wanting to purchase a wake tower

[mwe-maxxowner]

I have a 1984 19' Dixie open bow ski boat with a mercury black Max 150 outboard. I got the boat for 1500. Runs great. I put a trex decking board floor in it for free, seats I got for free, and cleaned it up and have a nice boat.

It has a short ski pole, but I have a hankering for a wake tower. I'm looking at monster, aerial, and DIY. Open to other suggestions. I'm hoping to find something around 700$.

Main questions:
Is there a significant difference in 4 screw mounting feet, and the ones with only one?

And-if I put a plywood backing plate under the glass, would that be all I needed to do? Or what if I put a piece of hardwood topside and sandwiched it, and mounted my feet to that? I don't wanna crack my fiberglass.

I don't care too much about looks, they all look nice to me. But the lower priced towers I see have only four legs and a top bar, such as monsters budget tower. Is this strong enough for knee and wake boarding? Or do I need to look for one with more bracing? Such as a cross brace that starts at the rear foot and angles up to about 1/3 way up the front leg? Is this necessary for a tower to be strong? I like to pull double kneeboards. If a simple 4 leg tower is strong enough, its fine with me. Ill keep tubing off the ski pole.

 

[spdracr39]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

I dont know about the tower but you are not supposed to tube off of a ski pylon under certain conditions bad things can happen.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

The 4 leg towers are just fine for wakeboarding and kneeboarding. Do not attach a tube to the tower. You also don't want to slalom off the tower, but that is just because it sucks

 

[H20Rat]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

(he didn't say he wanted to tube off it, in fact he said the opposite, he wasn't going to!)

Anyway, the 4 legged variety are plenty strong for wakeboarding/kneeboarding. Yes, use backing plates, and I like to fiberglass those in for added strength.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

(he didn't say he wanted to tube off it, in fact he said the opposite, he wasn't going to!)

Anyway, the 4 legged variety are plenty strong for wakeboarding/kneeboarding. Yes, use backing plates, and I like to fiberglass those in for added strength.

True of course he did say "Ill keep tubing off the ski pole" - which is death on a stick instead of on a tower

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Ill just have to include a pic. Its not a tall pole in the middle of the boat. Its a short steer 1" thick pole bolted to the floor of my boat and the rear panel that sticks up just high enough to clear the motor.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Ill just have to include a pic. Its not a tall pole in the middle of the boat. Its a short steer 1" thick pole bolted to the floor of my boat and the rear panel that sticks up just high enough to clear the motor.

 

[86 century]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

I have this tower on my supra looks good and is solid.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

You have what tower?

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Have fun ripping that pylon out of the floor. Seriously, just about every manufacturer of the ski pylons has a warning against towing a tube with it. The load placed on the pylon when a tube submarines is a ton, and should that pylon (you have basically created a big lever) rip out of the floor, you have a projectile in the cabin of the boat around people. Just something to think about.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Ill just have to include a pic. Its not a tall pole in the middle of the boat. Its a short steer 1" thick pole bolted to the floor of my boat and the rear panel that sticks up just high enough to clear the motor.

That thing looks even whimpier than a standard ski boat pylon. Don't tube off that thing

 

[laserbrn]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Out of curiosity as I ran across this thread, what do you suggest pulling tubes off of? I'm thinking about doing some of this potentially this year and I'm not sure what I need to add. Is the best just to use the rope attachments that form a "Y" to the transom tie down loops?

 

[spoilsofwar]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Out of curiosity as I ran across this thread, what do you suggest pulling tubes off of? I'm thinking about doing some of this potentially this year and I'm not sure what I need to add. Is the best just to use the rope attachments that form a "Y" to the transom tie down loops?

You should tow from one of these:

They get bolted through the transom.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

OK ill tube off of the hooks on the rear of the boat. Please back on topic lol. Is there enough difference in any way for me to need to look for towers with 4 mounting holes per foot versus the towers with only one bolt?

Also, opinions on heim joints? I hear they are a great feature, and I also hear they are not.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Out of curiosity as I ran across this thread, what do you suggest pulling tubes off of? I'm thinking about doing some of this potentially this year and I'm not sure what I need to add. Is the best just to use the rope attachments that form a "Y" to the transom tie down loops?

The y-bridle works great and is more than sufficient to handle the load spread out between the transom tie-down eyes. I don't think the ski-ring that Spoilsofwar posted will work for you since you have the O/B motor.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

I have a tie down on each side at the rear to use. No a transom mount wont work. I don't like a y rope because the tube doesn't sling out very well. But ill just use one of those. I only wake and knee board. Ill only have occasional tubers which will be guests who came with me. Please answer my tower questions!

Also that pole is 1" solid steel, and it has 8 screws bolting it to a mounting point molded into the fiberglass. And being just tall enough to clear the motor, it is plenty strong. But no probably not for tubes. I plan to add braces down at an angle to the transom and mount at the same holes that mount the motor for extra support.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Is there any reason I should pay more for a tower with 4 bolts per foot than one with only one? And heim joints:good or no?

 

[oldjeep]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Is there any reason I should pay more for a tower with 4 bolts per foot than one with only one? And heim joints:good or no?

I would (and did) choose a 4 bolt mount because it fixes the brackets at the corners rather than only holding it in the middle. Which to me means that the load is distributed over a wider area. Shouldn't cost any more, most of them come that way - the bayonette mounts are much less common.

I'd say no on the heim joints because you want a ridged structure so that it spreads the load throughout the mounting points rather than letting them float.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

Okay. The argument that I read (by the manufacturers with heim joints of course) is that the joints give it some flex, keeping quite as much force from being put on the mounting points. I like the DIY towers and the monster towers. They both use heim joints.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: wanting to purchase a wake tower

DIY wake doesn't use heim joints, they use the same mounts as my tower:
http://www.diywake.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=533