Choice of Tower??

I\'m new to the list and new to wakeboarding and was wondering if I could get some advice on what type/brand of tower would be best for my boat. I recently purchased a 1988 Supra Saltare and wanted to add a tower this winter, although I\'m not sure what tower to go with. I really don\'t want to drop a ton of money on one but, I would like something that will work well and look good on the rig. I was looking at the Monster tower, anyone using that particular tower on a similar boat? Any suggestions would help.

Thanks,

cw

i bought a tower for my saltare before monster towers were being made. if i had it to do over, i'd go with monster. they look great and they're collapsible. my tower works great but doesn't collapse.

i've seen monsters on sunsports but haven't seen one on a saltare yet. post a pic of whatever you go with.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate any help I can get. The Monster tower doesn't look too difficult to install, the thing I'm concerned with is the thickness of the fiberglass on my boat. Do you think I will need to reinforce the mounting area on the boat with additional fiberglass?

What year is your Saltare? engine size?

I've got tons of questions for everyone, this chat board is great.

Thanks,
cw

mine is an 87 (w/454 engine) and i honestly doubt the installer reinforced the fiberglass. since i didn't see what it looked like under the gunnels, i can't say for sure, but i probably would have reinforced them if i did it myself. but, like most diy'ers, i tend to over-do things. i can tell from having taken a quick peak that there are wooden backing plates to absorb stress.

i haven't noticed any flex at the deck and there are no spiderweb cracks anywhere near the tower legs. its really sturdy even with speakers and board racks full.

even if you have to slap some fiberglass in there, it doesn't have to look good. i'm so glad i got a tower, it's a whole new boat that's even roomier now.

I'm glad to hear that your boat is holding up well with the addition of a tower, that makes me feel better about installing one on my boat. I've read some pretty grim threads about guys having to make some extensive repairs after having problems (gelcoat/figerglass cracks) due to tower stresses, I will definately reinforce the deck before the install.

What kind of ballast system do you use? I was looking at some articles about installing an electronic system using fat sacs and pumps, is this something you would recommend trying? I've got more ideas than time or money, I'm going to end up with a kickin boat but no money for gas (it might help if I was actually good at wakeboarding though).

cw

i don't ride as much as i used to and i don't bother with ballast anymore. i have sacs and used to use them, the boat does need weight for a great wake. my favorite was 500 on the playpen, and 500 on each side of the engine.

1 observation i made about fat sacs was that old floors don't like them. the stringers can take the weight but i found that the flooring now sags between stringers. my floor is kind of like a roller coaster with ups and downs. in my opinion, no actual basis in fact, is that the weight cracks the flooring between the stringers and that increases the deterioration of the wood.

i wish there were a center ski locker and a bigger rear locker to hide the sacs. i'm going to re-do the flooring and stringers sometime in the next 6 months and had toyed with the idea of under-floor ballast but i think i'll be lucky to just get the thing back together.

how long have you had yours? made any changes or modifications?

We got our boat around the first of August from a local boat dealer. I believe it was a trade in, the dealer we got it from normally does not deal with inboard style boats, they deal mostly with I/O and outboards (fishing rigs mostly). About a month after we bought it the transmission went south (had 430 hours, is this normal?) so, we took it back to the dealer. They worked on it for several weeks trying to fix it, finally after about 7 weeks of messing with it I told them to install a rebuilt tranny. They picked up all the labor and the parts for the old tranny that they had tried to fix. Needless to say I was getting very frustrated at this point but, I guess we've got a new (rebuilt) tranmission in the boat now.

I've also refinished most of the teak, hopefully I can get it all done again this winter; it makes a huge cosmetic difference. Oh, and a new bilge pump, which brings me to a question, how much water should the boat normally take on. After the new tranny install I seem to be taking on more water, the bilge runs more often?

BOAT-"Break Out Another Thousand": I'm learing this the hard way.

The last time we had it out was the first of November, the water is getting pretty chilly here in Missouri that time of year. I need to do a partial winterization soon, I can get away without having to do a fully one; it stay inside the heated garage.

