Tower Talk

[ddubz]

Now don't beat me up over this...

Ok, now I have been reading thread after thread and realize that sampson is the best ($$$$), monster makes a good tower (not my favorite look), I have also read some good things about arieal, and yes I realize they are made in china (so is my laptop, etc...)

Who has purchased an areial and thoughts?

Im thinking about this one..

http://www.aerialwakeboarding.com/v/...assault-bk.asp

Also, found one on ebay that I really like the look of and the functional roatating board racks. Seems to be made by the same chinese co. as arieal.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-Hy...item2a27112436

[WakerideN]

here is my take.. and I could be bloodied for saying this. But it all comes back to this for me. and you have to be thinking this.. is 4k for a samson worth it? and to me that depends. and it all depends on a few things. 1. price of tower compared to price of boat? 4k tower on a 10k boat? how much sense does that make? 2. How long are you going to keep the boat? 10 years - 2 years? long term then yes.. short term.. probably not. 3. are you a super hard core wakeboarder? since after all your only supposed to be wakeboarding off of it right, tubing and sking off the pylon.. lol. (not what i see but in theory)

In the end it all comes back to what makes sense to you, if you ask me. not what anyone here thinks. I guess if quality is the issue, it comes back to price verse benefit, how many arial towers can you get for a samson if one goes bad? but then again to me that goes back to question 2 above... usage and quality vs cosmetics?

For the record I love samson products, and scott is a stand up guy. but they dont always make the most sense for the given situation.

[wired1236]

here is my take.. and I could be bloodied for saying this. But it all comes back to this for me. and you have to be thinking this.. is 4k for a samson worth it? and to me that depends. and it all depends on a few things. 1. price of tower compared to price of boat? 4k tower on a 10k boat? how much sense does that make? 2. How long are you going to keep the boat? 10 years - 2 years? long term then yes.. short term.. probably not. 3. are you a super hard core wakeboarder? since after all your only supposed to be wakeboarding off of it right, tubing and sking off the pylon.. lol. (not what i see but in theory)

In the end it all comes back to what makes sense to you, if you ask me. not what anyone here thinks. I guess if quality is the issue, it comes back to price verse benefit, how many arial towers can you get for a samson if one goes bad? but then again to me that goes back to question 2 above... usage and quality vs cosmetics?

For the record I love samson products, and scott is a stand up guy. but they dont always make the most sense for the given situation.

I dido this. I have had both. A "cheaper" DIY tower outfitted for around $1,500 and now have a Samson Tower (came with the boat but obviously retails much higher). DIY was on a cheaper $15k boat. Samson is on my 20v which is valued roughly double that.

I had great luck with my DIY and loved the look as it's much like the Aerial tower and probably made in the same factory. I got lots of compliments on it, actually more than my Samson but I love the Samson much more. I think the DIY just made the cheaper runabout look that much better. Everyone expects it on a wakeboard boat.

[laserfish]

I have a Samson and love it, but I would not put it on a 10K boat that I was only going to keep a few years. Better off with an ariel or monster for the money IMO. Keep the balance and put in a good stereo or ballast.

[chpthril]

Monster may not be the best looks, but they are a solid tower, good value and good company. Check with your local boat dealers, many will be signed up as Monster dealers.

[IDBoating]

Take a look at Joystick Towers...

I installed one on my last boat after considering lots of alternatives, including Monster, Samson, and many many others. The tower was under $1K delivered to my door and I LOVED it. It's still on my previous boat (sold it to a friend/neighbor), I see it every day we're on the lake, and my friend also absolutely loves it. Solid, silent, strong, GREAT looks, available in a wide range of powdercoated colors. And standard, readily available accessories mount to its 2.5 inch tubing so you can put anything you want up there from any manufacturer.

Here's a link to their Pro Series tower, which I used:

http://www.joystickpylons.com/towers_pro.htm

...here's a link to my writeup on its installation, with lots of photos:

http://articles.richardhartman.net/tower/tower.htm

...and here's a photo of the finished product on my boat:



No affiliation except as a delighted customer. My highest possible recommendation.

[dreamintige']

I third what the previous poster said in regards to cost, length of ownership, value of boat. However I will say this, as a service/parts manager for a dealership I have had a couple terrible experiences in the way of timely delivery and then customer service with Aerial. Enough so that I am not sure I will continue to do business with them. There are a lot of other options available, and one I am considering taking on is Skylon. We currently do business with Samson and absolutely love the product they put out. For those attending the Minneapolis Boat Show this season, we will be showing what we think is going to be an AWESOME looking boat featuring Samson and Wet Sounds.

