Why all the hate for monster towers?

[haugy]

Just wondering if anybody has a tower on a boat made of schedule 80 steel pipe?

I helped a friend make a roll cage for his rockcrawler out of Schedule 80 against my wishes. He seemed intent. So we gusetted the hell out of it, and made lots triangulation. I am 99% positive that if I tried to make a tower that looked like New Dimensions (angles and double tubes) that it would fail under load.

I'm 100% positive that if you did it to look like a Monster tower it would fail.

There's a reason you don't hear about them made out of Schedule 80. That thin wall steel is not designed for lateral loads and pulling. It's designed to withstand pressure and compression. I'm sure someone has done it, and I'm sure someone here could prove me wrong, but I really don't want to see it. The propensity for an accident and someone getting hurt is too high.

If you are going to do it, make sure it's more straight angle than anything. Schedule 80 does not do well when bent, and the compressed.

[supra wacko]

Hey Guys,

@ Matt Thanks for the great compliment for my Tower.
My tower build of 6 cm aluminium thickness 3mm is solid as a rock, and the total price was around 900 Euro (is +/-800 dollar) including the racks, lights, powdercoat and bimini.

For a comp I couldn't find a factory build tower that matches te shape I was looking for, so thats why I designed it myself. It took over a half year for thinking and and the drawings where made. Even during the build I also chanced some measuring, because It didn't match the shape/looks to the boat.

For a comp you als have to look for the height of the tower because most ar te low so you can't stand under it. Or speakercans are difficult to place under the tower.

So If you have the skills and knowledge you can build yourself a good tower.

I think Monstertower and other factory build towers looks really awful to most skiboats keep them to a Bayliner or other I/O boat.

If you are interested in the drawings I could send it to you. (p.m. me)

Greetzzzzzzzzz

Supra Wacko

[matt k]

Interesting thoughts on sch. 80 pipe. I have no problem using something stronger, I just thought the sch. 80 would be plenty. 2" schedule 80 pipe is 2.3" OD with a .22" wall (about 5.8cm with a 5.6mm wall), which depending on the kind of aluminum supra wacko used, should be at least as strong, if not much stronger (and also WAY heavier ).

If not, what should I build with? I can get A513 - TYPE 5 STEEL TUBE DOM for relatively reasonable prices, in a wide variety of wall thicknesses. I'd love an aluminum tower, but bending it is more challenging, and I can't weld it very well with my equipment, so it's far more likely that i'd end up using steel.

How much stronger is DOM steel than equivalent sized (and wall thickness) steel pipe? Maybe a lot... I'll have to dig thru some of my racing catalogs and see how much it'd cost to build the whole thing out of roll-bar or cage steel.


edit: hm, a quick google says that jegs sells 5 feet of 1-5/8 x .134" mild steel roll bar tubing for 30 bucks a pop, which isn't terrible.

Supra wacko, about how many feet of tubing did you end up using?


also, the big thing about the new dimensions towers that I like is the 6 mounting feet instead of 4:


so that's a feature that I'm definitely going to try to incorporate.

[jet]

Supra wacko. I want to see pics of your boat?? Jet

[supra wacko]

@ Matt I used 3 x 6 mtr lengths of 60mm diameter 5 mm thick alumium. And is all welded with the strong simple TIG without watercooling. It was getting really hot sometimes but the equipment kept it. only sand the alu before you weld it works(floods) better that way.
( and the drawing and the pics are they arrived)

@ jet see the next link

https://forum.supraboats.com/showthread.php?t=4002

Greetzzz

[matt k]

Thanks a ton for the drawings, very helpful! It looks like my racecar friends use 1.750OD x .095W DOM steel for rollbars and cages (although I think SCCA may have just upped the requirement to 2"OD), so I'm thinking that if it's good enough for cages, it should be more than good enough for a tower...

Looks like I'll probably burn up close to $300 in steel, plus fasteners and consumables. The biggest thing I'm currently worried about is where and how to reinforce the deck where it attaches. I might have my mechanic's fiberglass guy do that part, or something like that.

Supra wacko, what did you use for the attachment points where the permanent part of the tower meets the removable part?

[jet]

Nice job man..nice job. Jet

[ludacris]

Big Air Pylons
5305 Robert Lee Road
Duncan, OK 73533
(580) 252-5314
[email protected]
THESE GUYS HAVE NICE QUALITY TOWERS AND ACCESSORIES...THEY WERE VERY NICE, AND THERE SERVICE TO ME WAS OUTSTANDING...GOOD LUCK....

[supra wacko]

I used 3 parts 10mm thick allumium a in a U shape and welded at the permanent 2 of those plates and left 11 mm in between so the 3 is the hinge from the collapsable part drilled a hole through the 3 parts and placed a bold and some rings and mutter. to attach it to each other.

Sorry for my bad english I hope you can understand it.

Hope the pics will be good for you.

Greetzzzz

[matt k]

no, that completely makes sense, and seems like a great idea. I wonder, if I do the same thing with steel, if the paint will wear off at the bearing surfaces and I'll get rust problems.

Thanks for all the help, your advice (having done it already) is super helpful.