21' bleeds-off speed badly in turns

[jdonalds]

While many boats already experience spider cracks in the gel coat I believe that is one of the issues that also results from towing a tube from the tower.

 

[Hellacool]

Many people pull exclusively from their towers with no issue. I pull my smaller tubes from the tower, but the Bandwagon 2+2 is just more pressure than I'd like to put on the tower.

I have read of boats capsizing from pulling a tube from the tower, not personally witnessed but have read about accidents happening. Tubes can also become airborne from the tower.

 

[Hellacool]

The ball helps a ton...especially when towing big tubes! When I tow smaller tubes I use the tower, but when the Bandwagon 2+2 comes out so does the booster ball. The ball takes up very little room....not much more than a tow rope does.

These are action shots from Monday:View attachment 56788 View attachment 56789 View attachment 56790

I must be doing something wrong. I borrowed a friends booster ball and it sat right in the area my wake merged which threw tons of spray onto the tubers. They hated it so I stopped using it.

 

[Julian]

I have read of boats capsizing from pulling a tube from the tower, not personally witnessed but have read about accidents happening. Tubes can also become airborne from the tower.

I could see a small boat pulling a huge tube not being stable....but on a lake...I'm not concerned about capsizing when pulling from the tower.

Airborne from the tower.....well that is sort of the point!

 

[Julian]

I must be doing something wrong. I borrowed a friends booster ball and it sat right in the area my wake merged which threw tons of spray onto the tubers. They hated it so I stopped using it.

Then you aren't whipping the boat from side to side at all. If you drive in a straight line and aren't turning at all...yes...it will get hit by the jet wash....but the point of the booster ball is to allow side to side easy motion. Adding 10' of rope also helps eliminate the booster ball to jet wash impact.

 

[haknslash]

I just don't know if I would feel comfortable pulling a tube from the tower. I can see how it could help develop into stress cracks in the fiberglass since there isn't a solid backing plate underneath the gunnel to support excessive stress loads from an inflatable. The boat is fairly thick on the top but still, I just wouldn't feel comfortable doing it and I'll use the stern tow hook for tubing.

The manufacturer of the tower (XTP) specifically warns not to tow inflatables from it: "What can I tow behind my wakeboard tower? Either (1) Skier or (1) Wakeboarder. No inflatables are to be towed from your wakeboard tower!" from their FAQ.

If you look up in the gunnel underneath where the tower bolts to the boat you will see there are only two separate small'ish pieces of metal to serve as backing plates for the tower and to distribute stress. If towing a tube from the tower I would rather remove the separate backing pieces and use a single piece instead so that it uses more of the boats gunnel and surface are to distribute the forces. Here's a pic from my tower mod video that shows the two separate backing pieces.