Hiatus over

[tiger275]

Hello all.

By way of introduction, I am a long time owner of a SX230 (since 2008) and was an active participant in "the other board". I actually was the one that started the member map over there but as many of you know, it was too time consuming to maintain. We live in East TN (south of Knoxville) on Ft. Loudon lake and try to boat just about every weekend. Since we live only a few minutes from the manufacturer of the old AR towers, we added a New Dimensions tower to our boat shortly after getting it so we are one of the few SX you see floating around with a "factory looking" tower. We had a "stupidity moment" 18 months ago that required a bunch of gel-coat work and a new tower. We are back in action now. We have done a few mods to the boat but are looking to do some sound system upgrades, add perfect pass and perhaps deal with some ballast. Also considering an upgrade from the original Cobra Jet Fins.

Anyway, I am happy to be back and look forward to participating in this great community.

 

[Scuba_ref]

Welcome! I also upgraded from the original cobras to a larger fin that moves up when at speed and I love the better handling at low speed and the jet-boatiness as high speed.

 

[Scottintexas]

@tiger275 glad to have you on board, we just couldn't get that old member map to get enough traction,

Be sure to check out our FAQ section with lots of great info,

 

[itsdgm]

Welcome @tiger275 to the site. Glad that you found us and decided to join.

 

[Bruce]

Welcome back @tiger275.

I would offer that you could run the member map here but it is completely automated except for reminders for members to add their location to their profile.

When you bought a new tower did you stick with New Dimensions or are they no longer available?

 

[JetSet407]

Welcome @tiger275 !

 

[Zarrella]

Welcome!!! lets see a picture of that tower!

 

[Julian]

Welcome @tiger275 glad you found us! Was your stupidity moment on the water or on the trailer? I've wondered about the tower height of my new 242X and fear low bridges!

 

[tiger275]

Welcome @tiger275 glad you found us! Was your stupidity moment on the water or on the trailer? I've wondered about the tower height of my new 242X and fear low bridges!

Well, technically neither.... actually it happened on my dock. We bought a new house with a covered dock and electric lift. Well, in a moment of stupidity, I walked away from the boat while it was lifting.....no limit switch....tower hit main beam of covered dock....aluminum tower and fiberglass boat "bent" first.

You can see from these pics, the amount of "bend" involved. The main rail actually is supposed to follow the window line. The tower feet were pushed out around 4", the rails bent around the same amount.

The only good news in all of this is that the repair is FAR stronger then the original build. When they were doing the repair, I had them lay in many extra layers of glass from behind and included marine plywood and metal backer plates that cover a lot more area then the original plates.

Tower on an SX230

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

Starboard bend

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

Port Bend

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

Port Crack

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

Port Crack 2

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016
• 3

The culprit

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

 

[tiger275]

Welcome back @tiger275.

I would offer that you could run the member map here but it is completely automated except for reminders for members to add their location to their profile.

When you bought a new tower did you stick with New Dimensions or are they no longer available?

I stuck with New Dimensions. They stopped supplying the OEM towers for Yahama a long time ago (2006 or 2007 I think) but they are still in the business but since they are right around the corner from me so it was just too easy. As an added bonus, since they used my boat to make the original template for the tower on the 2008 SX230 models, it was super simple to build a replacement.

 

[Wayloncle]

Wow!
I never thought about that on a lift, just assumed they all had buttons that when you let off the button it stopped.

 

[rkluck]

That must have killed you when it happened!

 

[tiger275]

Heart breaking....and boat breaking.

I had left someone else to watch it (my mistake) and just never assumed it could do that much damage. The sound was the worst part. Crack, Crunch, creak, groan.

 

[tiger275]

Welcome!!! lets see a picture of that tower!

You can see the 2008 version of the tower above. A small mod to the bimini legs to let them be compressed and then expanded back to full size allows use of the standard yamaha bimini. It is also fully collapsible. But This second time around, I decided to go with the attached bimini.

New Dimensions tower with stock bimini

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

New Dimensions Tower collapsed

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

Bimini on New Dimensions Tower

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

New Dimensions 2016

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

 

[Wayloncle]

I like how it folds forward like that.

 

[OperationROL]

Welcome. Glad you made it over!

 

[itsdgm]

Wow @tiger275 thats a beautiful covered dock and lift set up. I wish my tower had the folding option. Man, that must've been a rough day as a boat owner when the damage occurred. But at least nobody got hurt!!!

 

[tiger275]

Wow @tiger275 thats a beautiful covered dock and lift set up. I wish my tower had the folding option. Man, that must've been a rough day as a boat owner when the damage occurred. But at least nobody got hurt!!!

Thanks for the kind words about the dock. It came with the property so we didn't have much to do with the design, but it is suiting us quite well. Here are a few pics of a slightly different view of the dock. We will be adding a closet for storage, some lighting and a few other small touches but otherwise, just upkeep what we have

Dock from house

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016

Dock in Winter

• tiger275
• Jul 8, 2016