I'm thinking about the ballast system install, I want to do a tower first though. I guess I'll have to assess the budget afterwards to see if I can squeeze the bassast in or wait till next year. I want to try my hand at wake surfing next season so I thought the ballast would help, do you think it is necessary?

cw

i've had mine for about 4 years now, got it with 325 hours and it has 775 now. my tranny has been solid so far. that sucks that yours went out, these velvet drives are supposed to be fairly indestructable. don't hear of them going out too much....what was it doing? i've heard of people who's props spin in neutral or slip.

i learned the hard way at first too, sometimes there's not much you can do. i do most of my work but i can't rebuild a transmission. the dealer got me once, i can't even remember what the issue was but i remember the bill. i haven't been back since except for a few parts.

i'd like to find a way to get rid of some of the teak. a friend of mine just bought a sunsport and it doesn't have as much, looks good and less work. i pulled all of it off a few seasons ago, need to do it again.

go for the tower this off season if you can, it makes the boat feel so much bigger. only a new prop makes a bigger difference....ok, new stereo is pretty sweet too.

i've surfed behind mine, i think you'd need a ton of weight to really make a huge surfing wake. otherwise, it's pretty good as is. i usually have more people with me when we surf and just have them move around. there have also been a few tickets given out for reckless operation around here. 1 friend got a ticket, he had his ballast all in one corner so the cop said it was unsafe. bunch of crap.

The tranny had only one gear, forward. When it was put in reverse, it still went forward. It had no nuetral, either when the throttle was straight up or when the nuetral knob was pulled out, it just had forward gear. The dealer worked on it trying to fix it for several weeks, finally I said put a new tranny in. Unfortunately I was only able to get it back on the lake a few times after getting it back from the dealer before breaking down and winterizing it (just did that yesterday).

I try to do most everything myself as well, it helps that my father is a mechanic and has his own shop. It's the only place big enought that I can actaully get work done on the boat, plus he has all the tools. I have a two car tandem garage that I keep the boat in but, it only has about 3 or 4 inches of clearance on each side, I have to crawl through the boat to get to the back of the garage.

I want to remove the striping on the boat and polish it this winter (along with other projects), shouldn't be too hard just time consuming. I'm not sure how to get the stripes off, any ideas?

I know what you mean about the teak, it's something that takes a great deal of upkeep.

Where did you keep your ballast at the front of the boat, did you have it in one of the compartments or just sitting in the playpen area?

I'm ready for spring and it's not even Christmas yet, that's pretty sad.

cw

for the front ballast, i just left the sac on the playpen. there's tons of room under those cushions, though. it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to make space....but, everything seems like it shouldn't be too hard!

i did my stripes this past year....check this thread.... http://supraboats.com/msgboard/read.php?TID=597

it wasn't hard but took a long time, i'm very glad i did it. the boat looks tons better now.

anyway, if you have any questions or problems i'll be checking back all winter.

i haven't had to winterize yet here and am hoping to get some lake time this friday (12/10). i'll probably drain the block after that, i don't fog as i'm too close to the lake to go all winter without getting out there.

Salty, just curious as to how you removed the stripes, did you have to use an adhesive remover or heat source? Also, what steps/products did you use to polish the hull?

Thanks,
cw

it's gonna take a little trial and error. the glue for the stickers seems to react to different colors differently. some of my stripes were really hard to get off and other peeled right back. depending on the color of your hull, you may have different results.

either way, it took adhesive remover, heat gun or hair dryer, and some nerve wracking scraping. this is the basic process:

-soak about a foot of the stripe with the adhesive remover, generously cause it dries pretty quick.
-get a corner of the stripe peeled back so you can grab it...with your finger (hurts eventually), plastic scraper (they bend pretty easily), a nickel (worked good but small to hold), or whatever you have to work with.
-heat the stripe about 3-4 inches ahead of the edge you peeled back. you want to heat the stripe as you pull at the same time. work your way down. the stripe will probably break and you'll have to start a new edge.

work a small section, the adhesive remover evaporates quickly and the heat gun only works a small section at a time. don't burn the gel coat by getting the gun too close, keep it moving. you can use a hair dryer but you'll probably end up blasting your fingers alot. harbor freight has cheap heat guns.

even when the stickers come off, you'll have glue to get off the hull. the adhesive remover and heat help here too. a stainless steel kitchen scrubber, like for cleaning pots/pans worked really good here. it rubs the adhesive into the glue and breaks it up quick. didn't leave a single scratch. i know, it sounds kind of drastic but it worked.

then, the scary part. there are clear stickers under the blue rollers on the back. they are a royal pain in the ass to get off. i had to bust out a razor blade and CAREFULLY get an edge peeled to pull on. these took a while. i did scratch my hull a couple of times but not too deep to buff.

those are my last words of caution....none of this really requires any muscle so take it easy. have a stool that you can sit on, you'll be there for a while.

i'll post seperately for the compounding...

