best tube

wanting to buy a 3 man or 4 man style tube this year to pull behind the pontoon. I have a single tube, but wanting something differant for the kids. what have you had the best luck with for the money?
thanks steve

Re: best tube

The 3 person tube that Costco sold the last two years is awesome. Great quality and HUGE. And they have the best price by far for a tube that size and quality. I haven't seen it in the stores yet this year, but I bet they'll carry it again.

Re: best tube

I think we have tried them all at one point with friends having different 3 person tubes etc.

The best one for kids I think is the LA SKI ANIMAL E3 shown below;



Some of the features I found valuable is the quick connect plastic connector on the front, staggered seating prevents little heads from hitting each other (happens more often than you would think), separate air chambers for head rests and seat pocket bases (the kids use them as flutter boards at the beach) which also makes the tube essentially unsinkable, deep long seat pockets large enough for adults, and heavy duty hand holds which are in the right place.

I got ours at the boat show for $245 CDN and the kids like it the best of all the ones we tried which was about three of the most popular types out there. They are all pretty much constructed the same more or less but this one seems to be the one the kids feel the safest in, my youngest daughter won't ride in a single person tube but she likes this one...she sits in the center and her brothers ride shotgun.

I think the slightly longer length makes it a little more stable feeling and less liable to submarine. I like riding it solo with the wife driving, I swear I can't stop laughing while I am on it. We also have a single person tube but once we got this one no one wants to ride it anymore, the big ones are way more fun.

Re: best tube

4JawChuck said:

I think we have tried them all at one point with friends having different 3 person tubes etc.

The best one for kids I think is the LA SKI ANIMAL E3 shown below;

Some of the features I found valuable is the quick connect plastic connector on the front, staggered seating prevents little heads from hitting each other (happens more often than you would think), separate air chambers for head rests and seat pocket bases (the kids use them as flutter boards at the beach) which also makes the tube essentially unsinkable, deep long seat pockets large enough for adults, and heavy duty hand holds which are in the right place.

I got ours at the boat show for $245 CDN and the kids like it the best of all the ones we tried which was about three of the most popular types out there. They are all pretty much constructed the same more or less but this one seems to be the one the kids feel the safest in, my youngest daughter won't ride in a single person tube but she likes this one...she sits in the center and her brothers ride shotgun.

I think the slightly longer length makes it a little more stable feeling and less liable to submarine. I like riding it solo with the wife driving, I swear I can't stop laughing while I am on it. We also have a single person tube but once we got this one no one wants to ride it anymore, the big ones are way more fun.

Click to expand...

Hey Chuck, can you still get a good 'whip' with one of these. I have a single tube and we found it to be a riot. Some competition going on between my brother-in-law and I on who can stay on the longest.

We borrowed a hotdog also. To be honest...boring. Couldn't get the thing outside of the wake. Closest we had to fun was full throttle (45mph+) and prop spray in our eyes....kids liked it better though and best thing to get the younger ones out there on.

I hear on the laughing.....reports from the shore were I sounded like a school girl for 15 minutes straight. (I deny this of course!)

If you have any used ones your needing to unload....pm me.

Re: best tube

paulspaddle said:

Hey Chuck, can you still get a good 'whip' with one of these. I have a single tube and we found it to be a riot. Some competition going on between my brother-in-law and I on who can stay on the longest.

We borrowed a hotdog also. To be honest...boring. Couldn't get the thing outside of the wake. Closest we had to fun was full throttle (45mph+) and prop spray in our eyes....kids liked it better though and best thing to get the younger ones out there on.

I hear on the laughing.....reports from the shore were I sounded like a school girl for 15 minutes straight. (I deny this of course!)

If you have any used ones your needing to unload....pm me.

Click to expand...

I have this tube if your interested, been used twice and is in mint shape. It's very well made but really meant for adults or teens as its for more advanced riders. Good luck hanging on to it, I had the wife take me out and try to ditch me while the kids watched..think it took her 1 minute to whip me off. You ride on it not in it which my youngest kids are just not ready for...sheesh neither was Dad LOL! It was all I could do to just hang on!



Its very steerable since you hang your feet off the back. Too small, fast and dangerous for young kids though IMHO. The wife had me up to 30mph at one point and wish I had brought my goggles, it definetely wants to go fast and the faster you go the better it handles. Jumping the wake is certainly possible not that I was brave enough to try it though.

Its mint but we have no use for it, bring me $50 and we can meet for coffee somewhere...I'll even throw in a manual pump for it if you like.

Re: best tube

4JawChuck said:

I have this tube if your interested, been used twice and is in mint shape. It's very well made but really meant for adults or teens as its for more advanced riders. Good luck hanging on to it, I had the wife take me out and try to ditch me while the kids watched..think it took her 1 minute to whip me off. You ride on it not in it which my youngest kids are just not ready for...sheesh neither was Dad LOL! It was all I could do to just hang on!

Its very steerable since you hang your feet off the back. Too small, fast and dangerous for young kids though IMHO. The wife had me up to 30mph at one point and wish I had brought my goggles, it definetely wants to go fast and the faster you go the better it handles. Jumping the wake is certainly possible not that I was brave enough to try it though.

Its mint but we have no use for it, bring me $50 and we can meet for coffee somewhere...I'll even throw in a manual pump for it if you like.

Click to expand...

Hey Chuck you have a PM...

Re: best tube

Huge and affordable http://www.amazon.com/Kwik-Tek-Airhead-Inflatable-Towable/dp/B000FE5PJW

Our friends have the "Big Slice" and we love it more than our "Big Bertha" we use. I personally wouldn't get anything bigger than a two person as it cuts down on air time and manueverability. The nice things about the slice tubes are that they are flat, no hole in the middle to deal with.