Where do you put your rope?

[Original Wing Nut]

I like it from the tower, my boy likes it from the pylon. Where do you guys have the rope?

[TeamAllen]

I use the center pylon for skiing. The tower for boarding. That brings me to a question I was just going to post. Is there a problem with using the tower to ski from or to use for tubes? I use it to do all of those things. Anybody know? Good question OWN!

[holiday13]

We use the tower for wakeboarding (naturally) and surfing, and to teach people to ski (makes teaching easier). But for slalom and tube we use the pylon only. I think the tube putts too much stress on the tower, but I could be wrong. We have tubed off my buddy's tower and I think it is harder to get big air off the tower

[Tequilasun]

tower for Wakeboarding, wakeskating, possibly skiing
pylon for tubing, kneeboarding, wakesurfing, slalom

[TeamAllen]

I would think you want the tower for kneeboarding for the same reasons as the wakeboarding.

[malarson]

I use the tower for wakeboarding, pylon for slolom and the tow hook for tubing. which brings up a question. is there anything wrong with putting the tubing rope on the tow ring at the back of the boat? Do you think that puts too much strain on it.

[David]

We tie the wakesurf rope from the tower, as well as the wakeboard rope. It's all we do at the lake, so when we change activities, we just take the velcro thing off and change the rope quickly and easily.

[NICKYPOO]

We board, skate and tube from the tower. Ski from the pylon. Surf from the tow hook. The reason we surf from the tow hook is for easy access to the rope after it has been thrown back into the boat. Me and the wife spend quite a bit of time by ourselves out on the water (90% of our friends are in sales which means they work weekends), so we don't have an observer. Yeah I know, don't try it at home kids. With it being on the tow hook it is easy to pull the rope back out of the boat. You only need the rope for getting up anyways so there is not alot of benifit to it being on the tower. So far as the rest of the board sports, you need to tow from the tower to "get air". If the rope is up high (from the tower), it is going to pull you up. If it is down low (from the pylon), it is going to pull you down. This goes for tubes too. Basic physics friends.

[dogbert]

Tower: wakesurfing, skim skating, wakeboarding, kneeboarding
Pylon: tubing, skiing

If we're doing more than one wakeboarder or kneeboarder, we'll have one on the tower and one from the pylon.

[TeamAllen]

I like the idea of spliting the ropes up when you have multiple riders. I'm still unsure if the tubes put too much strain on the tower?

[dogbert]

Well, in talking to the guys at Monster (that's the tower I have on my boat), they recommend against it. I can see why. A tube puts about as much torque as a skier. I've also had situations where the front of the tube submerges and the boat comes to a grinding halt. I don't even want to think about what would happen if I was in a turn and it started to pull the boat over sideways.

[TeamAllen]

I've never had a tube submerge. Maybe because I have been using the tower, it keeps the nose of the tube up and out of the water. I have also used it to pull skiers with. I'm not sure the center ski pylon is any stronger than the tower. The center ski pylon is held in by a couple of u-clamps. Except for your extra heavy duty one you had installed in your boat. I think delongheavyhaul had the best solution with that airhead pulley rope attached to the back of the boat eye rings.in this post

[dogbert]

I have seen tubes submerge attached to a tower. If you look at where the tower is attached, there's not a lot of reinforcement. I would just hate to see it break loose and decapitate everyone behind the driver.

My pylon mount actually came with my boat. It's one of the 1st v-drives Tige made. My guess is the cost control weenies have since figured out how to save a few pennies...

In your case, I'd say don't use the pylon if you're doing more than one. You can use some of those quick-release clips the climbers use to make it easy to attach and detach the rope. I used to do that when tubed or skied the kids behind our jetski.

[delongheavyhaul]

i do tow the tube from the back. and trust me, we still get plenty of air! don't need to thrash your tower for that. the pulley works really good. because it goes back and forth along the rope, it makes the pull equal from both eye rings. so you dont feel the pull from the tube when it is on the outside of the wake. it is like the tube is behind you the whole time.