While Towing......

I was wondering at what speed you guys consider taking your boards off the rack and folding the bimini (If at all?).....most of the time the lake is only a 6-7 minute shot....However I plan on towing to spots 1-3 hours away @ 100-120km/hr or 60 -75 mph......This is my first wake specific boat so more "newbie" questions to follow.....Thanks in advance for your input.....

I never tow with boards on the racks or the bimini up, period.

May I ask why Razzman.....seems easier to me on short runs at low speeds(In town).....Are you just going with the safer than sorry theory?....

I run with the bimini up for short runs, but I don't think I've ever run with boards up, just doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

May I ask why Razzman.....seems easier to me on short runs at low speeds(In town).....Are you just going with the safer than sorry theory?....

Boards in the rack, no, I would hate for one to fly out. I usually tow with my bimini up. By up I dont mean open though. Unless its over an hour trip then I would take it down. I dont know about towing above 60 either. I wouldnt advise that, I dont know what your local laws are. I cruise with my boat...55-60 mph.

The reason I don't leave the boards in the rack is why risk it? It only takes seconds and why risk the potential of losing an $800 set up and possibly causing an accident. I rarely use my bimini so I can't answer that. But I would reason why risk messing your top up, they aren't cheap either.

We usually tow twice a year, put the boat in and out.... the boat landing is about .2 miles away, and a 25 mph.... boards in the rack


but anything over that I would pull them down.... it takes all of 10 seconds and could save a lot of disaster

Everybody's already answered it. Why risk it? I was driving home from work one day and here's this boat with boards on the racks and bimini up and there's not a lake or waterway within 45 minutes. The boards are dancing and shaking and the bimini was open and looked like it was going to rip off any minute. Loose a board and hit a car wouldn't be good. Biminis aren't cheap, at the least you'll bend the frame. Is it worth the ten minutes to setup at the lake? I tow with the bimini closed, booted and strapped and the boards in the boat secured.

(Message edited by razzman on May 19, 2009)

I tow 1 mile each direction... boards in the racks and bimini up. Speed limit is 20mph. ;)

Here's what I don't get.... All of you won't think twice about blasting through choppy water @ 40mph with boards in the rack, but you won't drive down a paved road @ 25. Odd, right?

Robert, how many times have you seen boats nose to stern in traffic gridlock on the lake? If a board comes off on the lake (been there) or you frag your bimini your likely not going to hit another boat like you would a car on the highway ... doesn't seem so odd to me.

Nobody said they didn't do that, in fact some did. I have driven down the road fully outfitted at 25-30 for about a mile to the ramp on vacation at a lake, but that's the only time. Every time i launch it's usually a 45min - 1 hour tow. Chad was asking about a 1-3 hour tow at 60-75.

To Chad,
No way. Way too much to loose.

That said, I live about a mile from the gas station. We tow there all the time with the bimini up, up to 35 mph, no big deal.
And we're about 3 blocks from the boat ramp, and will go there with $8k in SkySkis on the racks. Their Comptech racks & are very secure...... Not some cheezy bungie. Plus we don't go more than about 20 mph thru a neighborhood.

I imagine some of the more secure board racks wouldn't be an issue at low speeds, ie 25 - 35 mph. I have a pair of the Skylon Batracks on my boat & I barely trust them on the water, much less on the road.

I tow 1500ft, 15mph

boards in racks

Chad, going 100 kph puts 4X the load on everything that going 50 kph on the water does. Every time a semi passes going the other direction you might double that wind load again, and no one is in the boat to see what's flapping and breaking. If you don't mind getting to the lake with a couple thousand in missing equipment and damage then go for it.
The wind force goes up at the square of the speed so what you see on the lake is nothing like what you would see on the highway. It is a mistake to leave up the gear, or the bimini.
If you're doing what robert suggests it's no big deal, except that the water is softer than the curb if you forgot to tie a board down.

(Message edited by rallyart on May 19, 2009)

^^^^ me too ^^^^ abe. guess were spoiled!!
i take it a step further and dont use my transom tie downs, dohhh!!

