Tube Towing

[gilbertmilton]

Hello,
I have a G21 Super Air and am wondering where others attach their tow ropes for tubing. I’ve been hooking mine to the tower, but I’m worried about damaging it. Do most people use the tow hitch at the back of the boat near the cooler/rope storage instead?

[CHassmann]

I do not have a G21, but I think most (if not all) experienced boaters would discourage pulling a tube mounted to the tower.

https://www.barts.com/blogs/news/sho...r-no-heres-why

[SilentSeven]

Small tube - like one rider or couple of smaller kids - you're likely OK. Get one of those 4 person flying sofas...naw...prolly not a good idea. IIR, most all manufacturer documentation is that you shouldn't pull a tube from the tower.

[bturner]

I think you're going to find the consensus being that tower from the tower is generally not a good idea for anything past a single tube with small children. While I'm sure the tower would handle most stress situations created with towing a tube the risk/reward of doing so just doesn't make a lot of sense, at least to me. That said I see people doing it all the time.

As Chris Rock once said..... "just because you can drive your car with your feet, it doesn't make it a good idea".

[MN Ryan]

I've had this debate with a brother-in-law (granted, we have old boats). I'd prefer to never tow a tube, but it occasionally happens. I refuse to tow a tube from my tower. He maintained it was fine till one day he noticed a cracked weld in his tower. Did the Big Mable cause it? Maybe not, but I can't imagine it didn't contribute.

[SilentSeven]

I'd prefer to never tow a tube, but it occasionally happens.

^^^ this.

[bturner]

It's all fun and games until Big Mable cracks the tower.

[MN Ryan]

Exactly! Luckily for him, our family cabin is in rural MN, and he found a guy to weld it for $50!

Did I mention it's a MC?!

[XBIGPUN66]

I have heard that the G23 pro tube edition has a proprietary tube towing attachment on the tower

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[charlesml3]

It always tickles me how delicate people think these towers and boats are. We've towed THREE tubes at once from the tower of a G23 on multiple occasions. I saw a youtube video once of a totaled 230 (storm damage) where the salvage yard took a big fork lift and picked the entire boat up from the tower.

-Charles

[Scooter G]

We've pulled 3 wakeboarders. Would of gone for 4, but somebody forgot to throw another rope in the boat. Granted no one was throwing Raley's.
Redo this Summer...

[northernoak]

I've always towed tubes with kids or adults from the tower. The manual for my boat year/model specifically says to tow tubes using the tower only while only using the ski pylon for skiing.

"Flight Control Tower: DANGER Failure to follow these guidelines can result in injury or death. Do not tow more than two persons at one time from this tow tower. The tow tower should only be used for waterskis, wakeboards, or recreational towables and not for parasailing, kite flying, or towing other boats ect."

[bturner]

I always towed tubes from the tow ring on the stern. I have no clue if that was a better place once you get into towing Big Mabel but I always felt better about it. I was never worried about pulling the legs out of the deck, it was cracking aluminum welds that concerned me especially on older style towers that you could see move around in rough water. I would have felt a lot better if we were talking steel but aluminum? IDK, just felt wrong to me and I've done pretty good listening to my "stupid alarm" as I've aged and never had an issue with any of my towers.

Tubes really took a leap way back in the 90s going from the typical car/truck tube era to the lux barge that were fully enclosed units that seated 3 or more adults with some even having cup holders. It was like there was a race to make them as large and over the top as possible. Hmmmm, sounds strangely like surf ships. Anyway, we hit critical mass with these beasts and instead of dragging around 200lbs max people are now easily exceeding 400lbs when you add in the drag from that oversized tube full of water and the oversized average adults we've all become.

To each their own but I don't want to hear any crying if your $20K retractable tower no longer goes up and down or you can't find a welder to fix your cracked welds. Now get of my grass and get out of here!

[GMLIII]

Towed the HO Molecule with 3 adults from my G23 tower for the last 9 years with absolutely no issues. Let it ripe!!!

[bturner]

It's all fun and games until the tower breaks..... Hey, good for you, really. Just not in me to go for tube tower towing. As a matter of fact I hate pulling tube period. I will say that looks like it would be less stress than 4 chubby guys on a Big Mabel. It looks like it rides on top the water a lot more.