criminal Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 92 City: Indianapolis

thanks for the explanation guys

srh00z · Outlaw Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Posts: 128 City: Birmingham

I just saw your signature Schiester, a 10.75 ET is really puttin it down. Is it a street driven car?

scheister · Criminal Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 92 City: Indianapolis

yep. thanks don't really want to hack up my own thread, but here's the latest vid... http://media.putfile.com/10758121

-Chad

srh00z · Outlaw Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Posts: 128 City: Birmingham

Going back to the boat discussion, I really like the D-drive set up and I have people that ski every once in awhile, but 90 percent of the time we are wakeboarding. It really comes down to what you want to do most of the time. The V-drives are definitely easier to set up for wakeboarding. I have just always liked the interior layout more on certain D-drives. If I were going to buy a new one I would consider one of these.
http://malibuboats.com/w23xti.aspx

or

http://www.tige.com/2006/
look for the 22i on the tige site.
My new interior is set up similar to the Tige, I like rear facing seats so I guess that is why I like certain DD interiors so much. Supra and Moomba are now offering a V-drive that has a rear facing seat. Then again, alot of it boils down to budget.

austin11 · Criminal Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 74

the only thing i dont like about d-drives is if u ever put a line on the pylon (not the tow point on the tower.) is that u will lose all of that seating on the bottom. Becuase if u sit there and your not paying attenton u could get close line, and thats not fun. BUt both boats have thier pros and cons.