Cracked Tower- Ice? 2015 Yamaha AR210

[ChrisCracker]

The Yamaha boat dealer and marina that takes my boat in and out of water, winterizes, and tunes my boat in the spring, just sent me these pics claiming trapped water in the aluminum tower tubes froze over the winter and burst, causing holes and cracks that they now want my insurance to pay for. Not sure how that happens not on a weld point, in a sealed angled hollow tube that is they shrink wrapped for the winter. I think they hit something when trailering or dropped the boat to cause damage. I live in NJ and it does get down to 15 degrees. Has anyone heard about expanding frozen water/ice causing this issue? Thoughts? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

 

[Betik]

My tower has a deformation due to water and ice on it. This happened in PA so not too far from you.

In one of the pictures it kind of seems that the tube is swollen. If the tube is swollen I am not so sure how an accident would have caused that.

 

[Cambo]

Can you fill that tube with water ? will it hold the liquid at the level of the crack ? I have never seen that before I have had 3 different models of Yamahas all wrapped for winter over the last 15 years and no water gets in the boat and cant even imagine that much in the tube . Any impact marks? that tower is different from ones that I have had but they always had holes that allowed speaker wires to be run

 

[Betik]

I am not home to take a picture, but mine was abou 2 feet from the Lowest point of the tower.

People drill small holes underneath to avoid the issue. The 2010-2014 LS towers were very prone to it

 

[ChrisCracker]

Thank you all, going to see the boat tomorrow will let you know.

 

[ChrisCracker]

Another boat at the marina/dealer had similar cracks in the tower. When I asked a worker about it he said there was also a third 2015 boat with same cracks from the winter freeze and is a known problem. Must be a design flaw. Still this is the dealer I bought it from, they winterize it every year and should’ve known about the problem and protected against it. Picture of second boat’s crack enclosed.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

Wow @Betik we got lucky based on those pictures! My 2010 LS tower just ballooned out on one side due to ice. Happened about 5 years ago and hasn’t hurt anything. I’ve since drilled holes.

Good luck @ChrisCracker. Hope it works out for ya. That sucks.

 

[Cambo]

It must have rained real hard before the boat was wrapped for the winter then an early freeze .

 

[ChrisCracker]

Update, Insurance did not cover tower repair, claimed manufacturer’s flaw. The 3rd party tower manufacturer used by Yamaha had a 3 year warranty which had expired by the time I reported the issue. So now looking for a welder to fix tower cracks instead of paying $2,600 for new tower. Drilling drainage holes in the tower sections might have avoided trapped water from freezing and expanding. Thanks all.

 

[Betik]

Bummer