Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

[treyhill81]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I have a 2002 cobalt with a beam of 72 inches. I bought this aeiral assault tower had a friend who owns a audio shop install it along with the sound system. (maybe where I went wrong) The tower shakes on the water and really bounces when on the road. I am afraid to get a person behind it because it already looks as if it is going to fall apart/rip off boat. The tower itself is strong. However the one bolt small footprint I believe is causing the stress and making the tower shake. I had plywood cutouts on the backside it did not work so I had a metal shop make stainless steel back plates still is doing the same thing. My next course of action will be welding large square pads to the footprints on the outside of the boat and adding plywood to the backside then glassing it in. Does anyone have any other ideas and if so can you please share them with me. I can provide more info and more pics if needed. Thanks trey

 

[DustyJoe]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I finally got to use it and I really like my tower. The first time up my brother said it made a loud pop but it hasnt done it since and I weigh around 280 and Im not that good at getting up but so far it is working out well draggin me on up. I have the speakers and bimini top on it and it does move and shake while I travel at high speeds on the water but it doesnt squeak like the horror stories I heard after buying it. I have used it 3 different days with different people behind it.

 

[pat8839]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

That's awesome Dusty! Did you install it yourself? Do you have pics to share of your boat with it's new look?

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I have a 2002 cobalt with a beam of 72 inches. I bought this aeiral assault tower had a friend who owns a audio shop install it along with the sound system. (maybe where I went wrong) The tower shakes on the water and really bounces when on the road. I am afraid to get a person behind it because it already looks as if it is going to fall apart/rip off boat. The tower itself is strong. However the one bolt small footprint I believe is causing the stress and making the tower shake. I had plywood cutouts on the backside it did not work so I had a metal shop make stainless steel back plates still is doing the same thing. My next course of action will be welding large square pads to the footprints on the outside of the boat and adding plywood to the backside then glassing it in. Does anyone have any other ideas and if so can you please share them with me. I can provide more info and more pics if needed. Thanks trey

Mine moves around a bit too on the road and water. Never thought anything of it, it is a big heavy structure attached to relatively flexible fiberglass. If you watch on the road you will see that even factory towers move around quite a bit.

 

[bakerderek0]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

Finally got to try out my aerial airborne tower yesterday. I thought it was very sturdy & quiet. The wire harness only had enough wires for 2 speakers, so I had to run additional speaker wires. The racks are nice. I like the kneeboard/wakeboard combo rack.

I'm disappointed about the tower being "collapsable" this tower is in no way easily collapsable. It's more like you're taking it apart to get it down. When I think collapsable, I think maybe a pin or two & that's it. No, this is multiple screw removals. Make sure you run your wires through the back legs or put a disconnect plug on the front leg.

 

[bakerderek0]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I just collapsed it for the first time. It took 1 full hour & alot of work. Had to loosen 12 screws & remove 4 entirely. Total pain in the butt. Don't buy this if you have to collapse it everytime

 

[1fst690]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

It may not be installed entirely square. I have an airborne on my boat and to collapse it all I do is remove the single large allen head bolt from each front leg, loosen the same bolt on rear leg about 1/2 turn and then lay down and loosen the center bolt on the small tubes between the two hoops so it lays flat

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

Mine seems like it will be hard to collapse, but they do sell knobs to use in stead of the bolts, to make it easier.

I am two days into my install and its going well. Tower wise, all I need to do now it loosen one of the feet, torque the clamp onto the foot squarely, then re-torque the foot. I also need to add loctite to all the bolts.

My other remaining challenge is to get the wires through the one last bottom leg and into the boat. I have a friend looking for a cable pull for me that he says will make a nice piece of hardware for the wires to pass through into the boat.

Here is how it looks after 2 days. I think the assault compliments the lines of my 19 foot stingray quite nicely!

http://www.StingrayBoats.com/MyStingray/ppost/data/500/My_tower_rear_side.jpg

That mass of cord on the rack is all the excess wire I left that I need to feed through one more leg and into the boat.

http://www.StingrayBoats.com/MyStingray/ppost/data/500/My_tower_front_view.jpg

http://www.StingrayBoats.com/MyStingray/ppost/data/500/My_tower_rear_view.jpg

 

[pat8839]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

sickwilly that looks awesome! I want that!!!
How did the feet install go for you?

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

The feet install went good, but one of them twisted just a bit with I torqued them up. I guess I did not have the cross bar tight enough. Thus, I have to loosen 1 of the 4, get the cross bar bracket nice and snug, and then re-torque that foot.

I found my Stingray to have the required 1/4th inch thickness on the fiberglass, but I added some backing plates anyway.

I basically put the cross bars together, played around where where I wanted them, then drilled the hole for the front foot. I then installed the front foot, and measured for the rear.

