Got a tower, need help installing!!

Ok, so I got a new tower. I bought it from a local business that built towers for some companies, this one inparticular was part of a surplus when a company backed out of a deal with them. The company left them with 7 towers, they sold one to me for $200 bucks after some negotiation, and $75 for the installation parts (for reinforcement, etc...). The tower is designed for a pontoon boat, so I have a tower designed for a 100" or so beam. This is no problem, we can cut the tower down 10" on each side and put it back together and it will fit.

The problem is...I'm not sure how to mount it over the windshield portion of the boat (i.e. like most towers). It isn't really long enough to reach two flat places (one in front of the windshield, one behind the windshield, next to the driver). I do NOT want to mount the tower in the back of the boat for a # of reasons. It's a short boat (17'), it already has a high bow and heavy backend, and it just looks silly.

Would bending the tower to make it fit work? Could it be mounted on the sides as opposed to the flat surfaces on topside? Any suggestions would be very appreciated. Here is the tower...

just mount the rear legs on a flat surface and mount the front legs on side of gunwale above rubrail. bending the tower may cause increased flex and take away from structural integrity and that coupled with flexing promotes heavy stress cracks at mounting points. be sure and cover fiberglass mounting surface with tape before drilling and putting the drill in reverse will eliminate a lot of the spider cracks and chipping associated with drilling fiberglass surfaces. good luck!

You may want to use heim joints for the angles since you can't mount to a flat spot. Contact Bill at Monster Tower, I wouldn't be surprised if he would give you some suggestions or even sell you some parts.
Also, check out this website: http://www.bierbower.net/diytower/home.htm

$200 is a killer price, you did good and they had way more than that in it. I agree with Ryan on mounting, and read a few install manuals from the tower companies out there as well for ideas. On a project like that there will be a lot of "figure it out as you go". Dive in and post up your progress and any specific questions that come up.

We dont sell pieces and parts of towers for various reasons but www.diyTower.com provides a lot of support for diy projects as well.

BTW, what kind of boat it is?

If you want help for placement, post a picture with it roughly installed where you want it, then people can get an idea what you are talking about.

I'm at campus during finals, but I go home tonight and can get a picture of the boat and where I'd like to post the tower.

It's an older boat, it's an '86 Glassport 165RX I/O. It was a repossessed (spelling?) boat. Only paid $1000 for the boat, as that was all the repossesing bank was out on it from the loan. It runs really well, and that's all that matters to me till I get out of college. I'll post some pics tonight or tomorrow

I'll go ahead and apoligize for the poor photography, I was in a hurry to take these before nightfall. I'd post a picture with it "roughly installed" but if I were to sit the tower on top of the boat now, it'd be about 20" too wide (as we've not chopped it yet).

I'd have to say it isn't a bad buy for $1000 bucks, but let me know your suggestions for mounting the tower.

Thanks!!!!

Any advice? Bumpin the thread back up.

find the spot where the rear legs will sit on the flat portion of the gunnel AND the front legs are close enough to mount sideways/vertical in front of the windshield, this will take some measuring and trial fitting. You should be able to bend the legs slightly but any more then that and it may bite you by weakening the aluminum