3m heavy duty marine compound seems to work great on my hull. i bought a polisher at harbor freight...this link might still work... http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46507

the bonnets make the difference on this job. get wool bonnets that look like mops (i think they were wool, they def. looked like mops). they really bite through the haze and crap.

i then polished with some automotive stuff that's just a lesser grit really. i don't think the brand mattered.

then wax'd, used the same brand as the polish. wax doesn't last long so the real work is in the prep. i've tried waxing with 303 but can't really tell if it worked better. it was a hell of a lot easier to do though.

oh yeah, toilet bowl cleaner for the white hull. white and shiney now.

Salty,

Thanks for the info, that looks like a big project, may require a few days off from work (I need a good reason to use some vacation days). I'm hoping Christmas will bring a few new goodies for the boat, hopefully a year end bonus will bring a Monster Tower. A wake surfboard would really top things off, I'm itchin to give that a try. Do you think the Saltare will put off a big enough wake to surf behind without having any ballast?

I'm hoping to build an integrated ballast system, it will be a while before I can come up with the funds though. How much weight do you think the ski locker could hold?

I'll try to snap a few shots of the Saltare before I start removing the stripes, should be interesting to see how it turns out. Do you know if we can get the newer versions of the waves/rollers, I thought about going back with just the rollers for some graphics on the sides, no stripes though?

cw

i think you can get the new stlye rollers, i think that would look good.

the ski locker is just fiberglass without much support. i had a 250 in there and nothing happened but i had to put a ton of weight up front. the gas tank is under the ski locker, beware.

Yea, I was kinda worried about the gas tank, if I put any weight in the locker I would try to keep it to a minimum.

The year end bonus came through, I got the green light on a Monster Tower. I will probably order it today, hopefully I can get it here in the next week or so.

I'm going to try to install it myself, which brings me to a question. How do you remove the vinyl side pannels, I will probably need to get behind them to access the mounting bolts as well as to reinforce? I have a feeling once I get the side pannels off I will have to cut a small hole to access the area needed, any ideas on this? Would you reinforce with a section of wood overlain with fiberglass or would just using additional fiberglass be adequate?

thanks,
cw

cwsaltare88 - here's a great link for instructions on mounting a Monster Tower. The boat in the link is a 1990 Supra Sunsport. I'm not real familiar with the Saltare, but I think they are similar. Hopefully, the info will really help you out. Good luck, and post some pics when you're done.

http://monst15.securesites.net/pdf/B...stallation.pdf

some of screws that hold the teak side pieces up go all the way through the fiberglass wall and hold up the entire vinyl covered board. going from memory...the outer most screws on the top piece and the same for the bottom piece of teak.

i didn't read all of the instrux but it looks pretty good.

my boat had a 6 1/2" opening already on the passenger side, i think it came like that but i can't be sure. a roto-zip would make quick work of it. you could also add extra speakers if you want to cut through the vinyl also. the speakers and covers would hide the dirty work. i almost did that but got lazy and just covered the access holes back up.

good luck

Thanks guys, I printed a copy of the installation instructions, I definately think they will help. I picked up some resin and fiberglass matting to reinforce the mounting locations; the boat may not need it but I figure it won't hurt to have the extra support where the legs mount to the deck. This will be the first time I have worked with fiberglass but, I think I've got the idea.

I've had the teak pieces off but never the vinyl panels, maybe they just need a little helping hand. I thought there may be some through bolts that are covered by the vinyl interior that I would have to access through the back speaker holes, but I never tried just removing the panels after taking off the teak. I'll give it a shot, that would make it much easier. I figure I will have to cut some small holes to access the locations but, they should cover up with the vinyl panels. I found a jigsaw blade that cleanly cuts the fiberglass, I should be able to use it to cut the holes (I had to cut a hole to mount my stereo).

I think the side stripes will go once I get the tower installed, I don't know which project will take longer. I'll post some pics of my progress shortly, I'm hoping to work on it the next week. Thanks again, I appreciate all the help I can get.

cw

Hey! Good luck with the Monster Tower install. I love mine and I hope the instructions in the link provided above help! (I wrote it to try and be of some assistance to others.) I'll check back occassionally to see how you are coming along. The folks at Monster are great and don't be afraid to call them with any questions. They are also great at returning emails. Post some pics when you are done.

Hey guys, check it out.

I finished the install yesterday, it took longer than I thougt but I had to find access to all the mounting locations, reinforce the fiberglass and so on and so on. I have tons of cleaning to do to the interior now and I want to remove the stripes and polish the hull, hopefully I can get it all done before spring. I'm also trying to get the sound system up to snuff as well, got some speakers for christmas to install. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks
cw

Well, I can't get a picture to attach to my post, any suggestions?

Congrats on the tower install! There are several free sites that will host a picture for you. Try www.imageshack.us. No need to register, just upload your pic to their site, then copy and paste the "embedded code tag" they have listed for "Forums" in your post. It'll be something like (img)http://img001......etc.jpg(/img). Just with [] around the img, not ().

