Phat Budde boom with different rack?

Any Phat Budde boom owners out there that have removed the stock board racks and replaced with something like a Skylon Batrack etc?

Why? I had a Phat Budde tower on my last boat and I loved the racks. The boards didn't bang into other towers when we tied up and the boards stayed put. My new boat has bat racks with one strap holding two boards and I'm not thrilled. Sure the polished alluminum looks nice, but on this I will take function over style.

It's not that I'm unhappy or want more style. I just want to hold more boards. The top of the Phat Budde is narrow, and I seem to only be able to fit ski's or kids boards on the top. So, that leaves only two boards on the bottom. Am I doing something wrong with regards to the top?

Your top boards just need to sit more forward, and then you can put four boards on the tower. Play with it, and you will see what I mean. I have no problem putting my 141 Belmont up there.

The top rack holds one binding, not both like the sides. I always put my rear binding in the strap.

John: thanks for the rear-binding tip.

Is that a customer speaker box? Any pics from the other side?

John

One other thing.. with the batrack (which I noticed from your profile pic) you seem to have much better visibility than with the Phat Budde.

John

When driving I never noticed any visibility problems. All of this is just personal preference. I am not bagging on the batrack it. It's just after owning both I prefer the Phatte racks. However I am probably going to add another set of batracks to increase my capacity to 8 boards. I have found that a bigger boat = more people = more boards. I built that box for my last boat. It sounded sweet.

That Tige' sure is a good looking boat. Looks a lot like my sanger in the water. Do you miss the old girl?

That speaker box looks cool. It looks like it removes in a snap. What material did you use? fiberglass, aluminum? nice job. I was thinking of mounting a tube in a similar way that you've done there, and then mount cans.. but your method is really cool.

When it comes to driving, I really miss that boat. When it comes to room and wake I love my new boat. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.
The box was built with 5/8" MDF and 6" PVC for the front cap. After the shape was finished the box was wrapped in fiberglass, sanded and painted. The mounts were 1/4" lasercut stainless that I found at work and adapted to fit the box. The bolts were solid stainless sanitary pump cover bolts that were laying in a scrap pile at work. I used rubber washers between the box and the brackets. When I tightened the two bolts the washers gripped and the box went nowhere. When it was all cleaned up and put together it looked trick, with very little out of pocket expense.

Did you make the mounting brackets? That's exactly what I'm looking for.

I adapted some existing stainless steel brackets that were laying around at work. They were oringinally one U shaped bracket that I cut in half and ground down to fit. You could have a metal shop make something similar for not that much. You could also use aluminum in place of stainless. I also welded a thin washer where the bolt goes through so the whole bracket wouldn't touch the enclosure. Good luck!