Tubing off tower

[Eric Z]

Just wondering if anyone pulls a tube from the tower? I know it is a no-no, but has anyone done it. I did it with my old boat from the extended pole we had with no problem. I realy don't want to get a buch of stress cracks from doing it though....

[danimal365]

Why would you? I don't understand...

[zabooda]

Do it all the time with kids and two tubes no problem. Keeps the rope out of the water, keeps the tube riding higher and doesn't mess up my setup on the ski pylon. If I had adults on tubes, I would reconsider. I think the reason why companies don't recommend using the tower for tubing is they have no control over logic and that is some people would put more tubes on the tower than the tower can handle. Wakeboarders are "normally" single riders but the same thing would apply to multiple wakeboarders. As with anything, good common sense rules.

[MOOMBA_97]

I too do it everytime I pull a tube or even 2 at the time. I couldn't believe there would be as much stress as pulling a heavy, hard riding wakeboarder, but I could be wrong.


Monty

[Eric Z]

We did it because the kids would get at much air as you can on the wakeboard. Ballast full, from the pole huge air w/ a tube.... Just wanted to make sure it wouldn't mess up my boat.

[JoeTechie]

MUCH more stress from pulling a tuber than ANY other wakesport.

Period.

Your tower is not designed for this, read the owners manual, read the tube manual.

Borrow a simple stress gauge, or even a big fish scale, and hook it up. You will be floored.

Look at a ski line, now look at a wakeboard line... now compare those thin little things to tube lines. 1 person tube line is more than twice as thick as ski line... 2 person more still - 4 person is thicker than the line I've been towed in with from TowBoat US ! There is a simple reason for this. The stress of tubing is FAR FAR greater than that of other wakesports.

Also, the direction of force is not always behind the boat like with a wakeboarder. Towers are not built for being pulled sideways.

This is physics... play and joke and do whatever you feel like doing to your boat, but never try to say it is the same.


just my $0.02,

-J

[lowdrag]

Joe summed it up pretty well. It's one of those things that never seems like it would be that bad of an idea until something does go wrong, then you just scratch your head and wonder why you ever thought it was a good idea in the first place.

[smokedog2]

Yea, I like to submarine a few tubes, you cannot do that from a tower. You will get away with it for awhile. And them whine about stress cracks.

If you are lucky. I have read posts about bent towers.

No one on a board holds on like a tube holds on.

[local 11 spark]

Speaking of towers, my 2008 outback has (4) # 10 or 1/4 in screws for each foot on the tower. Backing those up, is a 1/4 inch fender washer with a nut. Is this the installation method everyone has??

[bamaspiveys]

We barefoot off the tower, and I know a lot of people that do. Since the goal is to stay behind the boat most of the stress would be the same as a skier or wakeboarder. The speeds are much higher, but I don't think the pull or stress would be significantly more.