Do It Yourself Or Professional Installation of Tower

[bobbyT]

Returning Supra Owner and Forum User. Sold my 89 Comp a few years back and happy to be in the drivers seat of 2000 Legacy. Great boat for skiing and family enjoying. The newer Supras are sick! and unfortunately out of my price range. I am very pleased with the 2000. I was thinking of adding a tower to enjoy for a few years before I upgrade. My neighbor had installed by Action Watersports a mini tower on his Tournament Team Mastercraft and it ran him $3000 for tower, nav light, and 2 racks....I thought that was pricey. I was checking out Monster racks (lots of positives about these on the site) and was cuirous of the degree of difficulty to mount this on my boat myself. And for about half the price! Please share pros and cons or recommendations. I live in Rockford Michigan and if any member has a recommended installer or supplier nearby, I'd appreciate that as well! Feel free to post rack pics!!!! and suggestions thanks.

[wotan2525]

How handy are you? I've installed (or helped install) a couple of towers. I think the Monster Tower is a great value and as long as you go slow (and have some mechanical ability) it's really that that difficult. It comes with great instructions and the people at Monster are awesome if you need help.

I recently helped install an aerial tower. It was more difficult, but I feel like the cost on this tower was an even better value. For $2000 he got the tower, tower speakers, tower lights, 2 board racks, billet mirror and wires/cables/switches. It wasn't easy to install, though.

[bobbyT]

Pretty Handy. Just worried about potential problems. Ie...not sturdy enough, drilling holes in boat, etc...Any key suggestions? What are the most challenging steps?

[jet]

Just close your eyes and DRILL! :eek:

[87SunSportMikeyD]

Monster tower was no problem to install. Measure twice. There is nothing fancy about this that the pro shop would do better than you can do. Most people make backing plates for their tower mounts. I have some pics of my install in my signature gallery.

[wotan2525]

Pretty Handy. Just worried about potential problems. Ie...not sturdy enough, drilling holes in boat, etc...Any key suggestions? What are the most challenging steps?

Blue painters tape and pilot holes before you drill anything in fiberglass. Eye protection and long sleeves are good precautions. Use green treat or marine grade for any backing pieces. Measure twice, cut/drill once. Buy a good quality hole-saw if the tower you go with requires it. Brats and beers can do wonders to convince your more handy friends that they'd really enjoy helping you out. ;) Just do it... I don't think you'd have too much luck finding anyone that's installed more than a handful of towers anyway. It's almost always regarded as a DIY install.

[mapleleaf]

How far's Rockford from Traverse City??? Real handy and will be up there June 22-July5.......Just a thought....Hope the install goes well....Congrats on the new ride....

[Kip]

I just installed a tower on our Mariah. It was a lot easier than I had expected. Definitely use the painters tape where the tower feet are going to go, and measure twice before drilling. Good Luck

[bobbyT]

How far's Rockford from Traverse City??? Real handy and will be up there June 22-July5.......Just a thought....Hope the install goes well....Congrats on the new ride....

What a generous offer. Definitely appreciated. This is why the forum rocks!!!!

I will post pictures of the boat once they are uploaded. I am leaning towards buying a tower and installing myself. My brother is in tool and die so I bet he could cut me some steel support brackets. Mikey D, any reason you used wood over steel? Just thinking steel is a bit heavier, but more solid. Sounds like if I take my time, have a few extra hands, measure three times, drill once, use the blue painters tape, Add extra support to the bracket, provide beer and brats for helping hands, and take my time and enjoy, it should go alright! Any recommended towers for a 2000 Legacy? Mikey D...yours looks nice. I'm going chrome (polished aluminum) since my boat is accented with it. Leaning towards a package deal with racks, cans, lights etcc.... seems like a better deal than adding separately.

[tg0824SSVGG]

Bobby,

Another piece of advice: use the blue tape, but ALWAYS ALWAYS run the drill in reverse
until you are thru the Gel coat - and into the glass - the you can run the drill forward.

If you don't do this, you will get major cracks and chips in the gel coat. (this was a lesson
learned the hard way before I asked for advice)

Todd

[87SunSportMikeyD]

The tower does apply pressure to the hull, but as long as you DISTRIBUTE that pressure over a large surface area or the hull you should not have any worries. The tower already has a stainless mounting bracket, and the wood is the backing plate behind it. The stainless piece will make sure that the wood is not damaged by the bolts, torsional stress, etc.

I have checked the wood and the inside and outside of the hull near the mountint areas several times and have not found any stress-cracks after two full years. If you REALLY wanted to machine some stainless backing plates you could, but I don't see any reason to.

Thanks for the nice words. :) Start a new thread for tower discussion if you want, but we have had some nice ones lately.

[saltare inverts]

I have done a few also, very easy. Go for it.