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This is my 5th Cobalt in the last 6 years. Oh what ownership change and a pandemic can do to, in my opinion, the highest quality bow rider boat on the market. The last two years of production and quality control coming out of the factory has me, for the first time questioning, did I make the right purchase, despite the a$220K price tag.

The bracket arm fix for the tower shaking, I think, makes the issue even worse. I’m no engineer, but things can only flex and shake for so long until something breaks, cracks, or just fails. I wanted to see how many other R8 owners are having the same issues with the prism towers shaking and squeaking.

Also the biggest issue is with the humming/feedback in the audio system when the R&B lights are on. We were floating and listing to the stereo, 2 hours into our new boat, when a very loud POP, more like gun shot, happened and it killed all audio and lighting. After a full system reset, it seems all systems are working, but we now have a horrible feedback when listing to the stereo with he R&B lighting on cycling through the colors. I love the tower and the back lite in all the speakers, but what good is it if they can’t fix the feedback.

I love the dealership service at our lake, it’s top notch and fast, however, Cobalt has not trained them or provided a solution to fix this problem. We’ve had some of the the best AV/Stereo resources in the area look into it, at our own expenses, and no one seems to be able to isolate the issue. Is it Fusion, the Amp Manufacture, or Speaker Manufacture?

If anyone else has had this or has this issue and was able to get it fixed, I know a lot of R8 owners on our lake that would love to know the answer and how to find the resource to fix it.

Happy Boating.

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Hey CKS64. So glad you found us.

Sorry to hear about your Cobalt woes. At that price tag there should be no buzz in the sound system. Something is not right. Possibly a bad ground or a short somewhere that caused your system to shut down. Surprised a fuse didn't blow honestly.

Any pics of your R8?

Others will chime in shortly.

And welcome aboard mate.

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I would start be doing some basic troubleshooting with the speaker zones. Turn the volume all the way down to zero. Any feedback? Then begin turning the volume up one zone at a time and see if there is any feedback. Might be isolated to one zone. If there is then I would suspect it is the amp powering that zone. If you have feedback on all zone then I would suspect it’s in the head unit.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks for the feedback. We’ve checked every wire on all equipment and isolated zones. It’s a mystery and not logical. It only happens when the R&B lights are on.

CKS64 wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 12:29 pm Thanks for the feedback. We’ve checked every wire on all equipment and isolated zones. It’s a mystery and not logical. It only happens when the R&B lights are on.

Maybe they are grounded in the same spot. The stereo grds should all be at the same spot. If they aren't you will get feedback

Prism tower shake is something I believe Cobalt is aware of.....I have a 2021 R8 with prism tower that had reinforcement bars added to the tower (boat was shipped back to factory for the install). Zoom in to see the L-shaped braces that add rigidity to the 3-piece tower. Have these been added to the 2022s?

I have a 2022 and they don’t have those… we haven’t noticed the tower shaking any worse than our r7 tower did. We have about 50 hours on ours.

The arms are to be installed and are at the dealership but I’ve ridden in boats with the ARM’s and now it just sways more evenly. Not sure what this fix will ultimately proof to accomplish.

I wonder if the new towers being taller creates more of a momentum arm, something you would think the designers would account for? It will be interesting to see how they hold up over time.

I’m not experiencing the tower sway issue on my R6 Surf with the same tower. Does it shake and squeak only at high speeds?

CKS64 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:59 pm This is my 5th Cobalt in the last 6 years.

I love the dealership service at our lake

I'm sure they love you too.

So I was on insta and perusing the cobalt page…. I was curious to see if anyone had posted anything in there comments in regards to recent quality concerns of the new R series boats. Found these comments regarding the tower. I guess it is a wide spread issue.