85 Supra SunSport Skier - PINK!

[chrisk]

Of course not! That's the purpose behind this whole forum, inspiration and sharing

[csl]

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

[chrisk]

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:



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.



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:



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:



Let me know if you have other questions!

[csl]

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.

[chrisk]

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.

[87SunSportMikeyD]

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.

[Moose]

So I got my new prop in, brand new Acme 543 13x11.5. This one replaced a very old 13x12 that I had on the boat.

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't as impressed with the Acme as I was prepared to be. I expected noticeable gains on both ends with it.

I didn't gain any top end speed whatsoever, which is pretty disappointing because I love to slalom and I barefoot every once in a while. I'm still sitting right at about 35-37 mph, depending on weight and other variables.

I did notice some more bottom-end power out of the hole, which is nice. Also, I noticed a little more efficiency at slower wakeboarding/cruising speeds.

I don't know, maybe my expectations were just a little too high. It does look awfully pretty on the boat though! haha I included a pretty crappy picture taken from my phone from the dock. Thoughts on the 543?

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.

[chrisk]

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.

[chrisk]

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.

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.

Thanks for the compliments and welcome back!

[Moose]

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