Of course not! That's the purpose behind this whole forum, inspiration and sharing
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Of course not! That's the purpose behind this whole forum, inspiration and sharing
Boat looks great man. I am working on an 87 sunsport and I like your ideas. My questions are on your tower. How do you like the powdercoated airborne tower? I think that is the tower I am installing on mine. Does it seem solid and quiet and do the bottom horizontal pieces obstruct your view while driving? Also how is the black powdercoating holding up? Ihave seen some that fade over time and look dull. Anyway, have a good one and sorry for all the questions. Thanks, Cody
No problem, love questions about boats!
I've had the Aerial on my boat for two seasons of heavy use now - about 250ish hours. I store my boat on a shorestation so every time I park I have to lower the tower and then put it back up when we go back out, that's just a little background info.
You asked how I like the powdercoating and how it is holding up...
I love the powdercoat! I think it compliments the black trim and gel of my boat very nicely, wouldn't have it any other way. The chrome accents on the tower such as the feet, face plate, and SS bolts do a nice job of complimenting the chrome and SS trim pieces on my boat, as well.
As far as how the paint it holding up... I took it on a bachelor party this past summer.. not only did it survive the bachelor party, it also survived sitting outside in a hailstorm. The storm literally resulted in ZERO damage to the tower or powdercoat, even though the tow vehicle suffered major damage. Here's a picture of one of the stones, you be the judge:
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...ker/photo8.jpg
Along those lines, however, the ONE thing you have to be careful of is folding the tower down. If you're someone that will never fold it down then disregard this. When you do fold it down, it folds backwards and then collapses down. When the two forward tower feet collapse down, they will be able to touch the cross members of the tower, resulting in scraped powdercoat. I simply cut a dock bumper in half to alleviate this problem, that way we just slide them on the cross members each time we put it away and it's fine.
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/IMG_4522.jpg
As far as the stability and quietness of the tower...
No universal tower will be as quiet or sturdy as a new, factory tower. However, I think of mine as very sturdy and very quiet. I'm a fairly good rider and at 200 lbs I feel very comfortable pulling on it as hard as I can while wakeboarding. I used pieces of aluminum for support underneath my front legs to help spread out the force:
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/IMG_4524.jpg
The horizontal pieces don't obstruct your view. People who have or prefer towers with no cross members may argue that this one technically does, and they may be right, but it doesn't obstruct you while you're doing anything important. It hugs the window pretty well and as you can see in this pic it's still easy to see out:
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/652f9715.jpg
Let me know if you have other questions!
Hey thanks man, that pretty much sells me on it. Before I bought anything I wanted someones personal experience. Now I have more projects for the winter! Sure hate the
thought of drilling into the boat though. Measure twice, cut once! Thanks again.
Yeah holes for the tower are definitely the most significant/important holes you will put in your boat but the more you do it the less you worry about it. Since purchasing my boat I've drilled 13 holes through the outside of the boat, 6 of which were below the water line.
Holy crap you have been busy. Great job getting everything completed and the LED's really came together well. I should order some more and finish mine proper... Which underwater lights did you go with? Awesome boat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisk
Well you went from a 12 pitch to a 11.5 pitch. The lower the number on your pitch the less top speed and more bottom end. If your looking for more speed to barefoot or ski you would want a higher number on the pitch like 14 or 15. Put it this way a bass boat that can go about 60mph probably has about a 35 to 37 degree pitch.
My 13x12 was a really old prop. This new prop from Acme is CNC milled and has different blade shapes than the old props that allow it to pull harder on the bottom end, and give you good top speed. CSuggs is running the exact same set up as me and he's getting low 40's for his top speed at around 4400 rpm's, I think I've determined that there's something fishy going on with my throttle linkage, carb, or something else because I can't come close to touching 4400.
I did the Oznium high intensity spot lights.. I think they're $20something a piece. I would like to replace them or add to them with some other lights. They were bright enough for the budget I was on last summer but things will be different this summer.Quote:
Originally Posted by 87SunSportMikeyD
Thanks for the compliments and welcome back!
chrisk I just got in my aerial airborne tower black like yours too. Just wanted to know what your clearance from floor to top of tower is. I'm about 6'5" and need to get some room for my noggin. I need to decide how to mount the tower on my saltare and it looks like most people with old supras mount on the side of the boat but aerial does have a pic of a saltare with the tower mounted on the top rail. Any info would be awesome. Thanks
I would recommend mounting it just above the rubrail so the tower feet sit flush against the fiberglass. This will also make reinforcing the backs of the tower feet easiest. I think you'll be fine at 6' 5" but it will be close. I have a 6' 3" friend that is regularly on the boat and I don't remember him having any problems with bumping the tower. Where you'll run into problems is if you ordered tower speakers along with it, those will definitely get in your way. I'll be around my boat on Monday so if I remember I'll be able to get an exact measurement for you. I believe the Saltare has more freeboard than my Sunsport so you might have a little extra height than me.
Thanks for the info. Just above the rubrail is the most common spot i've seen. I'm just concerned about putting the mount near or in the recessed trim stripe that most supras have. Wonder if it would be prone to cracking? Guess it could be stronger because of the recess too. It looks like there is way more room on the Sunsports in that area than the Saltare. Anyway thanks again.
