Tower Towing and bimini top

[HangOutdoors]

Perhaps a dumb questions since I have never had a tower before and never been on a boat with one, but when you tow from the tower does the Rope go above or below the bimini top?

When I put it above it looked liked it was rubbing, when I put it under the chrome bars on the sides of the bimini top are in the way when turning.

 

[Bdog]

Perhaps a dumb questions since I have never had a tower before and never been on a boat with one, but when you tow from the tower does the Rope go above or below the bimini top?

When I put it above it looked liked it was rubbing, when I put it under the chrome bars on the sides of the bimini top are in the way when turning.

I can’t actually recall offhand...I guess I need to be on the water to verify this and I’ve done this a bunch of times but there should be a zipper and I think I put the rope up through the bottom of that and I get clearance all around when turning. The angle of boat in the water typically keeps the rope off of the bimini for the most part and I haven’t had any issues yet.

 

[marcham]

Towing a tube or skier? Normally, the rope would be above the bimini.

 

[AJACHIM]

For wakeboard I usually tow above and make sure to get the Bimini in at least the second notch. For surfing i go below the Bimini

 

[spatty99]

A Yamaha model (not positive, but want to say recent 212X) has a shockingly poor tower/bimini design where the rope rubs the tower when boarding. I think the fix was to shorten some tower poles to provide additional clearance.

 

[PBear]

For our 2020 212X and wakesurfing, we disconnect the rear supports, bungie the top to the tower (using the opening by the tow point). The front part of the bimini stays in place with no issues. The speeds we go with this is 10-11mph for surfing. My kids are not wake boarders or skiers, so we haven't tried this configuration at higher speeds.

Yamaha says the bimini can be lowered but it sure doesn't seem like we could pull the back down far enough without tearing a seam someplace. I imagine trimming the front support poles would help that. @Neutron did just that (https://jetboaters.net/threads/towing-a-wakeboard-while-also-using-the-bimini-top.2343/#post-446096)

 

[ctyke]

Put it above, I had the same thought as you, but once I was pulling there was enough room that it wasn't rubbing. Seems really close though. I was pulling tubes and Zup board, no surfing (just got my board so I'll be trying that this weekend).

 

[sunbyrned]

Are you skiing or wake boarding? If skiing, you could use the tow hook at the back of the boat and you can go as far out to the sides as you want.

 

[Jameson Clark]

We do above. Gotta remember that when wakeboarding, the rear of the boat is still pretty low in the water and the angles change.

 

[HangOutdoors]

tubing, wake boarding, soon to be Zup boarding

 

[suke]

Had the same thought. Right now I tow above for everything.

 

[Maineiac]

My dealer said to tow above the bimini top. There’s different height settings on the rear bimini supports and he told me to use the lowest position when pulling a skier.

 

[AncientCanoe]

It's above, but you will probably get some rubbing. Most wakeboats I see fix that problem by just not having a Bimini behind the tower. The manual says you are supposed to lower the Bimini poles to their shorter settings when towing from the tower, but I can't even get mine to the middle setting without bending/breaking something there is no chance of getting it to the shortest setting.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I may just lop of an inch or so off the front poles.

 

[Patman941]

I may just lop of an inch or so off the front poles.

What did you end up doing.....over or under? How has it worked out? I have the same question. Over seems to be the general consensus.

 

[Levi Weatherford]

I may just lop of an inch or so off the front poles.

Just put your rear support poles on the lowest setting. We set ours there the first day we had the boat and that's where they have been ever since. Yes, it is a little tighter but not impossible to get the supports in their brackets. There is no rubbing when pulling with tension on the rope. The only rubbing we get is when you are turning around to go pick up skier or tuber the rope lays on the top.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I never cut the front poles. What I do it just kind of hang my weight on the corner on pull down and it goes it just fine. Definitely snug and tighter, but works fine without cutting the poles.

I always tow on top of the Bimini on my model boat, works fine.

 

[suke]

I've gotten to the point I tow under the bimini for surfing, and over for wake boarding. I rarely have much pull when I'm surfing other than to get up. After that I'm either completely slack, or ropeless.

 

[AZMark]

It's above, but you will probably get some rubbing. Most wakeboats I see fix that problem by just not having a Bimini behind the tower. The manual says you are supposed to lower the Bimini poles to their shorter settings when towing from the tower, but I can't even get mine to the middle setting without bending/breaking something there is no chance of getting it to the shortest setting.

Late reply but like @HangOutdoors said below you just have to put your weight into it. Start with the longest hole just to get the ball ends locked in place and then pull it down from there. Much easier than trying to wrestle it from the start on the shortest setting.
If the alternative is a shorter Bimini then I’m sure glad yamaha did it this way!

 

[Patman941]

Towed on top today without having to adjust the rear poles, it worked perfect. There was no rubbing at all. Thanks everyone.