Help w/Ski Rope Poles

[AsLan7]

There are a number of aftermarket towers rated for tubing. Are you sure none of the factory towers are rated for towing ?

.
It’s not really a tower weakness. It’s a fiberglass weakness. When the pulling load is leveraged 5x by the height of the tower, it attempts to distribute that force to the fiberglass hull. This is what will cause the gel coat to spider crack or worse...fiberglass failure

See below....

http://blog.bigairwaketowers.com/2017/0 ... h-a-tower/

.

I dont have a tower and if I did wouldn't pull tubes from it. But I know there are/have been some boats with towers that have been rated for towables. I also think the numbers used are a little miss leading. They use the 4000 pound rope rating for the tube but not the rating for the wakeboard rope. So this number should/would be much higher than 200, maybe as high as 1500. I know it's still well under thier number for the tube but they should compare apples to apples. It would be interesting to see some real numbers for pulling tubes, wakeboard and skiing.

I’m not sure I’m following you bf220. They actually use the more conservative 2000 pound wakeboard line breaking strength (vs tubing 4000 pound) in their tower calculations. 5 foot high tower times 2,000 equates to the boat having to absorb a 10,000 pound load distribution. (That’s 20,000 pounds if using the 4,000 pound break of the tube rope! )Yikes

They use the 200 pound number for a wakeboarder which makes sense. You can’t do the same for tubing since wakeboarders don’t impose a load like a submarining tube can.

Another issue is the SIDE force that can yank (almost topple) the hull in an unfavorable manner while driving using that same leverage in a submarine situation.

Can tubing from a tower be done. Sure ...if you want to assume the risks mentioned above. Bottom line. No tower tubing for us.

.

[Bfun220]

.
It’s not really a tower weakness. It’s a fiberglass weakness. When the pulling load is leveraged 5x by the height of the tower, it attempts to distribute that force to the fiberglass hull. This is what will cause the gel coat to spider crack or worse...fiberglass failure

See below....

http://blog.bigairwaketowers.com/2017/0 ... h-a-tower/

.

I dont have a tower and if I did wouldn't pull tubes from it. But I know there are/have been some boats with towers that have been rated for towables. I also think the numbers used are a little miss leading. They use the 4000 pound rope rating for the tube but not the rating for the wakeboard rope. So this number should/would be much higher than 200, maybe as high as 1500. I know it's still well under thier number for the tube but they should compare apples to apples. It would be interesting to see some real numbers for pulling tubes, wakeboard and skiing.

I’m not sure I’m following you bf220. They actually use the more conservative 2000 pound wakeboard line breaking strength (vs tubing 4000 pound) in their tower calculations. 5 foot high tower times 2,000 equates to the boat having to absorb a 10,000 pound load distribution. (That’s 20,000 pounds if using the 4,000 pound break of the tube rope! )Yikes

They use the 200 pound number for a wakeboarder which makes sense. You can’t do the same for tubing since wakeboarders don’t impose a load like a submarining tube can.

Another issue is the SIDE force that can yank (almost topple) the hull in an unfavorable manner while driving using that same leverage in a submarine situation.

Can tubing from a tower be done. Sure ...if you want to assume the risks mentioned above. Bottom line. No tower tubing for us.

.

A good discussion.
Yes, I my mistake about the 4k and them using the 2k. But my point was the 200 pounds is not an accurate number. It would only be the weight of what is being towed. Using the same thought for the 4 person tube would put you at like 900 pounds as apposed to 2000.
And there's no mention of the decreased chance of submarining the tube because of the elevated tow piont. Or that the elevated tow piont may lead to more lift than you want when crossing the wake.
I'm not saying anyone should, just making good conversation and trying to put more accurate numbers out there.

[AsLan7]

Roger that.

Tubes can still submarine even with the higher tow point. There’s some good discussion on the Ski Boat forums of towers being ripped off from this.