Tower Camera Mod

[rdlangston13]

Does anyone know the diameter of the tow pylon on the tower?

[kaneboats]

At what point? I have the boat right outside in the garage.

[KSmith]

So what's the MOD?

[rdlangston13]

Kane, the widest point, not the plastic narrow spot where the rope attaches

[kaneboats]

David, I tried to get a pic of it with the tape measure but it didn't work out too well. Here's the efforts so you know what part I measured. When I put the phone (camera) down and started from the 1" mark instead of the crappy end hook, I accurately measured 1 7/8".

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13373&d=1329189579

[kaneboats]

Oh crap, you said "widest point". I forgot how to read, I guess. Gimme a minute.

[kaneboats]

OK, the widest part of the metal is the "cap" on top and it measures 2 1/2". But, the plastic rope saver swivel ends, not the middle part but the spool ends if you will are slightly wider so they measure about 1/16" more. If I had to slip something over the top of the whole thing it would need to be about 2 9/16", at least on mine.

You can see it in the pic I blew up above. Look how the white plastic protrudes beyond the metal a little bit. I hope this helps.

Edit: Actually the very top of the first pic shows it the best.

[rdlangston13]

2 5/16 or 2 9/16? If the top cap is 2 1/2 and the plastic sticks out another 1/16 inch I would think 2 9/16 or 2 5/8

[kaneboats]

What are you talking about? I said 2 9/16". Check for yourself. But, you are right. 2 5/8" would be safe to allow for it on both sides if you were slipping something over the top.

[rdlangston13]

Now the issue is I don't think they sell 2 5/8 PVC. May have to try a collar for 2 1/2 and see I that will slide over

[dusty2221]

Electric tape or a round of double sided foam tape makes a good filler.

[bzubke1]

If you're intention is to tape yourself while you're wakeboarding you might wanna use the ski pole instead. Everytime I see a wake video shot from the tower it always makes it look like the riders aren't getting any air.

[KG's Supra24]

didn't you just get a go pro? That def won't work for wakeboarding. Surfing? What about using a tower clamp as a mount and getting an angle on surf side?

^ just adding to the speculation on what you are trying to do.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[rdlangston13]

i dont plan on using the go pro on the tower, i plan on using a different camera. the idea is to find a piece of PVC that will slide over the tower pylon and drill a hole in it. then glue a smaller piece of PVC into the drilled hole and insert the rope into the smaller PVC until it comes out of the larger pipe. Onces the rope is out of the large piece of PVC you can attach it to the tow point on the pylon and then slide the whole contraption over the top. the top of the large PVC will have a cap with a camera tripod mount connected to it where you can screw a camera down. camera in mind is my girls sony something or another that shoots 1080 p video and has a 16x optical zoom so you can eliminate some of the distance to the rider. the rope being fed through the small horizontal PVC will keep the camera aimed at the rider if adjusted right

[rdlangston13]

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/rdlangston13/towercam.jpg

[ericnel]

A bell fitting for 2 1/2 inch pipe might work? Just a thought.

Eric

[ChrisK]

I'm afraid that if you zoom in that far you'll run into some shaky video, maybe you'll be able to find a happy medium though.

Also, maybe think about tying a piece of chord around your tower to connect to the camera's wrist strap loop, that way if your PVC cracks from the rope pulling on it funny your camera won't crash 7 feet to the boat floor.

[jmvotto]

David , have you seen this? May give you some ideas.

http://www.mastercraftbydesign.com/index_506.asp

[lsvboombox]

Here is a much cheaper alternative

http://wakevideo.com/

[wakeflip]

This is one of the best ideas I've seen. Very simple, and cheap. If you pull it off and it works good, I might be tempted to steal your idea ;)

[New Guy]

Or this
http://www.wakejak.com/camera_mount.html

[ryan_8099]

Haven't read too much into all of this, but thought I'd throw out there what I have seen. I will have to check what brand, but my riding partner bought a camera mount thing where it 'followed' the rope and it was a piece of crap. Interfered with the rope quite a bit and was a big PITA. Now we just use our iPhones to capture the video and the quality is pretty great if you are just trying to evaluate and see what you are doing wrong.

[DOCDRS]

Or this
http://www.wakejak.com/camera_mount.html


wow that looks too good to be true, how about a group buy. I'm in

[ryan_8099]

So the guy I know that bought wakejak said this:


no it didnt mess with the rope, but it tended to try to twist on me
that wear on the rope would happen for any slip knotter
which is common
i do not slip knot
and that problem can easily be solved by adding a short "slip" to the front of the rope with expendable cheap rope
not really a problem
the main issues IMO were the fact that my tower is F'ing huge and it's nearly impossible to get up there to get the camera. as well as the mount had a tendency to slip back and forth, could easily be fixed by double sided weather stripping between the mount and the tower tow point
IMO just way more trouble than it was worth and i knew i wouldn't use it
but if someone really wanted the video.. it IS worth it and it would work just fine


So disregard my last post, I was misinformed!

[jstenger]

The only problem I see is this. If the PVC inside diameter is close in size to the outside diameter of the pilon, then there will not be enough room to get the PVC over the rope and the pilon. You need to cut a slot underneath the tube which holds the rope. Or you could use a large size PVC for the center section, and smaller sizes for the top and bottom. You would then slide the assembly over the pilon as one.

[KSmith]

I bought of of these recently to give it a shot. It has a quick release bogen camera mount. it hasn't been mounted or tried yet.

It is called a Trakker. There is some video example on youtube and his website.

13508

[rdlangston13]

The only problem I see is this. If the PVC inside diameter is close in size to the outside diameter of the pilon, then there will not be enough room to get the PVC over the rope and the pilon. You need to cut a slot underneath the tube which holds the rope. Or you could use a large size PVC for the center section, and smaller sizes for the top and bottom. You would then slide the assembly over the pilon as one.

the pylon narrows where the rope attaches to keep the rope from sliding off