[Liquid_force]

My brother built the original carbon steel version with the help of a friend with a few tools and a welder. It lasted 4 seasons, and was a good learning experience, but the fatigue eventually took its toll on the low quality bends, and weak tubing.



The recently installed stainless steel version has a few minor tweaks, but is basically the same tower. I designed it using the angles from the old tower. My uncle, who is a professional stainless welder did the dirty work at the cost of a couple cases of beer

The finished product






Here is a close up of our mounting brackets. We didn't modify the brackets at all between the two towers.


This is the reinforcement we used beind each of the 4 mounting brackets.

[FLWakeRider]

Awesome looking tower.
I have been contemplating doing a DIY tower.
I have a friend of mine who does professional weld and painting for Semi-Trucks.
The mounting hardware was my primary concern. Thanks for showing me what you used.
I will get pictures of my boat up soon enough, but it is primarily the same as yours just a few feet shorter.

[Liquid_force]

Thx rider.
I've chimed in on a few DIY tower threads and everyone seemed most concerned with the attachment to the boat, and I'd recieved a couple PM's on the subject as well.
I hadn't ever gotten any close up pictures and was hoping some good pics might help some people out or even get the ball rolling on a tower of their own.

[Hogger]

Nice work. I'm also looking into doing one myself.
How far in do the heim joint thread into the tube? Did you weld in a female insert?

[Liquid_force]

It's a female heim joint. We just drilled a bolt hole through the tube-end disk, threaded the joint on and welded the disk in place. I think the bolt was tack welded to make sure it doesn't back out inside the tube.