Pulling with a pontoon

mwhitten · #1 January 27th, 2009, 02:34 PM

I see people pulling tubes with the eyelet on the toon. I have seen warnings aganist this. What advice would you have in the proper way to pull a tube.

Michael

aspeck · #2 January 27th, 2009, 03:17 PM

We used to have a harness that is attached to both toons. This distributes the weight between the pontoons and makes it easier to handle. Never had a problem that way.

Finally we got a tow bar to mount on the deck, lifting the town rope above the engine. This keeps the rope from slapping the water as much and makes for a more enjoyable tube ride.

I would recommend the latter, but if you cannot afford that, or are not ready to do that, then you can get away with the former. That said, I am not an engineer, so I did not research the stress loads being placed on the pontoons and their mounting brackets, so anything I say is just based on past history and not on scientific formula.

travelship · #3 January 27th, 2009, 04:15 PM

I've kneeboarded behind a 'toon. I'm no engineer, but it seems to me that a tube wouldn't create a whole lot of drag. Even my hardest carving turns on the kneeboard didn't really affect the boat at all.

5150abf · #4 January 28th, 2009, 07:45 AM

If you are talking about the bow eyes welded to the tubes, NO, do not use them to pull anything, at some point you will rip them out of the tube, if these are the U-bolts that are attached to crossmembers you should be fine.

The constant sideways pull on the bow eyes will eventually cause the weld to fail, thge bow eye itself is really beefy but what it is welded to is less than 1/8'' thick.

The best way of coarse is a purpose built ski-tow bar that keeps the tow line above the engine but they can get pricey.

Keep in mind pulling a skier and especially a tube generates hundreds of pounds of force so make certain whatever you hook the rope to can take it.

Generally you want to go through a crossmember, a stainless 3/8'' u-bolt would work well but you would have to watch getting the rope in the prop.

I have been in a pontoon weld shop for 22 years and have seen more than a few bow eyes ripped off.

Just whatever you do keep in mind the high load you are putting on your attachment point.