^^^oh yeah? well I'll take it one more. I unhook ALL my straps before I back down the ramp

(Message edited by reconabe on May 19, 2009)

your boat gets alot rougher ride on the trailer than in the water. trailer suspensions are stiff at best.a loaded up tower gets a pretty good workout driving around town.

another thing that was not mentioned... If you tow with boards in the racks, it makes you that much WIDER and they might hit tree limbs that are close to the road or another vehicle passing... Or in my case, a brick column at the gate of a gated comunity.... As for the bimini... I do not haul with it open either, it only takes a couple of minutes to put it up and not worth the risk.

I will leave the boards in for a 8-10 mile drive home at 45-50 mph, but I have only left the bimini open once. I have more faith in the security of my racks than the rigidity of my bimini frame and fabric.

my $0.02

Thanks for the input guys......Kinda the response I expected.....My thought was you go 30-40 mph while cruising so what's the difference while towing....salty87 brings up a good point about trailer being stiffer than a trip across the pond

Ok, that answers for the Bimini and boards in racks, but I thought id jump in on another question, Not trying to hijack, just wanted to see if it was the same concensus

What about traveling with your tower speakers?

Ive got a set of Pro80s and they are mounted to the sides of the tower since the bimini gets in the way when its zipped up on the tower...The cool thing is, they are able to be taken off as you know, but in my situation, I would have to re-image them once I get to the water...which is almost impossible to know if they are firing too high or too low...
Do you think its ok to travel with them loaded on the tower about an hour away, max speed 50ish, or will the wind just end up turning them outwards on the tower?...its just one trip as we usually stay local..
Usually just travel 5 miles with em on and no damage or movement, max speed around 50 again...

Take the boards down. I use to leave them up all the time, heck the lakes only 5 minutes away and i hit a damn tree branch. Bent the rack and damged the board. It was an expensive mistake! Its amazing how much better shape the boards stay in now too!

As for speakers, I've never taken mine off and I've driven 600 miles at 80mph with no problems, well other then bugs, need to get a cover! lol

I have four 8" Dbot5s on my tower & travel freeway speeds all the time with them up..... and covered!

I'm sure mileage suffers with that much drag though. There was a thread a while back about towing with the tower up or down & how it effected mileage. I don't recall the results but I'm sure it makes a difference. Probably worth the hassle if your towing some distance.

What do you mean "re-image"? Are they the newer 80's or the older ones with the trick connect clamps? Either way, they'll go on exactly where they came off. The newer 80's have the gear looking thing on top, so it's really easy to reinstall them in teh same position they were.

I have a Z5 cargo rack, and it's too big to take off and put somewhere else. It's also way to complicated to take the fabric part off, so I just leave it on. I have a WS 3-Some on the tower also, but those come down when teh boat is loaded. I even have covers, but I'd rather not have those speakers out in the elements and to get bugs all over them. My boards do come off and go into the ski lockers though.

I wanted the Z5 but i have to drop the tower to put the boat away and there was no way i was going to putup & remove that thing every time.

For most of us the boat is actually too wide for the lanes with the wakeboards in the rack so for that reason alone I just don't ever tow with a wakeboard in my rack. No reason to risk destruction of a thousand dollars worth of equipment to save about 5 minutes.

I have towed with my bimini up. My rule of thumb is that I never tow faster then my boat goes across the water since that is all as it is designed for. In my situation this means 40MPH, not 41, 42, or anything higher. I also pay attention to wind, if I am in a head wind I tend to limit the speed to 35.

I have a tower bimini it seems fine at these speeds but doesn't seem like it would be fine any faster. I also have my bimini "tuned" so it does not parachute in the wind.

Speakers are often off when towing but this is about 50/50. It's just a convenience and security issue.

Jonyb, They are the newer 80's but they mount to the side of my tower rather than at the conventional top. They are the trick connect brackets so the bracket stays but we have to adjust up and down since the bracket is on the side. and its hard to tell where its firing.. we are talking about getting an upholstery shop to customize the top of the Bimini so we can relocate the speakers..

^^^You have to be joking. When is the last time you saw a boat go 78-82 on the lake with boards in the racks?

2 things. 1st, Pull the mali with the bimini up between storage, gas and ramp which is maybe total of 8 miles. 2 miles from storage to ramp with the occasional out of the way trip to pumps. Never had a problem with the bimini, it is still as solid as the first time it was put up. 2nd, bought a new surfboard last year, on the way from ramp to storage last summer, hit a tree limb, board came off, hit the pavement. Lesson learned! Bimini up, Racks in. Any thing over 35 everything in!