How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

[redneckboater]

Im currently in the hunt for a wakeboard tower and from what I can tell its going to be a large investment. Therefore I dont want to waste my money and time. Im going to be installing the tower on my 19ft 1989 Bayliner 1902 capri cuddy. It has a 125hp Force outboard on it and I have been told that a tower will cause a lot of bow rise on an outboard boat...

Do you think a tower is going to cause this to happen on my boat?

Thanks,
Kyle

 

[cdnfthree2]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

My old o/b boats new owner put a tower on it and it actually helped in every category across the board. No negs.

 

[redneckboater]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Thats good to hear... Thanks for the quick reply... Any other thoughts out there?

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Well, Redneck, I have heard a lot of peope say great things about putting towers on O/B boats. With the length and setup of yours, it will make a decent buy.
As for bow rise, on any sterndriven boat (I/O or O/B), you always have mroe bow rise due to the prop being in the back of the boat. It pushes down the stern as it moves through the water. A tower may make a little more on the initial take off, but once on pan, it should actually help prevent it.
You could always get some weight to through in the Cuddy (like 300+ lbs) to keep the bow from lifting.
I was told in a previous thread that for I/O and O/B boats, weighting down the bow is the best way to get a clean wake out of your boat. I tried it out, and it did help quite a bit. Cleaned up a lot of the wash out too.

 

[redneckboater]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Thanks yeah adding wieght to the front of the boat does make for a big difference... All last season we would put all the gear and coolers under the bow while we were wakebaording and skiing. It helped the boat make a lot better holeshot. The boat with no wieght in the front would just want to stand straight up and dig really deep before plaining and it got very annoying... I just didnt want the tower to make this even worse... Thanks for the quick reply FLwakerider.

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Yeah, no problem. Let us know if you get one, and how it looks.
I have been riding behind my cousins Malibu for so long, I took out my bowrider (with no tower currently on it), and felt like I was going nowhere fast. Tower makes a huge difference in everything.

Ohh, one thing, I just remember from my ride this weekend, a tower will help the boat in turning and maintaining a straight path. By centering the tow point with the boat, it will allow for a lot less boat sway. I was swinging out the tail end of the bow rider on Sat., when I cut out real hard heelside. Don't have a strong enough toeside edge yet.

 

[redneckboater]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Yeah I sure will... Im going to probably invest in one in a couple of months. Anyone have some tower brand/type suggestions in the $1000 and less range?

Thanks

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Moster has a tower that is $799 right now.
Its a new line that introduced.

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Forgot to put the link...

Monster Tower
From what I have seen, the make practically the best universal tower for the price.

 

[redneckboater]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Yeah i have been comparing the monster MTE and on Ebay there is a Wakeboard Tower Pro for the same price and it comes with two board racks... It is made by Pyramid manufacturing. Have you ever heard of them? Or is it probably a cheap tower?
Thanks

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Meh, I can't really tell. I was looking at those once too. I haven't heard anything really horrible about them, but then again, I can't find any indepth research on them. I tried searching Wakeboarder.com and couldn't find anything as I skimmed over.
See what the reviews are for the seller would be the best way I could think of getting a good answer.

 

[redneckboater]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

The only thing im a little uneasy about on the pyramid tower is the fact that the mounting feet are aluminum and not stainless steel like the monster tower. Do you think that will be a problem or is the Stainless Steel just over kill?
Thanks

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

SS is probably over kill.
The one thing other thing about Monster that I think I will go with in the future, would be they claim it to be completely silent. One thing I don't want is a tower that is going to be incredibly noisy when under load. Or, when not under load and just crusing around. I can't remember, but was the Pyramid tower collapsible? That is another thing I personal will need, since my boat is stored in a garage.

 

[smitty1258]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

http://www.diywake.com/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=70&cat=Towers

or
http://bierbower.net/diytower/

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Yeah, I looked at the DIY wake stuff alot. I was thinking about snagging one of those at one point, but opted out. Still haven't been able to justify the cost of one yet. They seem to get really good reviews. The only thing I didn't like from them was that they don't warranty their own materials. The material is warrantied through a manufacturer.

 

[AguaSki]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

I also believe you will be fine installing a tower on a boat with an O/B. You wont get a nice big wake, but that is because the O/B weighs less than an I/O. Your boat performance should be fairly normal, just don't expect large wakes.

I assisted my brother-in-law last spring to install a diywake tower. I think he paid around $700 for the tower. It is very sturdy, looks great, and was installed in a few hours. He has a 4.3 liter V6. The first time we tested the tower there was a lot of bow rise and it seemed to bog getting out of the water. We were initially disappointed, but then realized the boat was fully trimmed out when we took off. That was operator error. The next time we went out we did a better job managing the trim and boat was yanking boarders out of the water.

 

[redneckboater]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Thanks Guys im am definatley going to buy a tower now. Ill probably buy it in May when I actually might have the time to install it. When I do get it I hope to post some pics, because you dont see many 89 bayliners with wakeboard towers lol... anyway I appreciate all the input...

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

No worries. I want to see how yours turns out.

I did some riding this weekend, and now I really know I need to invest in one.

My cousin and I went out on the same lake. First few sets were in my Glassport. I was having a really hard time even clearing the wake. And, as usual, pop out of the water was a little slow (I have gotten used to it). We then made our last sets on his Wakesetter (We left it un-weighted in order to try and make the wakes as comparable to the Glassport as possible). And, I was ripped right out of the water. The tower helped so much. Clearing the wake was a whole lot easier too. It is almost like night and day.

I can?t wait for this upcoming weekend though; we are going to demo some new gear. I got a ?09 F S4 138 with ?09 LF Watson CT bindings waiting for me to try out. It will be a huge transition away from the Belmont, but I have been looking to try out a little shorter of a board as the 142 seems just a little to long. And, I keep hearing wonders about CT bindings over OT, so hopefully they are as good as the hype.

 

[kyle f]

Re: How will a wakeboardtower affect my O/B boat?

Becareful, your boat was not made to have a tower. If its not re-inforced in the areas where you are bolting to, you can have all kinds of structural damage. Make sure you use high quality thick wood behind all mounting point to put the bolts thru.

I understand you already have this boat and are wanting to upgrade it with a tower because its a cheap route to go, but you have a boat that is not intened for watersports perfromance. If you are really hooked on Wakeboarding, you might just want to save that money and look into getting an older wake boat. Right now, you can get some killer deals.