I have just installed a custom tower speaker set up onto my tower but now towing it down the road it sure seems to shake around alot. I am wondering if this is a normal thing to see or if this may be too heavy for my tower. The speakers weigh about 40lbs but my tower is old and is just 1.5 inch tubing and it not factory installed either. When I shake it in the drive way I can get the top deck of the boat to flex a bit as well. I just don't want to break anything. I am thinking of taking them off and waiting til next year to put them on a new boat. <BR>Anyone broken their boat/tower doing something like this? Any thoughs will be great.

it would be a good idea to reinforce the fiberglass if you haven't already... I know this from the internet only, i'm surprised someone hasn't said it already. Don't ask me how to do it, because I don't know.

40lbs doesn't sound like too very much. From what I understand, you'll get spidercracks in the gel-coat where the tower mounts to the boat. The spidercracks are a realitivly easy thing to fix. <BR> <BR>On my tower, I'm running 2 Rubicon 450s @ 88lbs, 4 Skylon Bat Racks, one Skylon Light bar. I believe the weight that the boat sees to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 135lbs to 190lbs loaded with boards. I hate rolling double-ups for this reason.

You should reinforce the fiberglass and make sure that the tower mounts have big backing plates. If your tower shakes a lot, you will get spiders cracks and they wont be pretty. Easiest way to reinforce would be to use epoxy resin along with layers of fiberglass mat and cloth. Put a few layers underneath the deck where the tower mounts.

That is too much weight for a 1.5" tower in my opinion. On top of what everyone else said, the welds on your tower are going to get stressed and eventually fail. I've done it and have seen it happen plenty. I would wait until you can get a larger diameter tower.

I'm not sure what speakers you have but on of the problems shaking the tower on the highway could be just the wind loading. You get what is called vortex shedding as the air flows around the speakers and into the low pressure side at the back. This makes them shake side to side. If the road is smooth and it shakes that's the cause. <BR>Put the tower down or pull the speakers. The faster you go the worse it is. <BR>Regardless of the cause repeated flexing is what will cause the fiberglass to crack then fail, and the same applies to the welds and bends in the tower.

This is shaking caused from bumps in the road and the boat does spend quite a bit of time being trailered down the road. <BR>I just never payed any attention to how much if any it moved before the speakers. Stupid what you notice after adding something like this. I do have spider cracks already in the gel coat so that is not a concern to me I just don't want to break the boat or tower.

I have the same issue. Not sure what the long term effect will be. I have had the fiberglass reinforced. I too have Rubicon 450's on my boat. I have four wakeboards on one side and a sky ski that goes on the other. Seems fine on the water. A little movement, and I notice it on the road also. I think it is just something else to keep an eye on.

I have a New Dimension tower on my 98 Mastercraft Sport Star. I too have a pair of Rubicon 450's on it. With the speakers and 4 boards on the racks, that thing wobbles back and forth. The MC dealer installed my tower and reinforced it with backing plates, but it still scares the heck out of me when it shakes back and forth when going over waves...

I have a 2006 MB Sports B52 V23, and the manufacturer told me that my warranty would be void if I put Speakers on my tower.