Yeah there might be more room on the Sunsports, I was able to avoid that recessed spot. I went above it on the rear foot and below it on the front foot.
Hey guys, just looking for your suggestions on new amp rack set ups. I currently have a rack built for my two amps, however I have a third Kicker amp coming that is about 20" long. I'm a little bored right now so I'm just brainstorming ideas.
Here's a picture of the current set up. I would like to leave it as is so I either need to add the third amp against the back wall or right wall of this storage compartment. Only problem is, both of those walls can't be screwed into because the screws will be poking into vinyl or the bow walk-through. I was thinking maybe using some heavy duty velcro on some braces on the back of the new rack? Maybe a second layer to my current rack? Any ideas are welcome.
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/6b758fbf.jpg
Cut little wood squares to the size you want, epoxy them to the surface you want to put the amp, then screw into those.
That's a good idea, however another reason I was considering the velcro is that if I needed to get behind the amp for any reason it would be easier to just pull the whole rack off rather than having to unscrew it... any disadvantage to this?
I'm not sure if the velcro would be strong enough to hold it, but you could try it.
3M makes a velcro that will definitely do the trick. A lot of slalom skiers are holding their bindings on their skis with velcro these days.
Completed a new audio project this week. I replaced my old tower speakers with the Exile SXT surf speakers. I also added a Kicker 550 amp to power the tower speakers. Now I'm using my old 4 channel to power the in boats as well as an amp designated to the subwoofer. I got rid of my head unit, as I only ever play music through the auxiliary jack on my EQ. Wired in an on/off switch in the dash for the stereo to replace the head unit. Also added in Stinger distribution blocks on my new amp rack. Here's some pics:
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/ba6acc34.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/2eb63f93.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/e15886da.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/1d218758.jpg
Oh, and the velcro on the back of the new amp rack ended up working perfectly!
Looks good!
Looks VERY clean - Nice Job ! Bet it Rocks now
Thanks guys, first night on the water tonight, sounded great
Looks great Chris! Amp racks turned out nice. You will enjoy having it move and organized.
Any thoughts of black grills on the Exile's?
Thanks guys, and Dusty I think I would prefer black grills?...
Is that something I can DIY or do I have to order them?
I believe you can purchase them from a dealer, but then again, might just be easier to spray them.
Installed a dual battery system with perko switch recently, so far so good!
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/795aaeab.jpg
Also, here's a pic of my boat on the water recently:
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/106e96f5.jpg
you get her all patched up?
No not yet, still waiting for the insurance process to finish up. I'm really not in too big of a hurry, I'd rather lose the use of it sometime in September rather than the middle of summer.
Couple of big things happened over the weekend with my baby. First, how many of you have had your boat in a parade?!? I had the opportunity to tow mine through the Mizzou homecoming parade on Saturday morning for my old ski/wakeboard team. It was an awesome time to say the least. Second, I dropped her off at the fiberglass shop to finally have the repairs done from the idiot that hit me Memorial Day weekend, I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/IMG_6228.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/IMG_6195.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...r/IMG_6191.jpg
Uhh, yep. You've got one up on me there. Never pulled someone in a shopping cart behind my Supra. Two skateboarders, a roller-blader, and a shopping cart has to be some kind of record.
Are you confident in the guy doing the repairs? If so, you should be excited only! I'm sure he'll make it look like it never happened.
Haha, two years ago we had to pull one of the team members in a wheelchair after he snapped his femur at a tournament in Kansas, so we're always happy when we're pulling people in anything but that.
I am very confident in the guy doing the repairs. So confident, in fact, that I towed her down to Missouri 6 hours from home to have them done. A friend of mine ran his Mastercraft into the corner of a dock and punched a whole right on a section that included three different colors. The guy was able to fix the fiberglass and blend the colors perfectly. Plus, he's told me that he has experience working with vintage Supra's. It was still very strange dropping the boat off because I left it in the parking lot on a Sunday. Just pulled in, unhitched, and drove home 6 hours.
Also, for the record, a nice tower speaker setup and an equalizer with microphone come in VERY handy in a parade atmosphere... :)
I know a little about what you're saying. I drove mine two hours north to Maryville and dropped her off with Donny for some minor fiberglass work, wet sanding and buffing. I trust him, but it'll be strange to not have my boat around for 2 months.
Two months? I do 5-6 months every winter without it around or seeing it aside from pictures.
Yeah, well. I store mine at home in the basement. It's great for tackling projects without having to be in a rush.
I've got a friend that sits in his 1997 Malibu every morning and reads the paper and drinks his coffee. He does this year round. Boat has only been in the water 3 times in the last 2 years (he's got too many friends that live on lakes that have nicer boats!) He jokingly says that he could never sell it because then he'd have no place to drink his coffee.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitanTn
Now that's funny ^^^
I once planned on boating, was sitting on the lift under the canopy waiting for rain to stop, instead my friends and I got a cooler and ordered a pizza to my lift. Supra's really are versatile boats...
Got some updates from the fiberglass shop, boat will likely be done this week. For those of you that don't know, look back in this thread at pictures from when it was "rear-ended" on Memorial Day last year.
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps44411e7f.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps43fda51a.jpg
Your teak is looking good Chris. What's your process and what products are you using?