Monster Tower Cargo Rack Install

[viking]

Thanks Wolfman!
Doesn't sound like it's much more work than folding up my current bimini and zipping up the cover on it for tow then?? Probably a 3 minute jobby!

As I'd have to remove to garage it anyway, probably would remove it to tow. so I guess the real issue is will it fit in the bed of my truck? I'm going to have to do some measuring and see.

Appreciate the input

[moombadaze]

[quote=wolfeman131;118237]It holds your speakers. Oh wait, have I ever been in your boat with the stereo on?

quote]

speakers have been removed as I rarely used them and when we did I thought they sounded crappy.

[moombadaze]

I think we got through the review of AC/DC's "Big Balls" rather well.

The wife is wondering why im laughing my ass off

I can only imagine what that was like.

[kaneboats]

Shhhhhhh! My daughter will hear you. She already wants upgraded tower speakers.

[lsvboombox]

Medium is what you want.

I believe that when I bought mine, the choices were Medium and Large and my guess is that they plan to release an even larger model for the 24 ft boats, so they moved the size designations down.

Was yours 60"? sound right?


Also does anyone have a pic of the Monster Cargo rack installed on an LSV?

[KSmith]

Okay, the weather and my back haven't been cooperative to getting back into the install mode but here are a few pictures of how I am mounting the new Taco Ball & Socket hinges to Speaker Clamps rather than drilling the tower to mount the ball & socket hinges sent with the Monster Tower Cargo Bimini. The new clamps and Taco hinges cost about 200 bucks, but I think it'll be worth it.

The original clamps sent with the bimini had the mounting holes too far apart to mount them on the speaker clamps and they have an arched base. So I ordered some flat bottom hinges that had the mounting holes closer together than would fit onto the flat mounting area of the speaker clamp.

Edit: The first two pictures from left to right are of the original hinge from Monster (left hinge) and the Taco hinge (right Hinge) and it displays the size and mounting hole spacing

[viking]

Ksmith........very interested to see how this all comes together! Great idea and may have to copy you in the future if/when I upgrade to a cargo style bimini.

On a 2nd note - I get kinda hungry every time to discuss your mod. I'm craving mexican

[KSmith]

Hey Viking, I'll post some more picture when I get it mounted, but there isn't much else to show. Wolfeman did a good job documenting, which I why I am just appending to his thread.

The rack is assembled and sitting in the garage right now, the clamps and hinges for the tower side are ready. Now it is mostly just deciding where to mount the clamps which is dependant on what height I want the bimini.

I have the Roswell Swivel board racks on my boat which are installed on the middle oval crossbar. I also have a set of standard fixed racks installed in the bottom crossbar (set up to use with WakeSkis Port, and Slalom skis on Starboard).

I have a pair of double bullet tower speaker cans and a multitude of speakers (a set each of Polk DB651 and Infinity Reference 612M) that I would like to mount on the tower.

So when the weather permits, perhaps even tomorrow, I need to get the rack out into the Moomba, load up the racks on the tower and get a set of tower speaker cans out and start messing around with different heights to mount the bimini.

I think I have conflicting requiremnts though, I want the Swivel board racks to be functional with wakeboards and surf boards, but I would also like to mount the tower speakers, I would also like enough space between the tower and/or speaker cans and the rack to put another surf board or two on or perhaps a kneeboard.

So I may have to sacrifice the tower speakers, or do the dreaded micky mouse mounting on top, which I'd rather not do.

At any rate, I'll post some pictures when I am finished, I may take a few pictures of the bimini at different mouting heights just for fun if I remember and have a free hand

[wolfeman131]

Ohhhhh, this makes me so mad at myself for not being more patient to do this mod for the bimini! I asked the folks at Monster a 1/2 dozen times about doing something like this, but they said it couldn't be done and I wasn't aware that you could buy the "tacos" aftermarket.

AWESOME MOD! Monster should at least consider putting together an optional kit for this.

[KSmith]

Thanks Wolfeman.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about Monster offering it as an alternative. If they went with Taco as the sole source Taco makes the same hinge as I used but like the original hinges have a 7/8 arch to the bottom.

The down side is the taco hinges use a pull pin where as the original hinges us a spring loaded twist pin with a cut out to allow the ball to escape the socket.

I kind of like the twist pin idea, no lost pins. Yes the Taco pins have a teather but those tend to break after awhile.

I like the twist locks on the original hinges, and since they fit the 7/8 tubing with the arched bottoms I'll use those on the rack and as the release points when droppng the back of the rack.

They could offer all the same clamps sizes as DIY, the one thing they would have to do to make it user friendly is drill the mounting holes in the speaker clamps as I did (since there are no existing holes in the speaker clamps the are in the proper spacing or orientation).

It'd cost a bit more but you could make up say half the cost by not having 4 extra ball and socket hinges that won't get used.

Anyway... back to work I go