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Does anyone know how much weight you can put on the ski pylon? This is the one that is at the front of the engine not the one on the tower. I am thinking of making it a sampson post for towing other boats but with a removable cross member so i can still use it for pulling tube.
If you do not know what a sampson post is i have attached a photo below thanks to the internet and postyourpart.com.
http://www.postyourpart.com/images/large/75282.jpg
Why would you do that? You in the salvage business now? :p
Seriously i don't think i'd trust the pylon to that kind of weight. Looking at your picture there i see it's made low to bear the weight without bending. Now look at your pylon, three feet in the air and it will bend if to much weight is applied. I've seen bent ones before!
I am guessing since you have an outback v, that you are referring to the foot tall or so one that you attach skiers and tubers to right behind the rear bench?
as razz stated, not sure if you are looking to suppliment your income?
I've towed 2 boats with mine, a 16ft tri-hull and an 18ft low-pro jet with the exposed engine. no issues with either one, but I towed them at about 3-4mph and in calm water. add a chop and I would have been going to get the popo for their tow..
I would suspect that the forces placed on that pole by a 250lb man slalom skiing and cutting hard are more than what a small boat would place on it towing them in, but I would pick your "customers" carefully :)
I think they use the rear eyes to lift the boat and specifically warn not to use the pylon for that kind of stuff. If I had to tow someone I'd be splitting the load between the two rear eyes.
Im reading this and thinking, what about when you see 15 skiers being pulled by one of these boats? What about the warning of the 4K plus lbs a 4 man tub can put on your pylon when towing. I think these pylons are much stronger then you give them credit for.
You can lift from it due to its shape and no real place to tie a rope. Look at there its bolted, its the aluminum frame of the boat. Pretty strong stuff indeed. Not saying id use this as a lift point, no way just saying i think its the lack of a secure tie point that stops it from being a lift point.
Part of the reason the rear eyes are the lift point is it balances the rear of the boat automatically. Distributes the weight, i can see using this to tow a boat but just the same i don't really see an issue with towing a boat under 5mph with the ski pylon eighter.
Besides much over 5mph in a boat like ours you will get that surf wave hitting your towed boat lol.
good points. I've done it 2x from the ski pylon and not had any issues, but again 3-4mph and smaller boats. don't ask me to tow a mastercraft x-80. i'll politely excuse myself and get the sheriff to tow them(and snicker all the way to the launch :) )
When I see people in trouble there's no popo around. There's a 25 mile stretch of river and usually only 1 patrol boat, if any at all. We have to help each other out there. One guy was stranded several miles up river. I had him tie the tube behind his boat and let the little kids ride in it for most of the way back so they weren't bored out of their minds during the LOOOOOOOONNNGGG tow.
The first sentence is correct. However, it does not follow that towing from the rear rings is better than the pylon. The pylon is made for towing, accepting a large rearward force. The rear eyes are made for lifting, accepting a large upward shearing force.Quote:
Originally Posted by kaneboats
While the rear rings are likely capable of taking quite a good load, I would not assume it to be anywhere near what the pylon can take.
Yup, that's valid too. I just like splitting the load between them. Maybe it would be best to tie off between all three! :D
To answer the first question i am not doing this for $$$. I will post pic's when the boat is 100% done with this ummm "Upgrade"
Second when i tow right now i do tow from the two trailer eyes and do a setup so the weight is split between them. This issue is when i have to move the other boat in or out depending on the weather. A Sampson post makes life easy to do tows.
Ahhh yes, the day I learned to surf. I think we put the tube out there behind the craft in tow that day too.
Maybe!Quote:
Originally Posted by kaneboats
I now recall why my assumptions about the rings came to mind. Back when I had an I/O boat with its towing ring on the stern, I took a good look at the reinforcement backing the towing ring and the tie-down rings. The fibreglas transom was thinner than my XLV's for sure. This made it visible and quite obvious that the backplate for the towing ring was much larger than the tie-down rings. While the XLV is not the same design, one can see what would be in the mind of the designer: a shearing force right along the surface doesn't require nearly as much reinforcement as a perpendicular force.