Ski pylon solid? Thinking about shortening

This spring I absolutely have to get a new cover made. One of the weaker points of the old cover and where it gave me a lot of problems and ended up ripping several times is the tension caused from it riding up over the ski pylon, then pulling down tight in the back. I think in part the tall ski pylon helps to create a high point for drainage with the cover on but my boat does not sit out in the weather.

So prior to getting the cover made I'm thinking about pulling the ski pylon off and heading to a machine shop to have it shortened. I've given up on the flush pop-up pylon idea and figure I could live with just a shortened one. I mocked it up and like the looks of it. But does anyone no if they are truly solid? I'd hate to take it in, have them start cutting it down, then find out I'm screwed because of a hollow core...

Or is there any drawback I'm not seeing to having a shorty?

Before
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/P1070364.jpg
After
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/Tower4-a.jpg
Before
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/P1070344.jpg
After
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/pylon2-a.jpg

You can take it out and drill a hole in the bottom to see if its hollow.
Only thing i can see from it being shorter is if you pull tubes the rope might rub on the rear deck.

why not just take it off and leave it off? I think with the shortened length you wouldn't be able to pull anything without it rubbing on your deck and ripping it to you know what.


sent from my home phone

The Supra pylon isn't much taller than your shortened version when we have it out. I've never had an issue with it rubbing the sunpad.

good idea, hope its solid

if ya like, we are supposed to go out sunday, I can toss out a ski rope and see how far down the pilon i can go before it touches the pad while underway

I attach my surf rope to it, other than that the occasional dreaded tube...

We have towed tubes with my buddy's Bu which has the short popup style and have never had rubbing problems. I'm pretty sure the nose high attitude on the boat while pulling keeps the rope from rubbing 99% of the time.

Did a little digging around and came up with these to show the clearance now. I bet for the most part it will be fine.

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...D942C6C2D1.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...P1090820-1.jpg


But yah Daze, I'd be curious to see how far off the deck you need to keep the rope so you don't rub at around 20-25 with tube in tow. Although your boat is definitely taller than mine.

I haven't pulled the one off of the Moomba, but the one on a MC 205 and a Marlin Magnum skier were both very solid.

If you take it to a scrap yard, you probably have $100 there.

Greg, I am pretty sure mine is hollow. You will know once you unbolt it and look through the threaded bolt holes in the pylon.

One drawback to your shorty idea is that you may have trouble swinging a tube back and forth behind the boat because the rope will likely catch on the wake more. Not sure how important that is but both my kids like to tube so we spend a fair amount of time doing it. When my 8 yeard old is back there with her friends, they like to go back and forth over the wave slowly so if I was to cut my pylon down, I would have hard time doing that due to the rope catching on the wake.

If you are slinging the tube back and forth hard (as my son likes me to do when he is riding back there with his friends), then it probably won't be as big of an issue.

Maybe cut it down some but not as much as you're thinking.

I know you have some little ones, so something to think about.

Thanks Al and good point. We do whip the kids around quite a bit as well as some slow pulls. Guess I'll just have to pull it off and check out the mounting holes to see if it's hollow. It feels pretty stout compared to most of the newer boats I've seen and the number of times I've crashed into it and about broken a limb leads me to believe it's solid so we'll see.

Berg I pulled mine out last year and it is definitely solid. The other thing is there is a large bolt that threads into the bottom of it to secure it. You would have to get it cut down then drilled and tapped. I thought about getting rid of mine all together but I have a buddy that skis.

Well I'm actually thinking of leaving all the mounting stuff as is and having them mill off the top part and reform it. Possibly even get it rounded off. Nothing's going to happen until after the holidays at the earliest though.

That would be the easiest because of the way it tapers. The taper would be too low and it would not sit in the mount correctly anymore.

Dropped off at a machine shop today - mine is solid and heavy. They are going to machine it off from the top down and regroove it for a rope, keep the existing bolt holes. Also fixing a board rack that had a disagreement with the with the gate when I was backing in a while ago...

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Originally Posted by bergermaister

Dropped off at a machine shop today - mine is solid and heavy. They are going to machine it off from the top down and regroove it for a rope, keep the existing bolt holes. Also fixing a board rack that had a disagreement with the with the gate when I was backing in a while ago...

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Sweet how much are you taking off it? I might be interested in this for the Mojo.

About 6-7" is coming off the top. It will only rise up above the sundeck a few inches and then have the top smoothed over. So instead of a shin breaker it will be only be a toe breaker now. :cool:

Make sure to get some pictures and dimensions I am really interested!

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Originally Posted by New Guy

Make sure to get some pictures and dimensions I am really interested!

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Ditto. And the price.

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Originally Posted by jpetty3023

why not just take it off and leave it off? I think with the shortened length you wouldn't be able to pull anything without it rubbing on your deck and ripping it to you know what.


sent from my home phone

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I'm an idiot I posted on the wrong thread and can't figure out how to delete the post in tapatalk.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

What ever happened with this Berg.

I don't think that you would have a problem with the rope because of bow rise.

bow rise would be present in towing a tube, but with a waterski, your boat is typically planed out at 32-36mph. with a skier that cuts hard and can touch shoulder, would the rope now drop far enough to catch the sunpad or rear corner of the boat, or possibly just drag acorss the sunpad on the edges?

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...usV/null-6.jpg

Can't give you more than that right now as the boat was 50 miles away getting a cover made when I got this back from the machine shop...

The upholstery is still 20 miles away in another state and in pieces and the boat is across town in another secret location getting pimped.

Congrats on getting your thing shortened! At least you got it polished.

Luckily the operation went smoothly. The girls just complained that it was too big.

Wow...

Sent from my iPhone 5... ya right!

I got nothing lol.

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/IMG_5884.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/IMG_5866.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/IMG_5868.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/IMG_5869.jpg

Shorty!

On another note, the vinyl is looking good. I'm thinking the black vinyl is going to melt the hair off your hairy arms.

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Originally Posted by bbuhtz

Shorty!

On another note, the vinyl is looking good. I'm thinking the black vinyl is going to melt the hair off your hairy arms.

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Bwahahaha I just fell out of my chair and spit coffee everywhere!
That was funny and made my day! Thx

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Originally Posted by bergermaister

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k...V/IMG_5868.jpg

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they call him Mr Stuby now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bbuhtz

I'm thinking the black vinyl is going to melt the hair off your hairy arms.

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That's my winter coat - haven't shed it yet.
I'll take being melting hot any day over the crapola PNW weather we're having!

How do you think it is going to do when you start to pull stuff off of it?

It's a solid chunk of aluminum so I'm not worried about strength. The only concern may be the angle of the rope back. Usually only pull the tube from it and at usual tubing speeds the bow rides a bit up. Used to attach my surf rope there but I can go with a longer one to run it off the tower instead.

The new vinyl also has really flat stitching and no piping back there to keep it as smooth as possible - originally intended for the girls to not have pattern tattoos when they lay out but that should help with a slack rope getting caught up on anything too I'd imagine.

I put a empty plastic mayonnaise jar over mine to spread out the pressure. works pretty go.

Where the rope lays across the vinyl? You kinda lost me there.

Tease! I see that diamond...

over the pole then put the cover on