I am looking at adding a tower but I have noticed that some of the manufactures do not recommend towing an inflatable(tube) with the tower. Is there really that much difference between a tube and a wakeboarder? I feel the boat being pulled harder by the wakeboarder when they cut out than the tube is sliding around back there. I see people doing this everytime I am at the lake, so are they just ignoring the safety guidlines or is there anything really wrong with doing it. I am looking at both buying a tower or having one built from some of the designs of the diyers from this website. http://bierbower.net/diytower/
Would any of these hold up to towing a tube? The tube we use is only a single person anyway.
__________________
Nothing Special just a
88' Chris Craft Cavalier
Well, having pulled people on a tube with my 7 ft pylon. The thing I notice is that you can really get that tube to fly. The higher pulling point, gets the tube to skim the water. I have a monster tube that can hold four people and with two kids in it(approx. 230 lbs) I had to be cautious when turning as I could probably have bounced them pretty high in the air. This was the first time I pulled this big monster tube. Plus, I do think pulling a tube does put out more stress than a wakeboarder, especially if you are making those aggressive turns when tubing. So, I would say be cautious on those whip turns, and be carefull if the tube gets to the side of you to not gun it and put strain on your tower.
I don’t think your suppose to tow tubes from the tower due to the risk of capsizing. Wake boarding does not "pull" on the boat thru turns as much as a big tube.
Plus if the tube were to ever get submarined which can and does happen and you didn't see it as the driver, the amount of drag created is enough to rip the tower off. I wouldn't even think of pulling tubes from mine but thats just me. Talk to any of the tower mfgs and get there take on it, see what reasons they give and let us know. For me it isn't worth the risk of trashing my boat due to a fluke thing while towing something the tower strictly states not to do.
We tube off of a tower, a 7' pylon actually, all the time. It also says not to tube behind it on a small warning sticker. I think we were tubing off of it for 5years before we realized that you were not supposed to, so we just kept using it anyway.
I wouldn't tube off the tower. Tubes load with water when capsized creating a lot of drag. Most of the time I have ripped a tubes stitching happened when it was upside down.
Also on my boat the tower is not nearly as reinforced as the transom. I haven't heard of anyone tearing off a tower or pylon but I wouldn't feel right hitting the throttle with passengers in the backseat that could catch an aluminum sandwich. Even if they were the in laws.
Last summer I watched a boat towing a tube with one guy on it. The tube hit a bump and flipped upside down. When it landed, it snapped the top of the tower in half. It turned one continuous piece of 2.5" round aluminum into two pieces in one quick snap. I'll just stick to the ski pylon for tubing.
We have a tower but never pull tube with it. They are not designed for toeing tube. We have a Ski Pylon which is an option for latest Four Winns large sport boats. It is about 2’ high and they are designed to work with tube so we use it for tubing and skiing. We use tower for Wakeboarding only.
__________________
Today’s Fish is tonight’s Sushi!
08 Four Winns H260, VP 8.1Gi DP, Huge Bowrider
Are you sure it didn't just break at the hinge point? Nearly every tower I've ever seen has some way of folding down so that boats can still fit in a typical garage.
I'm not saying there wasn't damage done, I just find it very unlikely that a 2" aluminum or steel tube snapped right in the middle when it most likely came apart at a junction or one of the mounts.
the break looked porous as if it were at a weld. It was definitely not at a folding point though. It was in the middle of the horizontal section at the top. Looked like a freak accident.
Do you tow a tube with your tower?
Linear Mode
