Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

[gotwater?]

I have a stingray with a 3.0L 135 hp engine that I would like to get a wakeboard tower for. I am a fairly big guy and am not sure the boat is powerful enough to get me out of the water even with a tower. Please help. thx

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

It will get you out on a wakeboard with the right prop, you are going to have to have a low pitch when doing water sports. You see several people with towers and wakeboarding with your boat in the Stingray boat owners forum.

Of course, they also get twofootisis pretty quickly, and want to move up to bigger boats.

Step 1, though, is to get a lower pitch prop, possible a 4 blade (solas right here at iboats) and get up a couple times before adding a tower.

 

[kyle f]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

With the 4cyl, you are probably going to want to go to a 15p prop. Getting up is really technique. Someone coming ot of the water properly is going to put less than 200lbs of line tension on the rope. Someone cutting hard on the other hand can put 400lbs or more of line tension on the rope.

The difficult part for any I/O is to maintain a constant speed when someone is cutting and the boat is just above plane speed. at 22mph, if the prop starts slipping and cant keep the boat at speed, once it starts to drop off plane the speed will drop in a hurry and ride over.

To prevent this you need toque, which a 3.0 is short on, so your propr better not continue to drop it. Go with a low pitch prop and see what happens.

 

[stimps]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

We use a starcraft 1700 with a 3.0 mercruiser set-up and a tower. It is absolutely fine for wakeboarding even with the stock 21 pitch 3 blade aluminium prop. I also get a tow behind a friends malibu wakesetter vlx so realise that there is always better. You have to work the 3.0 harder but there are hundreds of people using similar boats so don't worry about it too much. Like kyle f says maintaining a constant speed is the hardest part with the small engine. Get a cheap tower and enjoy.

 

[gotwater?]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Thanks for the info!! One other question. With my stingray being small, when a wakeboarder cuts, what keeps the boat from tipping that direction? Covering all my bases before I purchase a tower. thanks again.

 

[kyle f]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Nothing, even my 23' boat wil rock a little and you can actually see the wake change a bit. The good part is, the lean is to the side they are approaching on so it makes the wake a bit crisper as the approach it. However, its not going to tip you over, will just take a bit of steering correction is all.

 

[Htravis77]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

I myself have a 2000 Stingray with the 3 litre in it, i just bought it 2 weeks ago and have yet to be towed on a wakeboard, i have had the boat out twice but with ohio weather you understand why i havent got in the water yet, I am a guy about 6'4" 250 pounds and like you I am searching for a tower to install on my boat.

I have been pulled by several boats a 1983 thompson 19 ft with 4 cylinder with homemade tower, a 2006 Malibu response 21 ft lxi with no tower, a Moomba LSV23 foot with tower and and ballast tanks, and most notebly my former bayliner capri 17ft with 85 hp force outboard and no tower. The best boat I was pulled buy was the moomba it pulled so smoothly, the thompson with the homemade tower pulled me really nice, then next is my friends mailbu which pulls like an animal and is more for the slalom skiing, and then my poor bayliner which would tow me like 10 feet before the board would pop out. I honestly think the waketower pulls you at a more natural angle, but there was no comparison with any of thest boats with the Moomba LSV, however I do not have the budget for a $50k boat, instead I had 6 grand, got the nicest boat i could find that would suite multiple purposes for family, cruising, fishing, wakeboarding.

After toying with my boats trim i found a spot in between quarter trim and half trim where the boat planes off nicely and produces a big enough wake for me to get some nice pop with, i am going out this sunday for my first dip in the lake. I think this boat will do fine for my wakeboarding purposes since i don't plan to go pro any time soon, when you find your tower let me know how it works for you, also plan on reinforcing the tower legs from the inside with 4"x"8 1/4 or 3/8 plywood and liquid nails to protect the fiberglass and gellcoat.

 

[theMAdfisherman]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

If you find a tower or pylon that can be used with a stingray but not require any driling or mounting let me know.

I gave up looking for a tower or pylon for my dads stingray 200ls. He doesnt want to screw into the boat at all so i tried finding some sort of pylon that could be tied down with a bow strap or some type of engineered rig. Ive seen one so far but it was home made and pretty un-sturdy.

Thanks

 

[Htravis77]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

I seen a guy yesterday on the lake with a 7 foot pylon, it was strappe to front of hte boat and was also attached to eye hooks for the back straps on the boat, it seemed to work fine for him however he had a plate installed on the floor of his boat with 4 anchor bolts, I don't think your goin to find a tower that doesn't require some sort of drilling or additional anchor points.

