Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

[OneFoot81]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Hey onefoot81 I actually live bout half an hour west of augusta and was looking at the air ice tower I would be interested in yours if your looking to get rid of it

samm835 was looking to sell an Ice tower (think he is in georgia), although he may have already sold it.....If I change my mind about the Ice tower before i install it...I will let you know

 

[jmmdawg]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Yea sorry, i read the post wrong. I realize it now. I sent Samm a message to see if he still wanted to let it go. Let us know how you like it i'm interested to see how it is. Honestly i wouldn't use it too much just pulling some friends every once in a while. I just like the way it looks and want a way to get a nice sound system without using room in my boat.

 

[samm835]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Yeah I sold it to AKORCOVELOS, I shipped it out to him and he got it yesterday actually. Good luck looking and installation.

 

[akorcovelos]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Couldn't pass this one up, Thanks samm! Designing some DIY board racks as we speak.

 

[OneFoot81]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Nice! what do you have in mind for racks?

 

[akorcovelos]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

I haven't finished any of the surfacing yet, but here are some models I made up. Should start building them next week when I have the materials gathered up. They will hold 3 wakeboards and a kneeboard.

I'll post some pics when I get them finished up.

 

[OneFoot81]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Nice!!

 

[atika]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

looks superb, giving boat very decent look and who said your boat is old and don't look good.. its a beauty!

 

[skidooseadoo83]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

I went with the ice tower on my old 89' bayliner cuddy capri. Didnt wana put anything expensive on such an old boat. Got some cheap tower speakers and amp on amazon, turned out good. The tower itself is very sturdy, i weigh 200 lbs and can climb on/hang off it with no movement. Doest creak or rattle when being used or just cruisin. You can see it shift a little when going through chop but its made to have some movement so its not putting all that stress force on the mount points on your boat. I installed myself, used good size backing plates, treated 1/2 plywood epoxied to the inside of the hull. The tower has a pretty good mounting set up IMO, compared to other towers that cost more. I also have a pro-flight on my 96 pro am skier, and id say the ice is sturdier just because of its mounting. Doesnt look very custom, the holes you drill in the cross bar are dependant on the width of your boat... so i would be careful buying a used one, unless the boat is the same width as the one it came off... you'll end up with more holes in the crossbar, which might not be too bad, structurally might not be good. You cant actually run wire through the tubing because of how it bolts together... that was kind of disappointing, but i just ran my speaker wire on the outside and clear cable tied it neatly. All in all it was a good purchase, i had no regrets. Pops me right out of the water with 6 people in the boat, on the little 2.3l in that boat.

 

[akorcovelos]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

There has to be a way to fish wire through the tower, Big Air offers a running light that tops the rope mount and I doubt they require you to run the wire externally.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Yes you can fish wire through these tower legs because they are hollow...down to the feet and then the wire must exit the side of the tube and go into the hull. I successfully ran speaker wires with some fish tape, but had a ton of trouble with that nagivation light. It is a 3/8" diameter hole about 4" deep, then makes an immediate 90? bend. I couldn't find anything that could make that turn. An electrician buddy says he has a few tricks to get the wire ran but we haven't gotten to it yet.

 

[akorcovelos]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Please update when you find a way to fish the light wire through, I'll be dealing with the same thing in a few weeks.

 

[skidooseadoo83]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

I own and installed this tower with speakers, you can not run wire from the cross bar to the feet of any leg internally. Unless you drill horizontally through the connections of the top cross bar and 90's and the connection to the rear legs, these are solid aluminum billet, there is no internal passage.

 

[akorcovelos]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

From Big Air tech support:

For Ice/Storm

When you wire the tower for speakers you will have a bit of wire showing in a few places. The ends of the leg and corner pieces are solid aluminum and you cannot run wire through those. You will have to drill the first hole (going from the hull up) approximately 1 to 2 inches above the weld from the end of the leg. Your second hole will be drilled about 1 to 2 inches down from the top weld of the leg piece and your third hole 1 to 2 inches above the weld on bottom of the corner piece. The rest of the tower should be open for wiring. Again, you will have wire exposed at the bottom of the tower and at the place where it "jumps" the leg/corner connection, but this shouldn't cause any problems or create a trip hazard. Please contact us if you have any more questions.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Sounds like you can run it internally just like with most towers, except for the corner where the leg and the cross section meet. That's interesting, I didn't know they made the ends of the legs as solid pieces.

Pretty much every tower has to have a hole drilled at the bottom of the leg for the wires to escape and enter the hull. So you will just have a few additional inches of wire visible at the corner/leg joint at the top also. Seems like no big deal to me

 

[1979 Quartermasters]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Pretty much every tower has to have a hole drilled at the bottom of the leg for the wires to escape and enter the hull.

My Roswell Area 52 has holes drilled in the bottom and a wiring harnnes to pass through the hull. It also came pre wired for four speakers and a light bar.
I don't think it would be to difficult drill a half inch hole and make up a harness. Fishing the wires through the tubing might be a different story.......



Ken

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Big Air Ice Tower - Any Input??

Please update when you find a way to fish the light wire through, I'll be dealing with the same thing in a few weeks.

Not sure how far you've come with installing your tower, but I finally ran my tow light wiring this week. I ended up using some 16awg wire, put a small bend about half an inch from the tip so that it might help with getting caught. If you shine a light down thru the hole, you'll see how it needs to be ran. I disconnected and removed my right rear leg so that I could see what I was doing and grab the fishing wire. I then routed through the same drilled holes to get it into the boat.