Tower bolts sheared off

[Eastern shore wake]

I have a 2004 22V with the Tige tower on it. We only use the tower for wakeboarding. When we tube we do it using the stern tow eyes. There are two bolts securing the rear section of the tower on each side. Last week one of the bolts sheared off and then (we stayed out there...too beautiful a day) an hour later the other bolt sheared off as well (I am sure due to the added stress). So, one side of my tower is no longer attached. Anyway, a couple of buddies of mine looked at it and said the stainless bolts seeemd to be pretty low quality. They recommended that i have the bolts on the other side replaced as well to prevent from happening in future. I have it up at a marine shop for repair which I am sure won't be cheap. Anybody else experience this? Did you replace all other bolts? We really have been careful not to put too much stress on it so not sure why it happened. Am concerned about it happening on other side down the road and would welcome any input from others who have had this happen.

thanks!!!

[Eastern shore wake]

One more thing - Adding insult to injury!

Meant to also say that after the bolts sheared off, the tower put a nice little ding in my gel coat (about 1/4 inch...right next to tower) as it was banging around unattached. Does anybody have good instructions for repairing gel coat? Small ding but would like to repair it.

thanks!!!

[rushin]

an hour later the other bolt sheared off as

Did you continue to use the tower? If so that's why the other bolt broke.

I never heard of this. I would for sure replace the bolts on the other side.

[dogbert]

I recently had to replace the bolts on my Monster Tower because they were rusting out. Monster replaced them for free and explained that about 2 years ago, one of their suppliers gave them stainless hardware that was contaminated so it would begin to rust after a while. Perhaps they came from the same supplier. The bad part is that you don't know until months or years afterwards.

I'd take it back to the dealer and see if you can work with them. If that doesn't work, contact Andrew and see if he will work with you.

[spharis]

A small gelcoat scratch like that is not hard to repair if it is black or white. Color is hard to match, or it is for me anyway. i have patched a few white spots on my boat, only a couple can be seen if you know where to look.

[mneal]

I dunno what alloy stainless Tige uses in their hardware and there are literally over a dozen types or alloys of stainless, with different material properties. What the Monster tower guy was probably saying is they got a batch of stainless bolts that were not passivated properly. Machining operations put traces of ferric metal on the surface of the stainless during manufacturing and it is very common for the hardware to be passivated. Passivasion is a acid bath that removes the very top layer of the SS and thus eliminating the ferric oxide (rusting). Although very unsightly the surface rust has no effect on the strength of the hardware. Do you have any high resolution pictures of the sheared bolts? I would be curious to what the failure mode was (defect, fatigue etc. ) and a good picture of the failure might help solve the riddle.

[dogbert]

No, actually he told me that it was not really stainless and had some other metal in it that wasn't supposed to be there. It rusted pretty bad and not just on the surface.

[Eastern shore wake]

Thanks for the responses so far. As it is in the shop for repairs cannot get a picture of the bolt. I did not see any visible rust although outside of the bolt had a slightly chalky white look. Since I posted yesterday i called Andrew at Tige who also mentioned that if bolts were loose it may have created stress enough to shear. He confirmed that bolts screw into an aluminum plate without actual nut on the other side. He recommended putting them all the way through and them put a nut on other side of the plate as well.

As for gelcoat, when i spoke to Andrew he said i would have to buy it by the quart or gallon from Spectrum which will cost a ton of money. Disappointing. When I had a Four Winns they used to sell small bottles to repair dings like this. Anyway, it is white. Does anybody know where i can get a small quantity of this?

Thanks!!

[dogbert]

Talk to your dealer. They have to buy that stuff all the time. If they can batch up some other work, the cost would get split among the different parties.

[Paublo]

Check on Spectrum's web site or call them. Two years ago they sold a small touch-up kit for about $20. It contains a little gelcoat and some hardener. I helped my son-in-law fix a '96 Ski Nautique that he bought. I got the original gelcoat color # from Correct Craft and ordered two of the small kits for the two colors to be repaired. I read up on the internet on how to do it. I fixed several gashes and a scraped nose to where you can't tell it was ever damaged. My biggest suggestion is don't put on too much gelcoat. And then sand it down very carefully and with progressively finer paper. Finish with some rubbing compound and then wax and I promise that you'll be the only one who knows it was ever any different. For the problem you have you could fix your boat 6 times for the amount of getcoat in the small kit. Or as it was mentioned, maybe your dealer has some you could buy off of him.

[Eastern shore wake]

Paublo, thanks so much. I just went on Spectrum's web site and they had a small repair kit for the Tige white for $19.00 which I bought. Not sure why Andrew at Tige wouldn't have known that. Anyway, thanks as it looks like the tower repair is going to pretty expensive. Probably end up being 5 or 6 hours of labor to get bolts out and redo. At the dealers labor rates it is going to be a $500 to $600 job. So, $20 for the gel cost is very nice....

[kko]

have you ever checked to make sure the bolts were tight. you should check them every so often. and as for using it after the one bolt broke you really dont want to hear my opinion on that!! just be thankful nobody got hurt!!! sorry to be harsh but someone could have been seriously injured or worse.

[mneal]

I dunno what size the bolts are but I can't believe the bolts are anywhere close to the shear load rating. That leaves either a HUGE defect or a fatigue issue. I am betting on the latter . A good picture of the broken bolt would should the grain of the failure and maybe I can tell how it failed. (in person I could for sure, the failure modes look different)

[talltigeguy]

Do you have the same tower as I do?

[Wake Bandits]

http://www.gowelding.com/met/austenitic.html
Ya want 308 austenic stainless in wet applications, if ya can find it.