Hey, I'm working on bulding a tower, and right now I'm at the designing stage on my CADkey program...and i just threw a number of how tall... 7'5'' from the point where you step onto the boat (not the floor)...is that just wayyyy too big?

i would say it is too tall but im no professional. if it were me i would make it about that tall from the floor of the boat

although a tower may help, going big is about technique.

yeah, I got that...but, I'm just wondering, is it dangerious or just plane stupid to have it that tall. Also, would I be the only person in the world w/ a tower that big...cause if I am then it'd probb stupid.

Step on to the boat? Is that a seat you talking about? What would be the distance from the floor? Sounds like your talking close to 8 feet plus. Seems a little high to me, do you have any water ways that you go down with low bridges? Also when towing it you would have to watch out for low overhangs. To me I like to have a standard height if possible. Then if you ride behind other boats it will be familar to you.

ok...so...from the floor of boats, to the top of the tower...what is the standard?

6' and change on most of the boats I have been on.At 6', I usually have to duck my head a teeny bit to avoid the tower, and the tie point is about 3" higher than the bottom of the tower.

before i got my new boat i had a off shore boat with a 10 ft. pole it was mounted to the floor. it was just a stick of steel pipe from lowes. held up really well as long as it was strapped front and sides in the back.

I am 5 ten and my head clears my tower with speakers hanging down by about a 8 inches. Stock zero flex tower on a MC x-5. Gotta be higher then 6 feet from the bottome of the floor. I think you are safe

Most i know are 6 ft from the water line but the bottom of the boat is i dunnno 6 inches underwater right? so 6 ft 6 from floor.

I would say 6 foot 6 inches to 7 feet from the floor is pretty common. I guess if it got to high you could also have a problem with the rider pulling the boat over more with the increased leverage and maybe more tension on the mounting point on the boat. Possible gel coat crack problems.

So, how big are all your towers?

you'll get a lot of list (leaning to one side) when the rider cuts if your tower is too tall. i built a tower for one of my old boats a few yrs ago that was over 7' tall from the floor, and ended up having to shorten it because of this. this was a MC PS190 however, and the effect will be reduced by a larger boat.

I have a homemade pylon that is 2,5 m (8 ft+ ?) from the floor of my boat. I rode with it all of last summer, no problems.

I can't see why there would be any danger issues why not to make it that big (wakeboarding dangers). Heck the stiffy wing puts the tow point up an extra 6' higher than the standard tower. i would think that too tall would look bad, and might present a problem getting under some lower clearances.

It's the roll thing. What good is an extra few feet of tower if your edge has rolled the wake flat? That's where that sail-tower thing came in: it could go high because the wing alledgedly minimized roll (list).

The biggest myth about towers is the taller it is, the higher you will go. That's BS. <BR> <BR>As long as the rope is at shoulder height or higher, you're golden. The more you go over that height, the more negative effects it will have on your ride. Like the boat sway side-to-side. And more difficulty cutting into the wake. <BR> <BR>There's a reason that 99% of the towers out there are all within 6'-7'. Use the creative energy to fill fat sacks instead...you'll be much more satisified.

Most of the boats I have been on have towers where I can just reach up and grab them while standing or on my tip toes on the boat floor. My Malibu with Boss tower is that way and the X2's are a little taller than mine. I am 6' tall and I have kind of measured in the past that I can reach just below 8 ft up total standing flat footed. SO, I say around 7.5 to 8 ft from the boat floor.

Bryce, <BR>I added a 24" extension to our tower so from the toe eye to the floor is 114". The original toe eye is still on the tower. So of course we have tried both and it does make a difference. You go just a little higher, a little longer hang time, and a little softer landings. The thing is our boat is 108" wide and 23' long. When the rider is way out to the side and cuts hard it pulls the boat over slightly, and changes the shape of the wake, however as the rider cuts in close to the wake the boat straightens out and the wake has the normal shape when the rider hits it. The reason towers are not taller is for liability. When "Skylons" first came out there was someone manufacturing them taller than 8 ft. Boats were tipping over. So the size of the boat is the limiting factor. <BR> <BR>Skiing made me board, <BR>Lyle <BR>Chrome Dome Industries

I used this at a boat show one time, got a ton of looks. check it out <a href="http://www.stiffytower.com" target="_blank">http://www.stiffytower.com</a>

Here's a Barewest tower. It's around 7'-8' from the deck. Works great for us. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65919/106445.jpg" alt="Boat &amp; Tower">