86 SN transforming into a wakeboarding boat ..

[bmilesdc]

I just purchased a 86 Nautiqe that has nothing on it.. I'm considering building a tower and also a storage compartment for a fat sack in the back of the boat.. I seen a boat that had it done and would love to see how they did it .... I would also love to hear any comments you may have concerning this project.. I'm new on here and have never posted a pic but I will try to post a pic of the boat im talking about ...

[bmilesdc]

Sweet it worked.. I would like to do this to my boat and would appreciate any information on this project..

[TravisFling]

Welcome!!! I have a 1989 that I have a tower and ballast on. These boats are great and I think you'll really enjoy working on them. You have several options concerning the tower, you can get a Monster tower, like what's shown here, or really any brand you wanted. Installation instructions come with them, and you'll probably need an extra hand, or two, as they're pretty large. For the tanks you can start by taking the back seat out and measuring up some dimensions, and seeing what will fit. You can either build an outer shell and fill it with sacs, or build actual hard tanks with automated ballast, etc. The options are limitless.. do you have much experience with stuff like this?

[bmilesdc]

Yea, thx's for the reply.. I was thinking of doing a custom job on the tower... my buddy made a tower from metal conduit that you could pass off as a store bought tower.. Have you heard of anyone doing this? Also as far as the back deck, I would love to do the automatic ballast, I just dont know if I will have the courage to drill a hole in the bottom of my boat.. 1 last thing, where do you get the rail guard material stuff?

[TravisFling]

I'm not sure what you mean by the rail gaurd material stuff, but if you mean the rope that goes in the rub rail around the perimeter of the boat it's just marine rope. They sell it at various places and depending on your year the thickness varies. You can probably search on here and find it.

[Chris4x4Gill2]

The rub rail insert should be 5/8" bradied Poly rope. Original color is prob white, I found black for mine at Home Depot.

Careful fabing up your own tower. There is alot of structural analysis and kinematics that goes into these things. Make sure you brace it well and be careful of the angels your bends are on in relation to the pull of the rope and mounting points. And make sure to use some good tubing, conduit isnt going to cut it.

[TravisFling]

I wouldn't do conduit either. You have to think of the stress being put on this thing. It's a massive amount. You don't want that thing collapsing on your head, or more importantly ruining someone's tantrum mid-flight.

[Bimmerboyz]

Are we talking EMT or GRC conduit. GRC will hold up but I wouldn't recommend using Galvanized it will be heavy. If your friend can bend Conduit he can bend metal tubing the stuff they use for Roll cages that will work better than GRC.

[harddock]

nice job. Did you encounter any trouble with the rear tower mounts in that narrow section of deck?The rear wiring tube and speedos dosen't leave much room for a backing plate.

[Nbigger]

I think he was talking about the Gator grip on the gunnels. http://www.wakejunky.com/

[bmilesdc]

yes gator grip .. thanx.. I questioned my friend about the sturdiness of his tower.. and he said he "tested it hard" pulling 2 wakebaorders on the same side etc... I'm confident we can make it functional, I just dont want it to lose boat value because I'm trying to save a few hundred dollars on the tower.. tell me what you think of this home-made tower.. [img]

[bmilesdc]

Dammmit!! I forgot how to post a pic..

[cjsacm1]

im curious on the back seat...how it was done, or it you have any pictures of it. I have seen a lot of ballast tanks but it looks like you loose a lot of sitting room. On this boat in the picture it looks like you actually have room to put your feet and sit. I dont have a 2001 yet because im about ready to deploy again so ill just wait until i get back but im trying to get ideas now. If you have any ideas on that back seat let me know