Tubing help slack in the rope...

[Carlos1787]

Not sure where to put this. I just bought my first boat last week and took it out tubing over the weekend. the first two days I was on a very choppy lake and had no problems. the third day we went to a different lake (deeper and smoother water) and had trouble with the tow rope dragging in the wake and getting a bunch of slack in it....then the inevitable yank and tumble afterwords. I have an 86 Bayliner Capri with a Volvo 2.3L/ 275 penta drive. no trim adjustment. the rope attaches to the u bolts on either side of the outdrive with a y rope and float.
what am I doing that causes this..do I need more speed or less? This has really discouraged potential tubers, because there is no way to hang on after the rope gets loose like that.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Does your boat not have a ski rope eye above the drive? Might be worth adding one (with an appropriate backing plate) to get the rope up higher. If you ever decide to ski or wakeboard you'll want the rope higher anyways.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Sounds like you need one of the tube tow ropes with a float in the middle to keep the rope out of the wake, like this one:

http://www.sportsstuff.com/dyn_prod.php?p=SPT53-2030

They sell them here on Iboats:

http://www.iboats.com/4k-Booster-Ball/dm/view_id.484190

 

[convergent]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

I have the booster ball and it will help greatly with the rope getting caught in the wake. You may still have it happen from time to time, but on my boat it was pretty much constant when crossing the wake in one direction (before using the ball), and now it rarely happens. When it does, I'm able to get it to stop by altering the speed a bit. Make sure you blow the ball up fully so that its firm. Check the web and you can find the ball for about $65-75. It does also include the 4000lb. rope too.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

maybe you are turning too sharp, turning with the tube inside the turn, rope is too long, too many people on the tube, not fast enough. The key is to keep the tube on a plane during manuevers. Same goes with skiiers, kneeboards, etc.

 

[Carlos1787]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Does your boat not have a ski rope eye above the drive? Might be worth adding one (with an appropriate backing plate) to get the rope up higher. If you ever decide to ski or wakeboard you'll want the rope higher anyways.

the boat does not have a tow mount above the drive..I thought about adding one but am not sure what part would be strong enough, or how high I can place it. where is a good place to find out? I have done a search on the net, but haven't come across good info for my boat.

 

[convergent]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

It is not recommended to pull towables (tubes, etc.) from a high point like a tower or pylon. The reason being that they put a lot more weight on them and the higher it is, the more leverage. Plus, the ball is a lot cheaper than a pylon.

 

[bdanie]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

How much robe should you have when towing a tube? I know they sell here 50 and 60 foot tow robes but that seems awful long to me. i bought a 60 foot robe and left about 2 boat lenghts off of it(19ft boat). it seemed to work good. Any ideas?

 

[convergent]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Well I guess it depends on what you want to do. I put the tube into a pendulum motion going back and forth across the wake so I would think that shortening the rope would make this harder to do. It is also going to pull the tube up into the bigger part of the wake. My kids like to get some good speed when bouncing across the wake so 60' seems to work well for them. If you are just pulling them straight then the length doesn't matter much. Keep in mind that ski ropes are about 75' and wakeboard ropes are about 65', so 60' is still shorter than both of them.

 

[BeaufortTJustice]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Two possible issues come to mind...

1) Does the rope you are using have any stretch to it? I recommend you use a rope with some give to it for tubing.

2) I use a 60 ft rope with a two person tube behind an 18ft boat (with stretchable rope) without any of the problems you are experiencing.

Good luck.

 

[convergent]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Two possible issues come to mind...

2) I use a 60 ft rope with a two person tube behind an 18ft boat (with stretchable rope) without any of the problems you are experiencing.

Good luck.

The rope getting caught in the wake has more to do with the size of the wake from the boat and the position of the towing eyelets than anything else. If you aren't having a problem then its probably those two things that are different. My boat is 17.5' and without the using the booster ball the tow rope is lower than the wake and drags through it. It does it 90% of the time in one direction, and about half the time in the other. I'm assuming this has to do with the tilt of the boat and size and shape of the wake going in the two directions.

 

[ndindy]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

REALLY good chance it's driver error. Friend of mine has had a boat for years, can't tow a tube to save his life. He zig zags way to quick, tube doesn't have a chance to move before he's going the other direction, tons of slack and non-stop snapping of the rope. Not enjoyable at all. I've been running a boat about as long as he has, he still can't figure out how I work a tube.

