ratdude747
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2023
- Messages
- 230
Last season I tried tubing with my boat... and well, for me (and my wife) things didn't go well.
We started with an old SportsStuff 4-person donut that came with the boat (and despite being 12+ years old, still worked great). While it was fine for some teenage guests (who were fit athletes) and thier mom (who still was in decent shape), my wife and I got whooped by it due to a lack of core strength (butt fell in tube, then waves against the cover beat our butts up badly). On a later outing near the end of the tubing season, we then tried a "biscuit" type tube (SportsStuff Hamburger, found at a local liquidation store)... my wife didn't have the strength to hang on, and I didn't dare try it.
My thinking is that for the upcoming season, a seat-type towable will work better. The problem is that I'm a large guy (350lb) and most seat-type towables rated for my weight (or close enough to such) assume two people are riding, which puts the handles in awkward position if I'm riding solo. I'd prefer a tube that would tolerate such, since there have been outings with only three people (and Indiana law doesn't allow mirror spotting, not to mention my boat doesn't have provisions for such a mirror).
Speaking of the boat itself, it has plenty of brunt to pull things (using a transom-loop bridle); 188 HP (stock, might be around 200 in current form) with a 4-bladed lower-pitched prop. Other than there not being a ton of space for the inflatable itself when not being towed...
(One of my guests hanging on to the 4-person donut on one last season's outings)
... the boat isn't a limitation. Clearly tube management is an issue with current towables, so such is a separate issue.
Any suggestions on towables to try next season? I had a blast other than my sore butt!
We started with an old SportsStuff 4-person donut that came with the boat (and despite being 12+ years old, still worked great). While it was fine for some teenage guests (who were fit athletes) and thier mom (who still was in decent shape), my wife and I got whooped by it due to a lack of core strength (butt fell in tube, then waves against the cover beat our butts up badly). On a later outing near the end of the tubing season, we then tried a "biscuit" type tube (SportsStuff Hamburger, found at a local liquidation store)... my wife didn't have the strength to hang on, and I didn't dare try it.
My thinking is that for the upcoming season, a seat-type towable will work better. The problem is that I'm a large guy (350lb) and most seat-type towables rated for my weight (or close enough to such) assume two people are riding, which puts the handles in awkward position if I'm riding solo. I'd prefer a tube that would tolerate such, since there have been outings with only three people (and Indiana law doesn't allow mirror spotting, not to mention my boat doesn't have provisions for such a mirror).
Speaking of the boat itself, it has plenty of brunt to pull things (using a transom-loop bridle); 188 HP (stock, might be around 200 in current form) with a 4-bladed lower-pitched prop. Other than there not being a ton of space for the inflatable itself when not being towed...
(One of my guests hanging on to the 4-person donut on one last season's outings)
... the boat isn't a limitation. Clearly tube management is an issue with current towables, so such is a separate issue.
Any suggestions on towables to try next season? I had a blast other than my sore butt!
