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Old     (bass10after)      Join Date: Feb 2010       03-20-2014, 11:34 AM Reply   
Currently i have two rev 10's and a bimini on my tower. I'd like to add a second set of rev10's but the tower has a little more play than i'm comfortable adding weight to. Right now its acceptable, but I know adding more weight up there will make it worse. The tower was custom built and is really solid, i think its the hull of the boat that needs some extra reinforcement as it wasn't designed to have a tower mounted in these locations. Should i add extra layers of glass mat in the mounting area and resin them in, or glass in some plywood? Has anyone done this or can you recommend how big of an area to reinforce behind each mount? boat is a 98 mastercraft 230. Right now the tower is mounted using 4 through bolts you see on each mounting foot and one king bolt through the center of each mount as well. The backing plate matches the footprint of the mount you see from the outside so it could stand to be bigger as well. The last picture is the boats current state with everything mounted. the first two are just to get an idea of how its mounted.
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Old     (Rad_Matty_D)      Join Date: Jun 2011       03-20-2014, 11:48 AM Reply   
That looks very similar to the Calabria towers. Are you worried about the tower not being able to withstand the extra weight or are you worried about the glass where the tower is mounted?

You could add layers of glass behind the mounting bolts. OR increase the size of the backing plates to extend the area of stress.

I have a Calabria with a tower that looks like yours and I have two sets of Rev-8's and one Rev-410. It weighs a ton. I'm contemplating purchasing the Samson Razor foldable rack pieces and mounting them in my tower to handle the extra weight a little better.
Old     (DavidAnalog)      Join Date: Sep 2013       03-20-2014, 12:02 PM Reply   
I can give you a method for reinforcing the boat deck cap. That's never a bad idea. However, if the boat hull was so flexible that it contributed to tower movement, you likely would have seen spider cracks in the surface gelcoat by now. Versus fiberglass, gelcoat isn't that forgiving.
The tower looks awesome. What concerns me is this. And first understand that this is just speculation based on a visual without the ability to make a tactile test of the various tower sections as only you can....so I could be way off target. You have a front service joint and a rear swivel joint with a very narrow front to rear span at the base of the vertical uprights. Any minor give at the base is magnified as you move up the tower. A longer F to R span at the bottom terminations of the uprights would probably offer better stability. Also, a universal tower never seems to have the stability of an OEM tower with welded pads at the base.
Old     (bass10after)      Join Date: Feb 2010       03-20-2014, 1:18 PM Reply   
I had the tower custom built by pro flight to my design because i didn't want the look of their standard towers like i had on previous boats. The pads are welded and there isn't really any flex in the tower front to back. With the thicker wall material and the bigger diameter tubing the tower itself is very strong. Its side to side over waves or trailering over bumps that i want to reduce. Visually you can see most of the movement comes from the lower part of the tower where its mounted and i think there's room for improvement there. There is some small spider cracks as to be expected when retro fitting. My boat is stored a mile from the lake and the tower never is lowered so my main concern is really just side to side sway and extra strength when riding.
Old     (patrick232)      Join Date: Aug 2008       03-20-2014, 2:22 PM Reply   
Maybe add a third leg further back.
Old     (bass10after)      Join Date: Feb 2010       03-22-2014, 4:02 PM Reply   
So I never really got a good answer on the best way to reinforce behind the tower mounts.. Should I glass in some wood or just add extra layers of woven mat? To problem isn't front to back its side to side because the boat flex for the most part I believe..
Old     (turbojedi)      Join Date: Jun 2013       03-23-2014, 5:32 AM Reply   
My first boat I made a tower, I used metal plates to spread the stress out in each mounting area. I would make a metal plate and a thin rubber pad under the back side. That helped a lot and was easy to do, trying to glass on the back side would not be easy I'm sure..
Old     (phathom)      Join Date: Jun 2013       03-23-2014, 3:33 PM Reply   
I haven't done a tower, but I have done a custom transom mounted pylon before towers were a thing. We used thick (1/4-1/3") steel in as big of an area as we could get on the inside and outside of the hull to spread out the stress points. We came out with about 1 1/2 - 2 square feet on either side of the hull. That may be overkill, but it is still in use to this day and doesn't even have a single spider crack from it.
Old     (jlembas)      Join Date: Apr 2002       03-25-2014, 12:38 PM Reply   
I haven't been on WW in a long time, but I thought I could offer some advice as a guy that has been building towers for a long time. And a guy who has made a LOT of mistakes and learned a few things in the process.

To answer your first question about reinforcing: glassing in a plate such as kingboard, wood, or even aluminum is the best way to strengthen the tower mount areas. Its a tedious and messy job. Personally, I would pay an experienced fiberglass prefessional to do that since they'll have all the quality materials.

That being said, I don't think reinforcing your tower mounts are going to give you the results you are looking for. In my experience, this particular tower design is the culprit. There is too much distance between the rear vertical legs and the rear mounts of your tower. Adding to to that, the rearward lean angle is extensive which also translates into tower flex.

As Patrick suggested, you may want to consider adding another a support leg that attaches to the rear vertical legs and closer to the rear mounts. But I understand that will kill the look that you were going for. Alternatively, you could ditch the heavy speakers, but you already know that. I'm not trying to harp on your tower. I'm just trying to give you more information so you can decide what is best for your boat.

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