So after shopping around and around and around for a tower, I decided to build my own. The prices for the universal towers and lack of support and possibly rattling led me to my decision to just build my own. I fab'd up this tower and mounts in a day with material I already had in my shop. To say the tower is solid is an understatement. Made 5x12 backing plates from 1" Marine plywood front and rear then used 1/4" aluminum on the underside of the backing plate. The mounts for the tower are 5x10 1/4" plate with a high durometer adhesive rubber on the bottom to protect the gelcoat. The tower is mounted using poly bushings that I machined. They are very rigid, but soft enough to absorb any vibration that could be created from normal driving. The Tower is made from chromoly DOM tube and is all mandrel bent. 1.75dia x 0.120" wall. The tow point is the home built tower go to, tow ball. I was afraid the tow ball was going to be ugly and was only going to be used temporary until I machined a new one, but its grown on me and I don't think its too noticeable. The tower has ZERO flex or sway side to side, and Zero vibrations.
Let me know what you think of this Tower build. I think it turned out alright for building on a Friday afterwork, letting the paint cure for 2 days, installing Sunday night, then boarding all day Monday! Not a bad Memorial Day weekend eh?
Raw Materials
air/hydra bender
First Hoop / Front
Shooting for 88" center to center. This was a little bit of a pain when you're man handling a 18ft stick of tube. It's like wrestling a bear! Especially when you are doing the second bend and 90% of the hoop is out of reach.