I am really happy with the quality of the materials I was sent. I dreaded a missing piece, but all where there, even with some extra bolts. I can't wait to finish and water test.

An engineer friend of mine came over and checked it out. I had helped him custom build his own tower for his ski boat. He was quite impressed. He is the one that noticed that one of my feet had a millimeter gap on one side and needed to be loosened and re-torqued.

 

[pat8839]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I always wondered how you lined it all up. Makes sense the way you did it, I will keep that in mind whenever I get mine...what did you use for backing? I'm excited for you man!

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I just collapsed it for the first time. It took 1 full hour & alot of work. Had to loosen 12 screws & remove 4 entirely. Total pain in the butt. Don't buy this if you have to collapse it everytime

Sounds like you don't have all the pivots lined up properly. You should only need to remove 4 bolts - those can be replaced with knobs for a toolless fold down. (2 on the front arms and the 2 on the top that allow the connectors between the front and rear legs to hinge.)

What you need to do is loosen up everything and then remove the 4 bolts and fold the tower up and down a couple times (squarely) this will get everything in the right position so that your tower will fold. The adjustment procedure took me a couple hours when I first installed my tower (Liquid audio, but basically the same as the arieal towers with the side bars.

Takes less than 5 minutes to put mine up or down all by myself.

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I always wondered how you lined it all up. Makes sense the way you did it, I will keep that in mind whenever I get mine...what did you use for backing? I'm excited for you man!

I found marine plywood online at an aviation store after exhausting finding it locally.

 

[DustyJoe]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I dont have any pictures since it all came in and has been installed but I will try to get some this weekend. Mine folds down fairly simple just take out the 2 front leg bolts loosen the two in the back and then take out the 2 on top of the crossover bars. It didnt take me to long but I am keeping mine in a slip this summer and since my garage burnt down Im gonna build a garage with a 10 foot door to put it in this winter so I dont have to fold it down.

 

[bakerderek0]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

Wow, ok so I'll checkout the hinge points. I had the tower installed by a reputable marine shop, so I assumed it was done correctley. Thank you. My apologies Aerial, looks like it may just be my ignorance.

 

[shaddr3]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

Sorry I havent gotten pictures yet. Still can't find my digital camera!! Took the boat out in the chesapeake bay this past weekend. with all the huge wakes, it is pretty sturdy. It does rock a tiny bit. I took the tower apart last friday and drilled four holes in the tower where I will be running my wires for lights and speakers when I have enough dough to order them.. Along with the fishing rod holders. I highly suggest everyone to put a backing plate behind their fiberglass. Better safe than sorry!!

I folded the tower to do the drilling and removal of pieces. It's pretty simple. Take the top bolts out that connects to the side mounts (things that look like batwings), and loosen the forward leg bolts that give the tower its lift and it will fold right down. I put a towel in between the fiberglass and the side mounts so it wouldn't rub against the side of the boat. Very easy, and simple. Gotta admit this tower looks pretty sexy and I get lots of looks and tons of people asking me about it. Really makes my bayliner 185 shine nice


Also be very careful. When I try to dock the boat, the board racks on the sides can hit the pylons, depending on the tide. Besides not being able to run the wires through the tower and the width of the racks, those are the only downsides I can see so far.

 

[pat8839]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

hey bakerderek-how much did they charge to install? just in case I get too chicken to do it myself haha

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I am still installing mine. I have thought many times, should I have paid someone else to do it. Here are my current thoughts. If I were to do this, I would want them to specialize in it, not just do one every once and a while. Its been tedious, with many steps, and many choice points where I have had options. I would worry that some shop that just hires their tech to do one every once and a while would not give it the attention to detail I have given mine, and would possibly make different choices than I have. I would only want to pay someone who specializes, as I am sure they would have the attention to detail and experience.

 

[pat8839]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

That is a very good point!! I never thought about that. Yours looks great, and you obviously have put in a lot of time and thought into it and it no doubt will be a job very well done.

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Aerial Airborne Wakeboard Tower

I got my wires through last night. Now I just need to wire everything up to the amp and loctite and torque all the bolts. I am totally pleased so far -- pre-water test.

Here is a view showing the two places the wires exit the Aerial Assault:

http://www.StingrayBoats.com/MyStingray/ppost/data/500/My_tower_2_wire_view.jpg

I used a cord pull to dress up and make water tight where the wires are going through the hull (I don't have to worry about unplugging the wires, as the tower can come down and it will not affect these wires).

Wires into boat front view:

http://www.StingrayBoats.com/MyStingray/ppost/data/500/My_tower_wiring_front.jpg

Wires into boat rear view:

http://www.StingrayBoats.com/MyStingray/ppost/data/500/My_tower_wiring_back.jpg