Board Racks Coming Loose

[Guapo]

Just currious if anyone else is having problems with their board racks (on the Alpha-Z tower) coming loose? About a month ago, I was taking my boat to my dealer (over an hour away). Something caught my eye in my side mirror...turned out to be my port side board rack flying through the air and crashing into the median

I turned around and found it all torn up...but somewhat usuable. Since I was on my way to get the boat serviced and have a few warranty things taken care of, I added it to the list. He's taking care of it...no problems.

HOWEVER, I have been on the lake three days since I got the boat back and both board racks are loose. I have now bought an allen wrench to keep in the boat and will make checking their tightness part of my pre-launch and pre-tow routine. I am also planning using some locktite. Anyone else have theirs come loose or is this just me?

[da.bell]

Blue Locktit needs to be applied to the screws before the racks are mounted.

I've had my 07 racks come lose and used the Locktit.

Just make sure you don't use the red stuff... You won't be able to remove it afterwards

[chpthril]

Definitely add Loc-Tite

[dingleberry]

My starboard side rack loosened up a couple of times and has been just tightened. I guess if it happens again, I'll remove it and reinstall with loctite.

[kerlee]

same thing happened to my starboard racks
also occasionally check the mounting brackets for your bimini as one screw rattled loose on mine, then the remaining screw sheered off ended up using an easy out to get the screw left in the tower.

kerlee

[Guapo]

Let me know if i need to start another thread but this is board wrack related.

Do you guys know if you can get another set of the "fingers" for these racks that are a bit wider (to fit my surfboards better)?

[Duncan]

My board rack became very loose ... but only after I ran it into the upright of the slip. Ripped an aluminum finger off the port side (empty) rack. Destroyed a board and wobbled the starboard rack -- the aluminum threads in the tower were almost all ripped out. Dealer (State-a-Mind, woo hoo!!) fixed with a helicoil.

Btw, the threads on the board rack had the permanent red-type loc-tite (installed by Tige).

I have not found surf-compatible aluminum fingers for the stock rack. I heard rumors that there was a wake compatible finger being developed but I got tired of waiting. I ordered a Samson wake/surf rack . Have not installed yet.

For anyone deciding between ordering a stock board rack or the Samson rack for the Alpha-Z tower, I strongly recommend the Samson rack. The stock rack is difficult to swing in one handed (requires button push with one hand and pull with another).

I too have had problems with bimini mount screws coming loose. I now check periodically.

Another screw that periodically loosens in the small one at the back of the throttle -- I keep a little allen wrench close to keep it tight.

[Guapo]

My dealer is still waiting on the replacement board rack for me for the port side rack that flew off. I have a call into him to see if he will consider going with the samson rack. It's a warranty thing, so I'm not counting on it...but it's worth asking.

[jmhatchett]

I know this is old but i have new news on the subject...

I had the same problem as guapo with the board racks rattling loose, I had one so loose as I was doing the pre-tow check on everything and it was so loose that i didnt even need the allen wrench to take it off the tower. I looked at putting it back on then tow home but I noticed that the hole was stripped because the bolt had rattled all the grooves away. I dont know how it happened really, but it did. I took the boat to the dealer and he worked hard to find the problem; after talking with Tige and the tower manufacturer, it was decided that the bolts were severely too short. They looked at a few other bolts and towers and sid that a few of them were made too short.

I just wanted to add my experience.

[da.bell]

Well, apparently Tige is on a 3 year revolving problem. The last time they had the screws being too short was the 2006 Wake Design racks.

At least the picked it up under warranty and I truly hope that Tige sends out postcards advising the 2009 owners that there is an issue that their dealer can take care of.

[jmhatchett]

Thats a great suggestion and i hope that they consider notifying the customers, but yes they handled everything great.

[Duncan]

I smacked my stock wakeboard rack on a slip upright and that was enough to strip all the threads and wobble the rack. I have heard that a similar impact with a Samson rack did not budge the rack. Perhaps the thread stripping on the stock rack was due at least in part to short bolts?

[jmhatchett]

That would be my best guess because i had not done anything, never hit anything-hung on them-put anything other than boards on them-only used them as they were designed and it just rattled loose one weekend on a very bumpy lake that i usually don't go to. So im sure that the problems people are seeing with these 09 bolts and racks coming loose is due entirely to the short bolts.

[MoneyPity]

I had to loosen some of the pivot point bolts to allow my Sampson Razor Tower easier to raise and lower.

What Sampson suggested is to remove the pivot bolts and add a stainless steel washer and tighten up the bolt until the lock washer was flatend.

Unfortunately you cannot see the lock washer flaten so I measured the amount of torq that was needed to flaten a lock washer and used this value when I removed stock bolts and added a lock washer and applied red loctite on all bolts removed.

Now the tower comes down easily even with having to jockey the ski rack out of the way of the drivers seat and other uphosterterly I noticed a significant change when I raise the tower it is easier to get up.

A thumbs up to Sampson in suggesting a good solution. It turned out that all of the pivot bolts were over tightend when I had the tower installed by my dealer. Now it is good to go

[da.bell]

I had to loosen some of the pivot point bolts to allow my Sampson Razor Tower easier to raise and lower.

What Sampson suggested is to remove the pivot bolts and add a stainless steel washer and tighten up the bolt until the lock washer was flatend.

Unfortunately you cannot see the lock washer flaten so I measured the amount of torq that was needed to flaten a lock washer and used this value when I removed stock bolts and added a lock washer and applied red loctite on all bolts removed.

Now the tower comes down easily even with having to jockey the ski rack out of the way of the drivers seat and other uphosterterly I noticed a significant change when I raise the tower it is easier to get up.

A thumbs up to Sampson in suggesting a good solution. It turned out that all of the pivot bolts were over tightend when I had the tower installed by my dealer. Now it is good to go

Hope you don't want to keep your take that off anytime soon. It is going to be a biatch when you need to.. IMO, you should have used Blue Loctite.