[halfwatt]

I personally chose to go with a Hydrowake on my last boat, mainly because I didn't want to invest a large sum of money on a boat I knew I was only holding on to for a few years. I can definitely say it was to built for the money I had spent on it- the tower creaked alot in choppy water, the black powder coat was very thin and faded a lot the first year even though I kept it waxed and covered when not in use. The raising and lowering was time consuming and took both me and my wife to fold. Did it work, yes. It simply had a lot of flex (which I really didn't like). It also caused a lot of frustration each time I walked out to it and saw another chip in the powder coat and faded color.

I have a buddy who has a Joystick and loves it. It's well built and has worked well for 5+ years. It still looks brand new and it's also powder coated black. As far as I know he has had no issues. He also added board racks and it holds solid.

I had always heard about the build quality of Samson and checked them out at boat shows here in the PNW, and they seemed to be very well built with great customer service. I now have one on our current boat, and the first time in, both my wife and I were amazed at how rigid it rode and quiet. Would I put it on a 10k boat- yes. After owning one, the build quality is awesome and rock solid. Mine also has the integrated board racks and since I typically load it with 3 boards, I know it's designed to carry that additional weight.

Just my

[bmoorewiz]

Alpha Z is my favorite tower!

[IDBoating]

Alpha Z is my favorite tower!

The Alpha Z looks wonderful, is extremely solid, folds conveniently, etc. It's a great product. However, it shares one huge failing with all of the other "exotic" towers out there: It requires unique accessories. It would not have been difficult to make a couple of the sections with a 2.5 inch round profile, enabling them to accept industry-standard accessories. Instead, we're limited to the few choices that have been made for that specific tower.

I'm particularly sensitive to this because one of my rack mounting holes is slightly off center. This makes mounting the wakeboard rack very difficult and it doesn't get as much thread engagement as it should (I had to use a shorter bolt so it would snug down). If we were mounting standard 2.5 inch accessories, alignment would be a non-issue.

So, in addition to making it impossible to use industry standard accessories, we're also hyper-sensitive to manufacturing variances. A lose-lose situation.

Sure is pretty, though!

[whiteflash watersports]

We had a monster tower on our SeaRay 185 before trading up to our boat. The Alpha Z rules!! But for an aftermarket product Monster is awesome - great tower, easy to fold with one person, racks with quick disconnects, etc etc. We had for 5 years and loved it. Never ratlled or creaked, never caused any spider cracking even though we towed 3 skiers/wakeboarders at a time and tubed from it on regular basis. Not to mention my wife and I installed in 4 hours. Excellent customer service as well. They also have all the accesorioers you would need.

[kko]

If it where me I would go with the monster. They have a few to choose from. I dont think they look to bad. I have installed quit a few of them and they all turned out great. They are great to work with and are always there to help.

[chpthril]

WA,

Have you been to a boat show in the past 3 years? Hardly any manufacturer is building what you call an industry standard tower. As mention, Tige, but also Malibu, Mastercraft, Correct Craft, Supra/Moomba offers Malibu's old Illusion, Centurion offers a composite tower called the Gladiator, Ski Supreme also offers the old Illusion, and Axis They all require an attachment method other then a traditional round clamp.

[What she said]

MONSTER!

[IDBoating]

Hardly any manufacturer is building what you call an industry standard tower. They all require an attachment method other then a traditional round clamp.

Doesn't mean they couldn't do it. And trust me, I understand why they don't: They want to control the accessories business and keep it to themselves. Thing is, open standards almost always win over proprietary.

As the ultimate example consider the PC vs. Mac marketplace. IBM's hardware offering was so open that they actually published the source code for the BIOS firmware in the Technical Reference manual. Meanwhile, Apple kept their hardware and firmware a proprietary trade secret. I'm first in line to say that Apple makes a great product, but what do they have - 10% of the market? Meanwhile the PC standard has evolved and changed yet continues to rule the roost with a 10:1 advantage in market share.

There are examples of standards in this industry. Wakeboards and bindings don't HAVE to be interchangable across manufacturers, yet they are. Anybody want to be locked into just those bindings offered by the board maker? Me, neither.

I know what you're saying is true today, but it doesn't have to be that way.