I got towed 9 times by my boat, and while the 4 cylinder was adequate at getting me up i am thinking of going with a different pitch prop to get me up quicker, then again we had 6 ppl on the boat and full tank of gas so it was hauling a good load, i am ordering my tower today, the gentlemen with DIYWAKE.COM raul was helpfull, I have looked and its hard to compare to their prices with a board racks included, they are also working with pyramid manufacturing, i found some of their towers on ebay, its the same product and looks to be cheaper with board racks included.

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

I don't think you need to mount anything for the insanity pylon?

I think it just has a heavy crossbar that would lay in front of the bench seat or motor box.

 

[Htravis77]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Installed the DIY proswoop tower with board rack this passed weekend, the finish on it was outstanding for aluminum to look chrome, i did the wood backing between the backing brackets and fiberglass along with liquid nails, took it out one hour after it was installed and it pulled me flawlessly, now the problem is the boat is not producing a big enough wake for my liking, it has a stingray hyrdofoil on it, by removing this would it creat a larger wake?

 

[craze1cars]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Installed the DIY proswoop tower with board rack this passed weekend, the finish on it was outstanding for aluminum to look chrome, i did the wood backing between the backing brackets and fiberglass along with liquid nails, took it out one hour after it was installed and it pulled me flawlessly, now the problem is the boat is not producing a big enough wake for my liking, it has a stingray hyrdofoil on it, by removing this would it creat a larger wake?

It takes 4 bolts to try it...yank it off for a day and find out. Frankly I hate hydrofoils and have found they screw up the handling on I/O's quite a bit. But others have found differently so opinions will vary.

Most people find the best way to produce bigger wakes is to add ballast. Unfortunately this will make your 3.0L work much harder to get you out of the water. Plus with 6 people on board, you'll probably be over weight capacity, and have NO space at all. So it's a balancing and experimenting act. FWIW I'll add that I found ballast toward the center and front of the boat is often more effective than adding ballast to the rear.

My 18 foot 3.0L never created enough wake to make me happy, regardless of adding ballast bags. Eventually I upgraded to a V-8 powered 20 footer. Much better. But enjoy what you have and try to make it work the best it can. I believe you'll find more weight is probably the best answer.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

You can get a somewhat bigger wake on an IO by trimming up some.

 

[Htravis77]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Yea i agree much more weight in the boat plus i am big guy, truely there is no replacement for displacement, I get much better pop off the wake and more air with the tower which is what i was after but our lake is sooooooo choppy on the weekends due to the tubers and jetskiis it's hard to find that nice glass to cut in and out the wakes there is one area of the lake that's covered buy tree lines so the water is smooth but for whatever reason the jet skis decide to rip it up there instead of the other 2000 acres of water.... i think i may take the hydrofoil off this evening and give it shot tom evening.

 

[Htravis77]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Yea i have adjusted the trim up to about 1/4 and 1/2 and it produces a nice wake, but if the weight in the boat is unbalanced one side of the wakes bigger, i think eventually I will end up with a Moomba or Malibu wakeboat, this suites my purposes, I am definately changing the prop on the boat it has a stock prop and struggles a tad to get me out the water, everyone else pops right up, difference in being 250 pounds vs 110-150 i guess.

 

[rv8tor]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Okay all... I have a 19' Stingray with the 4.3L V-6 and a 23" pitch prop. Plenty of power... I am debating putting on a tower for my kids to wakeboard behind, but I am also trying to decide what kind of bimini to install. The advantages of the tower are obvious for space considerations, but what about for the wakeboarder. Is it any harder or easier for them to wakeboard off of the tower? One resource told us of possible tug on the line to try and pull the boat over. As I read earlier about this, I am not terribly worried about that though. One of the advantages of the tower is that the tow line would go over the top of the tube we plan to bring along at times.

...but is it worth it??? thoughts??

 

[stimps]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

Definetely worth getting a tower. Really struggled to get up when tied of the eyelet, got a tower and bingo, out of the water 9/10 times with ease. The rope angle really helps pull you up out of the water. It is not necessary but makes life easier. As you progress to jumps etc it just gets better.. You can get some nice tower mount biminis now as well.

 

[wired1236]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

A lot of highjacking the thread here. You should start another so people can see what your saying easier. Friendly thought

 

[madurodave]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

My new MT2 rocks. very sturdy and looks great. about 1300

 

[Hansolo99]

Re: Wakeboard tower on a Stingray 18 foot

I like mine! It follows the window frame and looks custom! Very well made and NO CREAKING SOUNDS!!