Use floats on tube rope?

[bben76]

Hi. I have 1988 Bayliner with a 85hp Force outboard.

I have a new tube (canvas covered on one side), rope and harness. My harness is similar to this one:

The problem I have is that the rope keeps sinking into the wake, gets caught underneath wake anytime I sling the tube out to the side. In fact the rope never seems to ever stay completely out of the water. I've trimmed the nose down as to raise the u bolts by the motor farther out of the water where the harness connected, but still no luck. My rope is about 60' ...made for towing a tube.

I wondered about adding small floats to the rope, if this would fix the problem?

Any one else having this issue?

p.s. the tube is blown up fully and I have threaded the rope from the bottom up on the tube connector so the rope will pull up vs. down.

 

[guy74]

Re: Use floats on tube rope?

I had the same proplem, floats didn't work for me. I put two extra tow eyes in the transom, as high as I could mount them. That helped some. I finally, since we were only pulling a 1 person tube (Fear Factor), made my own rope from 3/8 hollow braided poly rope. It was light enough to stay out of the water, O what a better ride. It also had alittle give to it, so it absorbed some of the shock. It pulled me on the tube just fine for the last 3 years, I weigh 310lbs, so it must be plenty strong. Anyway thats my experience with pulling tubes, hope it helps you.

 

[bben76]

Re: Use floats on tube rope?

Thanks... I'll try different rope, the rope I have is pretty thick so it's heavier... I'll report back... I'm too chicken to drill and mount more bolts in the transom, but might be what I end needing to do.