Does tubing hurt a boat?

[dkorzun21]

Just wondering does tubing hurt a boat at all? And has any one ever pulled out or messed up there rope bracket it the middle of the back of the boat where the tow rope connects too?

Let me know you expeirance or what you have heard,

 

[QC]

Re: Does tubing hurt a boat?

I've pulled a lot of stuff and generally speaking tubing is no harder on a boat than a Slalom Skier. I have also ripped out a poorly mounted pylon before, but that was with a large and skilled skier who pulled so hard it yanked out. Again, poorly mounted and not through bolted.

Anytime you add load to anything you increase the likelihood of problems. Yes, the engine works a little harder when you are pulling something than if you are not. With that said, it would be ludicrous to try and calculate what negative impact there was to tubing on the mechanical side of things. If the hardware is sound, mounted properly, and your boat is tuned and propped correctly, then you should have no issues worth noting.

 

[Thad]

Re: Does tubing hurt a boat?

I am on my third boat in 15 yrs and have never had or heard of a boat getting messed up from tubing.
I have, however, bent my rope hook. Last year.
I have a "Big Mable" tube and in the chariot position, tried to pull through a wake at low speed. Rope must have been in just the right postion and the drag/weight be just so, to bend the inner hook into the outer circle. Nothing a set of visegrips didn't take care of.
I pull two "regular" tubes all of the time and have never had that problem since. And I don't try to pull the big one through a wake. Wait till it smoothes out, then go.
So, I guess it all boils down to what and how you are pulling.
I would say under normal to semi extreme conditions...should not be a prob.
Go a little too overboard...could have a prob.

 

[shorts&chanclas]

Re: Does tubing hurt a boat?

It usually hurts the rider more than the boat.

 

[lkbum]

Re: Does tubing hurt a boat?

Tubing "can" hurt, sometimes.. From personal experience, 1994 Mercusier 7.4 l with a Bravo III outdrive, 23 foot run about. Tubing is generally done at slower speeds than skiing (note generally). For this boat, that meant driving at roughly 2000 RPM (just barely on plane). Made a hell of a wake for the tuber. Anyway, twice in one season, after extended juants of tubing (a couple of hours each time), I experienced a water pump failure (not the impeller, the belt driven pump on the engine, the blades failed). I asked the mechanic what the problem was (on the second failure) and he immediately asked if I was tubing at slow speeds (this was prior to the wake board craze whcih is also at lower speeds). He said that merc water pumps had experienced problems while running for long periods at fairly low RPMs. I reduced my time at this speed (shorter tubing intervals) and never had the problem again.

 

[lkbum]

Re: Does tubing hurt a boat?

He said it was a natural frequency problem with the blades in the pump. I don't have experiences with cruisers, but I operate my run abouts either at idle, fast idle 1000 rpm, or "on plane" which is about 2400 rpm and up. I don't believe this boat would have held plane that slow (2000 rpm) without the Bravo III. He had seen this problem (broken blades on the water pump) more than once and he said they were all from "extended" operation in the 1800 to 2000 rpm range.