I'm going to try this again, thanks for the tip Juice75.

[IMG]http://tinypic.com/18f4vq[/IMG

http://tinypic.com/18f583

Let me know what you think. I'll have to post some before and ater pics for the stripes, I started removing them last night.

cw

Okay, now I'm getting irritated. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Here's a link to the pics I uploaded to an image host, maybe that will work.

http://tinypic.com/18f583

http://tinypic.com/18f4vq

If not, I guess you could copy the link and paste it into your browser.

Last try.

cw

Nice job!!! That tower looks sweet. Congrats on a successful install.

Install looks sweeeeet! Enjoy the new tower this season.

good work, how are the stripes going?

Hey guys, the stripes are gone, I removed them a few weeks ago. The boat looks 10 years newer, I really like the clean look. I really didn't have much trouble at all getting the stripes off the boat, used a heat gun, a plastic putty knife and when needed, I used some 3M adheasive remover (a spray can from Wal-Mart) and the glue came off pretty easy. I hope to polish it in the next few weeks, I'm also thinking about a shower. I'll post some pics when I get it finished.

I'm ready for spring.

cw

CW,
The tower looks great. I also have a 88 Black Saltare.
I hadn't thought about taking the stripes off mine, until I read some of the threads(and Pics) on this site. I would like to see how yours turned out, post some pics when you can.

Rob

hey cwsaltare88, i was wondering what kind of tower you decided on. i just got a '94 saltare and i'm looking for a tower, and i'm looking for any advice.

thanks

jb

sorry i guess i missed several posts....how's the monster tower working for you? any complaints?

Hey guys, I finally got the boat polished last weekend, it looks great. I removed all the stripes and added a Monster Tower a few months ago, the boat is really coming along quite nicely. I hope to get a shower installed sometime soon, it won't be long before we can get out on the lake.

I havn't had a chance to actually use the tower yet (lake was 34 degrees F. the other day, a little too cold for me) but, it should work fine. The Monster tower was a breeze to install, I had to cut a few access holes in the boat and reinforce the mounting locations, this was the hardest part of the install. I would definitely recemmend the Monster Tower, it seems very sturdy after the installation is complete. My advice, if you decide to go with the Monster, is to make sure to reinforce the locations well and do a lot of measuring as well as following the instructions closely.

I will post some pictures as soon as I can, my next project is either the stereo or the shower, or both. Any suggestions on either of these topics would be greatly appreciated.

cw

the shower is pretty quick and easy. i found one on ebay for a good price. you'll need to locate a secure place to mount the pump, it vibrates the crap out of fiberglass. i used the existing bolts to the factory ski-ring on the transom, you'll see them if you take the rear locker out. i mounted the pump to a piece of epoxied wood that's secured to the back of those bolts. i cut a hole in the rear locker for the hose and leave it in there when not in use. to use just lift the lid, pull the hose out, and spray away.

there are so many choices with the stereo so i'll just say which way i went... 12" JL sub under the dash, four 6.5's in the stock boat spots and 2 on the tower in tubes run by 2 rockford amps. i'm thinking of adding another sub or maybe just a bass-tube for the back seat to hear. it won't win any contests but it will crank.

Hey guys, just wanted to post a few pics of the boat after removing the stripes and getting it polished. It won't be long before we can hit the lake, at last check the lake temp was 36 degrees and rising, I just need to put on the finishing touches. Hopefully I can get a shower installed before the first outing, still working on the stereo. I'm having a lot of trouble with EMI in the subs, probably going to have to get expert help. Here's an attempt at posting some pics, let me know what you think.

http://tinypic.com/2373mh

http://tinypic.com/2376ae

http://tinypic.com/2376lf

cw

One last try on the posting, I still haven't quite figured this out. Okay, how do you insert a picture, here's some links to chew on.

http://tinypic.com/view.html?pic=2373mh.JPG

http://tinypic.com/view.html?pic=2376ae.JPG

http://tinypic.com/view.html?pic=2376lf

Last post here, I realized I did something wrong after hitting the reply button. Try the last link, I think it works.

Can someone help me out here, this is killing me. How do you post pictures to this site?

cw

looks realllllly good! tower looks clean too. great job! looks like you've spent some time on that trailer as well.

to post a pic, it has to be posted online somewhere already so that the address starts with http....

the easiest way is to right-click on the pic, select properties and copy the address.

when you make your post, enter the pic info in this format:
http://whateveryourpicfile.com

edit...i should have explained that you might need to find a site that lets you attach pics. wakeworld does, i use that one alot.