Tube towing

[Graham Morris]

On my 2007 22ve the rear ski pylon says to only attach one skier. Is it strong enough for towing a tube? There is no where else to attach one.

My tube is a three person tube and yes in does go over 20 knots

Graham

[hoopykat]

Yep...should be plenty strong to tow your tube.

Mike

[R&T Babich]

We've used our 2000 21V ski pylon to tow 2 World Ski Lines UFO tubes with 3 kids per tube without any problems. These tubes are large and have been submarined and airborne. The steel frame on our ski pylon is very stout, but I don't know if they've cheapened up the design on the newer boats. We use Sportstuff 6K tow ropes. ( http://www.shipstore.com/SS/HTML/SPO/SPO571542.html )

[chpthril]

Graham,

Tige says not to tow tubes from the ski pylon because it is not attached to the stringers on the Ve's, only bolted through fiberglass.

I towed multi tubes all summer long from the pylon (my dealer said it was ok when I asked about a tow ring) and have not had a problem. I may try towing from the lift eyes, as Tige recommends, or look at installing a tow ring that is a little higher than the lift eyes.

[Domsz06]

i tow from the tower!! It's lots of fun, and allows for awesome whip outs

[dogbert]

i tow from the tower!! It's lots of fun, and allows for awesome whip outs

Dude, that's a bad idea...especially if you get a large tube to submerge while you're turning. You're better off towing from the pylon or from the tie-down rings on the back of your boat.

[Domsz06]

never thought of that. Thanks Dog. I dont' have any large tubes but will stop doing that. We never hardly tube, but when I did we just put them up top to play some bumper tubes. Guess i'll stop that now. Thanks for the heads up.

[Tequilasun]

I'm still not sure which is stronger the tower, or the ski pylon, but I'd rather take the chance of a ski pylon failure then a Tower failure. There so much more mass around the tower, that could cause serious havoc if something came loose.

It's pylon or tow rings for me.

[dogbert]

I'm still not sure which is stronger the tower, or the ski pylon, but I'd rather take the chance of a ski pylon failure then a Tower failure. There so much more mass around the tower, that could cause serious havoc if something came loose.

It's pylon or tow rings for me.

Yeah, my tower specifically says no tubing. Of course, my pylon could be used for machine gun mount on a hummer, so it's not going anywhere without the whole back of the boat.

[Domsz06]

my tower doesn't say anything, but it makes sense. I doubt I'll be doing much tubbing, anyway, don't really care too, and now that the lake is even closer to my house, i'll probably just use them to float on, all they got used for really anyway on the party weekends, just hanging out and floating on.

[Graham Morris]

Graham,

Tige says not to tow tubes from the ski pylon because it is not attached to the stringers on the Ve's, only bolted through fiberglass.

I towed multi tubes all summer long from the pylon (my dealer said it was ok when I asked about a tow ring) and have not had a problem. I may try towing from the lift eyes, as Tige recommends, or look at installing a tow ring that is a little higher than the lift eyes.

My old tige had a central tow point on rear I used for towing but the new one does would be a pain to tow from lift points unless I used a bridle. The tower feels like a rock. I note the sky pylon is only in the upper fibreglass in front of motor. I assume was get more space in cockpit.

Tige has given me no intructions on tubing at all. Manual is not worth toilet paper.

[Domsz06]

yeah the manual isn't worth anyting. i'm still not sure what's wrong with towing from the tower, except it could do some damage if your not careful, or it's a big tube. My tower moves less then my ski pylon, but hey, each to his own.

[Matt Garcia]

Be aware that on some of the older model Tiges they pylon was mounted in the engine stringers so pulling more than one tube or skiers wasn't a concern.

On the new Tiges the pylon is only mounted on the rear fiberglass panel. I only tow my niece and nephews on the tube so I am not pulling a whole lot of weight, I would be carefull though if you are pulling multiple adults/tubes on a new model Tige.

[Domsz06]

thanks for the explaining Matt.

Does this also mean that the newer tige's are at risk for double skiing, or someone that skis very aggresivley or weighs above 200? What has it been tested at?

[chpthril]

I think the pylon on my 22Ve says one skier only but nothing about tubing. I think the lift eyes will be too low and the tubes will want to sub more often. I'd like to install a tow ring higher up the transom, but I don't know if I can get high enough to make a differance! I bet that after a few tries i'll be back to the pylon