Tower Installation

[karlt5503]

Wanted to see if I could get some advice. I just bought a tower for my boat and plan on installing it soon. I have read about others making a support bracket that mounts to the inside of the boat, that way there is less stress on the mounting area. I wanted to see if anyone had some advice about how to make these supports. I read some were just taking a piece of wood and mounting the hardware to it. Is this the best way to make a support? Is the epoxy used to glue the wood to the inner part of the boat where the holes are drilled?

Any advice would help. Thanks

 

[sebber83]

Re: Tower Installation

What I think u mean is just a kind of shim used in the inside of the boat so that it takes some of the stress and not just leave it to the hull to withstand the stress. If this is what u mean, I used 3/4 inch plywood on the inside of my hull by did not glue it. I drilled the mount holes through the hull then through the plywood. I would say my mounting hardware on each leg covers an area of maybe 6 inches by 6 inches, so I made my "shims" approx. 10 x 10 inches to make sure the stress is spread out to a larger surface.

Hope that helps

 

[xjcj3a]

Re: Tower Installation

if the hull is curved alot, you may want to use some epoxy on the shim. if you dont you will have a void inside that wont distribute the load evenly.

 

[jonsquatch]

Re: Tower Installation

For mine I made some shims from 1/2" plywood to spread the load over the largest area of fiberglass possible. The 1/2" was about all I could spare and still get my hands/tools in to tighten the fasteners. If the nuts were attached to the backing plate that wouldn't have been a concern. I used a polyurethane construction adhesive to attach mine and fill in the slight void but it wasn't really there for a structural purpose.

 

[karlt5503]

Re: Tower Installation

Thanks for the advice. A shim on the inside of the boat to reduce the stress is what I was thinking of. I watched a good video on Sampsons wed site that explained the backing plate a little. I was just curious about the size of the backing plate, how wide and thick it needed to be. It looks like they were placing an aluminum or metal plate over the piece of wood and also putting some epoxy between the wood and hull of the boat. Just curious about the specs on both.