Help with what tower to buy.

[EricU]

That looks great! If you get more pics over summer you should post them up. It should give me a good idea what that tower will look like on a red RZ2.

I most certainly will, I love the way it looks and it is rock solid. Wait until you see the bimini that is being developed (shhhh! Top Secret!)

[Ewok]

I may have missed something Eric but how did you go from powder coating your old tower to getting a new Blade? Can you post up some of the good and bad about removing a 4 post tower and filling in holes or re-enforcing the glass for the new tower mounts? And I can't wait to see your new bimini.

[EricU]

I may have missed something Eric but how did you go from powder coating your old tower to getting a new Blade? Can you post up some of the good and bad about removing a 4 post tower and filling in holes or re-enforcing the glass for the new tower mounts? And I can't wait to see your new bimini.

Ewok, I am a victim of cracked welds, the guys at CMS, Dennis at Liquid Trends (both I would highly recommend!) and of a very bad case of the dreaded "Zipper Effect"!!! When I get more time and photos I will post them.

[feddeytx]

How hard was it to mount the Samson yourself? Is the fiberglass thick enough on my hull to mount without adding fiberglass? I do all my own repairs on everything so Im not afraid of that. I have never worked on fiberglass so I am not sure how strong it is and if it will hold that type of weight/stress. I guess using the existing bimini is out of the question. I would really like to stay under $2k. It looks like a samson is about $3k. I don't want to spend that much but I do not want to buy more than one or have problems in a few years.

[Ewok]

I put a cheaper universal tower on my old boat and I re-enforced the area behind the glass with a big piece of diamond plate that I epoxied behind the glass. It held up well for 3 years before I sold it with no spider cracks in the gel coat.

[ddutcher]

Ewok, I am a victim of cracked welds, the guys at CMS, Dennis at Liquid Trends (both I would highly recommend!) and of a very bad case of the dreaded "Zipper Effect"!!! When I get more time and photos I will post them.

I saw your boat at CMS and it looks great with that tower. I will concur with you on how great the team is at CMS. Dennis is finishing up my stereo this week and he mentioned a little something about your custom bimini, it sounds killer. Your boat sounds great by the way. I went with the Icon 8's as well for my tower.

[onefish]

I did the install with a friend and it was not difficult. I did not do any additional strengthening under where the tower was mounted other than the plates and epoxy that comes with the tower. I was hesitant to spend too much money on the tower as well, but seeing the loyalty shown by the others who own Samson towers convinced me. I have only been on the water once since the install so I can't in all honesty vouch for its longevity, but I can say it's light years better than my old tower. Here's an install video from Samson:

[EricU]

On mine, it was easy because I wussed out and had the shop do the install. Dennis has a piece of aluminum fabbed up and installed it under the gunwales.

Another plus for using Samson is that Scott fabricates them right here in the USA, and you can actually talk to him!

[EricU]

I saw your boat at CMS and it looks great with that tower. I will concur with you on how great the team is at CMS. Dennis is finishing up my stereo this week and he mentioned a little something about your custom bimini, it sounds killer. Your boat sounds great by the way. I went with the Icon 8's as well for my tower.

Sorry to the OP for going off-topic, but I love the way the Icon 8s sound, and that was last season prior to Dennis getting them tuned up and amped correctly.

Is that your Z3 at CMS?

[ddutcher]

Sorry to the OP for going off-topic, but I love the way the Icon 8s sound, and that was last season prior to Dennis getting them tuned up and amped correctly.

Is that your Z3 at CMS?

Again my apologies to the OP. Yes the black white and green one. Dennis is installing 4 Icon 8's with an arc audio sub all powered by arc audio. Icon's are painted to match the pearl green on the boat. RGB's as well.

[.NOBODY]

That Samson tower is sweet. I think this last repair is my last....then I'm going to need a sweet tower replacement also.

Here's my recent repairs (as in last month).

My fabricator cleaned out the crack and filled it with weld, added the 4" wide gusset and the 2.5" cross member.

The eyelet is for securing the tower during long transports.....the idea was to keep it from swaying, which causes stress (of course).

The tower has two 485's and two Pro80's (not mounted yet) so weight is a big contributor to the problem.

[EricU]

Another satisfied Samsom Tower owner. (Sorry I only have the one crappy pic)

Do did you order a Samson? or decide on something else?

Here's a couple of more pics from this last weekend. Though it is kind of hard to see with all the wakeboards in place. But the classy bumpers look cool out in the open water by themselves!!

CFR '14 (4).jpgCFR '14 (6).jpg

BTW, I sat there for over an hour and a half watching the morning glass while eight teenagers were sound asleep!

[Hammertime]

What did you do to the front holes from the original tower?