It's pretty simple to keep a line tight if you actually pay attention to what the tube is doing and learn how to run one. Before too long you'll have your 300lb buddy passing the boat on an outside turn and only touching the water every 60 feet.

Don't irritate a good driver is what I'm saying :laugh:

 

[45Auto]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

If you're using a low tow point (transom or tow ring mounted right above the ski platform) it's hard to keep the rope out of the water. A big part of how bad the rope drags in the water depends on the weight of the people on the tube. It's usually easy to pull adults (especially 300 pounders!!) and keep the rope out of the water. Heavier load on the tube = more tension on the rope.

On the other hand, a couple of 50 pound 6 year olds will be so light on the tube that the tension on the rope won't be enough to hold it taut and out of the water.

 

[DennisM]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

I had that same boat up to about 2 years ago. Had the ski eye right above the outdrive.

We pulled tubes, skis, wakeboarding (man what a pain that was to get up with a low point of attachment! ) with no problems.

I would have to say its the weight of the people in the tube. If its too light the its going to drift forward and give you slack. Also the driver has to keep an eye on it and keep it taught.

Start out slow, real slow untill the line is tight then increase speed, once you are at your pulling speed, keep it there steady. Once you get the hang of this it will be a cake walk and will have them jumping the wake

Have fun and be safe...

 

[convergent]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

I'm not sure if everyone understands the rope getting caught in the wake thing. The slack is caused when the tube is moving across the wake and the rope digs in. When the rope digs in, the tube spins around backwards which winds up the rope creating slack. Unless the driver immediately slows down to take up the slack, the in a second or two the rope will come free and the boat will then snatch the rope spinning the tube back around and jerking the riders really hard. Its not fun, and in our case it wasn't the weight of the riders that was causing it. I had two riders with a combined weight of about 350 pounds and it was still doing it on my boat.

Assuming the rope isn't dragging, it definitely is a timing thing to get the right pendulum swing going. The weight of the riders, the speed of the boat, the angle of the turning back and forth, etc. all come into play. I found that when I use the mirror it helps a lot. I can do a gentle turn until the tube starts to cross the middle of the wake and then increase the turn angle at that point and it will give the tube a little whip across the back of the wake and send them way out to the side... then repeat in the other direction.

But when the rope catches the wake, this is a total fail because instead of jumping across the back of the wake, the tube goes across and rope gets hung.

 

[sierrawaterman]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Convergent, feeling you on the rope getting hung up in the wake. I also have a low transom tow point and no matter what you try or how you steer the boat or who is riding it or what thickness of rope you are using we get the same issues. We also are getting some wicked spray right in the face as the rope tries to cross over the wake thought the booster ball might help with this as well. Any feedback on the latter would be great. Thanks.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

maybe it's just part of pulling something behind a boat?

 

[zagger]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

I have to agree about the driver error. Some people get the troubles you describe when they make turns and do not adjust the speed allowing the rope to slack and catch wake. When tubing you have to work the throttle just like you work the trim. At a constant foreword speed when the boat makes any change in direction it maintains same speed over water but looses straight line foreword speed. The tube behind does not loose the foreword speed and starts to overtake the boat creating slack and allowing the rope to get caught in the wake. As you start a course change (any turn) add little throttle and once the tube starts to fallow you can throttle back to normal speed. Good luck and have fun.

 

[blifsey]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

I've had a tube robe go slack under 2 different situations. One, the "driver error" situation mentioned, happens when I sling tube to side and let the rope go slack (boat slows too much, come out of turn too soon, etc). If slack is severe I'll just stop and restart the tow because the force of the yank could damage boat/tube/rope or injure rider.

The second is when the tube is just outside wake of the boat and going in a mostly straight direction. The rider on tube is light compared to size of tube and doesn't provide enough drag to keep rope taught. When my son was younger, we had one tube that would do this very bad with him. From OP description, I think this is type of slack he is seeing. OP mentioned it not happening when water was a little choppy. The tube going through/over the chop increase drag enough to keep rope taught.

 

[204 Escape]

Re: Tubing help slack in the rope...

Agree with the driver error theory. ALSO, the rope that we use for tubing, has a "built in bungee cord" in it. It seems to work ALOT BETTER than my buddies straight rope. Especially on take off!!