Bent Tower

My boat lift situation requires that I lower my tower in order to get in and out. I have an 07 Outback V and when I fold my tower it fold forward toward the bow. As I was hand pushiing the boat out the driver side leg of my tower hooked on a dock post. The momentum of the boat was too much for me to stop the collision. When I tried to place the bolts into the tower the driver side leg is now 1/2" off and I could not push the leg into place to fit the bolt through. I tried with all of my might plus used a rubber mallet to try and hammer the aluminum tube back to place. It did nothing. I even wrapped the tip of the leg in a leather chore glove then placed a large pipe wrentch on the tip to try and bend it back. NOTHING. Eventually I get get a large nylong tarp strap/ come-a-long to help me. I was able to get the the tower bolt through and we had a great day on the water. However at the end of the day when I had to remove the bolts and fold up the tower the drivers side leg is still bent. Can I take the come-a-long and try to over bend or will this end in larger disaster?

Thanks, Matt.

Fargo! When did the ice go out?

I'd put the pin in and take the cover off the lift - ya think it's going to rain? ha

will it go back now better than b4?

if not that load cannot be good for fiberglass.

Yes it does rain and quite heavy too. Our lake is up 8" since this spring.

I checked in with the local dealer and it sounds like this is not the first time it has happened. The dealer's response: "Bring it in and we will have an auto body shop heat up the pipe and bend it back in to place".

Abuck:

Thanks for the phone call last night. Sorry I couldn't talk longer as I was a single parent last night.

As suggested on the phone, contact your insurance agent to see what your deductible is. If you are like me, I have a $250 deductible. That is much cheaper than a new tower from Moomba. I would have it replaced as the holes should match up perfect with a new tower.

I will see you Sunday and hopefully we can get a morning slalom set in.

Smokedog: The ice came off up here about mid April. We are all going great guns here now!!! :D Although water temps are hovering around 50 degrees right now.

My tower was bent out of shape the day I picked the boat up new from the dealer. Apparently the mounting holes were drilled just not *quite* right. This necessitated LEANING on the front tower tube (driver's side) every time the tower went up or down. Needless to say this was a big pain in the &*%#. I thought I might even have to get the helicoils re-done given the "interference fit" was leading to a thread-striping result.

Having bought the Outback V in one city and trailering it back to another, the local dealer wanted nothing to do with me when covering the warranty work. They basically played every jedi mind trick in the book to give me the full impression that the repair was going to be difficult and require keeping the boat for 2 months.

So I decided to just put up with the inconvenience for two boating seasons. One month ago, I called the Corporate technical help line (again). Basically I told them I just wanted to take it to some place and pay cash on the spot to get it fixed the same day. My question was: "where to take it and what to get done?" The response was a "metal fabricator" or some such place which could (cold) bend the tower frame (front) leg back into place.

I tried the big pipe wrench fix but got (similarly) nowhere. Given that the front leg of the tower had to come back (toward the stern) about 1/2 inch, I opted for a 5-ton come-a-long. I had my wife hold the front end of the tower (folded down) and inserted 2 (long) automotive grade bolts into either end of the driver's side rad-a-cage mounting points. To protect the gel coat, I put down a piece of cardboard on the passenger's side (below the leading pole of the rad-a-cage) and a life jacket on the driver's side. Hooked up the come-a-long to the bolts and started pulling.... The rad-a-cage measured the same distance from one mounting hole to another on either side: approximately 47.5 inches on the outer circumference. After some rather easy pulling, I then released the come-a-long and made another measurement: 47 1/8 inch.

END RESULT AFTER 15 MINUTE JOB: Rad-a-Cage fits PERFECTLY.

Cost to me: ZERO.

Level of Satisfaction: HUGE.

SUMMARY: A definite candidate for one of those Mastercard "Priceless" commercials. No thanks to the dealer "network" but good suggestion from Corporate office.

when i had a tower installed on my 99 outback one of the legd was out about 1/2 inch and was a pain to install every spring so i solved it by taking the tower off and using a 2" pipe about 4 ft long i rebent it with a little persuasion

I hear Abuck is swimming in rain water this year. Hard to believe I'm 5 years into this boat. It still looks really good :)

SD2