Rinkers with towers

[Boatsrule]

Here are customer photos from the monster tower website of customers RINKERS with towers new and old boats. Pretty neat!
I like this particular one.


Check out other photos here.

http://www.monstertower.com/customerphotos/Rinker.htm

[merwin10]

Boy that looks pretty heavy duty. Does anyone have such a rig. I was wondering how it is attached particularily backing plates seems like there would be a lot of stress on the upper mold attachment where the bottom and top molds come together! Pulling a couple of wake boarders and the levelage arm would put allot of stress at the attachment points particularily the rear one!

Mike -  

[kcsteve]

I saw a Mariah with a Monster Tower at the boat show and they look like great towers, very solid. I have a factory installed tower on my Rinker looks good but not as beefy as a Monster. I may end up changing at some point. Most tower mfgs recommend a min of 3/8 in thick fiberglass where the towers are attached. Rinkers are not that thick  The one thing I really disliked about my boat was the tower. It would shake,rattle and developed stress cracks at the rear legs within 30 days of using the boat. Although Rinker claimed the hull was reinforced it was not. I had a fiberglass guy build up the inside so it was flat then added a 3/8 in thick 4"x8" aluminum plate. This took care of 90% of the problems Rinker paid to have the stress cracks fixed.

[merwin10]

Thought so! better watch where the rub rail is there is allot of stress there also!

Mike -  

[4LakeBums]

I was looking at getting a tower for my 226, but have heard the same stories as KCSteve described.  They are nice, but I am not sure how much we would use one as my kids are still pretty young.  

The stress cracks were reported on other makes of boats as well, not just Rinker...

[merwin10]

Yea! I agree with 4lakebums! It is just not rinker that has the problem with these types of towers. Let's face the issue some option don't belong on certain boats. This is one of them! If you want a tower like this the best solution is to buy a boat made to take the stress of a tower.

I know from experience that this is true even for the sport fishing boats with tuna towers some boats are made to handle the stress others need to be re-enforced with mounting plates molded in! Same goes for the wake board tower!

Many boaters neglect to realize that if your boat is pulling a skier or wakeboarder and let's say the pull is 200 pound straight off the back you raise the pull 6 feet to a tower that same 200 pounds plus the leverage point is what three times or more. Now you figure that stress is all on what maybe 12 square inches where the pads of the tower are, without backing it securely to the hull your going to have stress cracks!

Just my humble thoughts!

Mike -  

[kcsteve]

Let me add to this, after adding reinforcement I have not had any  more problems with stress cracks. The key with these towers is to have the hull properly reinforced. And you guys are right this is not just a Rinker problem and even some of the wakeboard specific boats have been known to develop stress cracks. Where my tower attaches I now have at least 1" of reinforcment covering an are of 32 sq in. I'm confident that I will no longer have a problem with stress cracks due to the tower. If someone is looking to add a tower know that you MUST add reinforcement or you will be asking for trouble.

[merwin10]

kcsteve,

Since you have been there sounds like you are the resident expert! sounds like you have enough reinforcement.

Mike -  

[slawson]

I thought I read that when they made the first "R" series with the towers (2004 comes to mind), they were based on the 'new style' 212 and 232 hulls and ALL boats of that era (mine included) had the reinforcement (i.e. easier to make them all that way than just specific ones and go back later and retrofit) as there was not a lot of difference between the boats other than the tower, some fancy stuff and the graphics packages.  That was the year that they changed these two models to the walk thru transom also.

SL

[DaleM]

I wouldn't mind doing a radar arch on my 232.  I like this front swept look though.http://www.crownline.com/models/bowride ... n_boat.jpg  Hope that works.

[kcsteve]

When I bought my R2 I was told that the hulls had been reinforced but this was simply not true. After removing tower I would estimate that the hull was no more than 3/16 thick at the point where the tower was attached . I won't go into who said what but after speaking to all the principles involved I decided to have this fixed properly and paid for it myself. I was very angry at the time but I have gotten over it. Lesson learned. Other than this one issue I've been completely happy with my boat.
Steve