Advice on towers

[mimoomba]

I have been wanting to add a tower to my 02 Outback LS for several years. I really like the looks of the factory tower. What is everyone's opinion and recomendations if not going factory? One factor is a must for me - it must fold down. I store in my garage

[volfo]

I have an 01 Outback LS. Same boat, a year older. On Memorial Day weekend, I installed a monster tower mt2. This is their new tower. I think it looks really good on the boat. I'll try to take some pictures this weekend. Install took a little longer than advertised, but we were very careful. Looks very clean. Folds down flatter than the factory tower, but on the MT2 (as opposed to original monster) the front legs are longer and therefore hang out the side of the boat if you don't take them off when folded. They are easy to take off, however.

[Spicer318]

click on this link below and you can get a quote on a factory tower. I looked here when I was looking at buying and older outback before I bought my mobius. The said 1600 shipped this winter so you should be around there.

http://www.onlyinboards.com/wakeboard-tower.html

[qb12]

http://www.newdimensiontowers.com/home.html

they make some of the nicest towers. look just like the factory one's. yeah they cost more but they are solid.

[Aquaholic]

I would first go to greatlakeskipper.com first because I saw the tower that would have come with the boat awhile ago. Second place would XTP they are awsome tower builders. They would do you great job. They are in Maryville, Tn down the street from SC.

Aqua

[mimoomba]

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I checked out the New Dimension towers, and they want $2000 shipped. I also spoke with Brad from Club Royale Marina and he recomended the Monster Tower MT2. I checked online and it would be $1395 shipped. I haven't had a chance to call XTP yet, but that was who Mike at Skiers Choice recomended to call.
Volfo,
How long did it take you to install the MT2? Also, I was told that I could still use my factory mooring cover with the MT2 folded down. Did you find this to be true? Look forward to seeing your pics of it installed.

Doug

[cab13367]

I'll vouch for the monster tower as well. I installed one on my last boat and was really happy with it. It's been 3 or 4 years ago now, and it was only $995 shipped at that time.

[volfo]

mimoomba,

My boat is at the lake right now. I will be on it Saturday afternoon and will try to remember to take some pictures. It looks fantastic.

It ended up taking us (my Dad helped) pretty much all day to install. But, we went slow and were very careful. We found some additional support that wasn't very long and wasn't in the identical place on each side (there was about a 4 inch piece of wood that was fiberglassed in underneath the main side rail on each side), and we measured for a very long time several different ways to make sure we hit it on both sides and had everything exactly square. The best way we found to measure was to measure forward from the thin stripe of fiberglass between the ski locker and the rear bench seat. We mounted the rear legs on the top of the rail, about 3 or 4 inches behind the factory bimini attachment spot. We mounted the front legs just in front and slightly to the outside of the intake air vents in front of the windshield. The spread is about 77-78 inches apart.

There were a few mistakes in the manual that we caught, but that slowed us down. Had we not worried so much about where we were installing it and tried to hit those rear supports (which probably wasn't necessary), we could have installed it in much less time. It takes two people. They say it takes 3 to 4 hours. I'd expect 5 to 6 hours. It took us about 8, but again we were extremely careful and slow.

As for your question, I haven't tried the mooring cover, but I'm sure it would fit if I detached the front legs. It folds very flat and much flatter than the "factory" new Dimension. However, the front legs are so long that if you just fold those down, they cross and hang out over the side of the boat. Therefore, you'd need to disconnect them both from the front bases and from the top to fold down under the cover. There are quick disconnect knobs at both places, so this shouldn't be a big deal. Better yet, if you have the snap on cover, I've found that my snap on cover still works with the tower up, as long as you think about that and plan it out when you do the install and mount the rear bases in the right place.

The first time out I had to retighten it a couple of times (we had about 4 pulls). The second time out, it was rock solid for several hours of hard wakeboarding. Then, I pulled up a heavy rider with the boat crooked. It clicked and pulled a little loose. I retightened it then and no problems since.

I was willing to pay for the New Dimension but simply preferred the look of the MT2. So far, I'm happy. The only negative is that there is no way to make the factory bimini work. You'll have to get a tower bimini. I think that would be the case with pretty much any tower, but beware that's a hidden cost if you use a bimini. Monster is coming out with a new one but it isn't available yet. Big Air Pylons has one that looks okay for about $450 delivered. Everything else I've seen is $750-$900 for one. I'll try to figure out how to post a picture on Sunday or Monday.

[volfo]

One other thing, I bought my mt2 the week before Memorial Day, and they had a special that if you bought it for $1395, they threw in 2 of the chrome wakeboard racks for free. I was sitting on the fence, and wanted racks with the tower, so that offer was too good to pass up. I also ordered the mirror mount (factory mirror attached to it just fine). I like it all. the quick disconnects on the mirror mount and the wakeboard racks are great.

Also, in my 8 hour install was about an hour of messing with my leaking heater and trying to fix it. (wasted time because the core is bad, moomba dealer quoted me $500+ for a new one, but skidim.com had it for $11

[volfo]

Finally, if you go to monstertower.com, you will see that monster tower is associated with xtp. They are sister companies and according to "the monster story" on their website, share engineering. XTP doesn't make a tower for our boats, closest you can get is monster tower. The New Dimension one appears to be the factory one. Those were the two I compared.