metcraft tower broke... now what?

[RFV]

The center bar where the rope and speakers mount broke, so I have two options. My friend says he knows a guy who can re-engineer the whole thing and weld it back up, what do you guys think? Has anyone here tried to repair their metcrap tower? What replacement tower looks and works the best for the '01 21v. I was looking at the Indy razor and it looks like there may be a market for my old bimini to help offset the cost of a new tower. Either way it sucks cuz the boat is down for now.

[chpthril]

Ditch it. It was under engineered in the first place.

[Cubby_Z]

Post a pic of the Bimini. I have a 99 21v with the metcraft, I am also thinking of going with one of the Samson tower. I think I read on here that they will mount up to the same spots as the metcraft.

[Thegerman618]

I helped rebuild on one of these once, same breaking point. Got steel tube and slid over the broken area and through bolted it vertical and horizontal. Did this 3-4 years ago now and the tower is still in working condition. While we still wakeboard and surf with it. But for the amount of time and frustration that went into the repair, could have installed a whole new tower. Indy is great no doubt, I put a big air tower on my last boat did the install alone and took me 4 hours. Not trying to sway you for or against any tower brand just another company to check out.

[NICKYPOO]

I agree with Mike, scrap that thing. I'd put a Samson on it and forget about ever having tower woes again.

[UNSTUCK]

Out of curiosity, what caused the brake? Was it fine one moment and broken the next? Pictures of the brake? What were you doing when it broke? How loaded down the was the tower with speakers and such?
Thanks.

[chpthril]

The cause of the is that the burning wick reached the stick of TNT. These r prone to break just a matter of time. Hard to fix an under engineered tower. Too many other spots to fail next.

[UNSTUCK]

I get that, and have heard it numerous times... Is it underbuilt to pull 10 skiers in formation or to pull one surfer out of the water? Given enough weight any tower will fail, or pull out of the boat. RFV, do you mind?

[tchancey]

I have a similar tower on my 2001 2300v. It looks like the prior owner made the fix described above, then I took it to a local welder when I spotted a couple of small cracks after buying it. The welder did a good job shoring it up. In fact, I was recently following my boat and a Mastercraft with a zero flex tower down a rough dirt road. My tower hardly moved while the MC's tower was flexing like crazy. Based on what I've seen, it can be beefed up fairly easily by a good welder.

[chpthril]

Is it underbuilt to pull 10 skiers in formation or to pull one surfer out of the water?

Underbuilt for years or use pulling one rider. I remember reading failures back in 06 when I joined. Those were 3-4 year old boats with likely sub 200 hrs of normal use.

[RFV]

The tower has never wiggled an inch in the four years I've owned it. I do pull a friend that weighs 270lbs. but it never seemed to budge. The only thing different this year was I hung a pair of Cerwin Vega tower speakers right near where it broke. I didn't even know when it broke, but I did notice it wiggling after we got off the lake. I just hate to drop all that dough on a new tower but I guess I'll have to. Still cheaper than a new boat.