Printable View
I would like to know if anyone has any idea how much of a load I can put on my tower. When we are not Wakeboarding, my family likes to pull tubes around. I had four tubes hooked up to it last weekend. Everyone wants it hooked to the tower so the tubes will go airborne. Can anyone give me some help. I don't want to damage my boat but on the other hand I do want to have the most fun I can with it.
Thanks,
The XLV owner manual says it is not approved for tubing. The stress can damage the tower or even the tow pylon. Immedietly throw away your tubes !!
I am not disputing your statement. Obviously we should adhere to what the manual states. Hovever I am curious as to how pulling a tube causes more stress to the pylon/tower than a skiier or boarder? Is there some dynamics that I do not understand?
I will say that there are people tubing on our lake that regularly cause me stress!
I wouldn't worry about overstressing the tower as much as I would about stressing the hull where the tower is attached. You may be able to get away with it for a while, but I'd be looking for stress cracks in the gel coat or worse.
Tubes push a lot of water before they get up on plane. Plus, add in the fact that they have nylon covers that the water doesn't slip across as easily. I think that the real problem is with the lateral loading. The fun in tubing is mainly have the driver whip you around corners. Take the weight of the rider and tube, and multiply that by the g-force that can be obtained swinging the tube around and all of a sudden you're pulling a lot of weight. This weight is applied to the side of a tower that designed to handle the most stress from a weight directly behing the boat.
Just use the tower for what is was intended for........WAKEBOARDING.