Trouble with TurboSwing

[Littlehoe]

Well been doing lots of tubing with the TurboSwing and it has been working great. We haven't been anywhere near the max weight for the XXL turboswing but I noticed both brackets had bent. We pull a 3 person tube with 3 smaller kids on it, and as we all know the pontoon doesn't make any kind of big wake to be hitting with the tube. I set the pre trim level as per instructions but it appears that the pull from the tube has caused the trim bolts to twist and bend the brackets. I am going to talk to my dealer tomorrow about this and see what they say. I don't require the trim part of the system because I went with the bigger turboswing so if I get new brackets they will get a solid bolt with washers, and if they don't warranty it I will just do the same and hope I can squeeze the brackets back to straight.

[PlaynDoc]

holy crap! as much as those things cost, you'd think they were strong enough to pull oak tree stumps out of georgia red clay!

[rancherlee]

I honestly don't see how those turbo swings hold up to big tubes with only 2 mounting points and no triangulation for strength. Nice idea, and I see quite a few being used but have a large tube submerge on you and that's 5000+ pounds of force pulling on that swing. I've had a 4 person tube submerge on me and it literally had enough force to lift the nose of the pontoon in the air as my home built tow bar pulls from above the engine.

[evinrude2stroke]

Cool, I haven't seen this before. I don't have a tow bar on mine and the line dragging in the water ends up being an annoyance. Other than the bending of the brackets... How do you like it? Is it high enough to keep the line out of the water?

[ron nh]

How the hell did the 2 outside bolts move with the inside bolts staying strong.

[Littlehoe]

The design of it is so that it tilts up when you trim your engine all the way up. The proper sized turbo swing will actually rest on the leg when the engine is at full tilt up. So the outer bolts where the bracket bent actually only go into a spacer type thing that just sits inside a groove on the inner brackets. After much research and discussion with my dealership when I first purchased the turbo swing I went with the next size up from what was recommended. Now my engine can tilt up without touching the turbo swing at all. So after a quick trip to my dealership they exchanged my bent brackets for new ones and this time I am going to install a full bolt with washers and a nut on the other end to securely lock the turbo swing into the position I want it. I don't need the trim aspect of it and that should add the support to the brackets to prevent this from happening again.

All I know is I love my dealership, they have gone above and beyond so many times for me it is amazing...

[wrd1972]

I'm not a mechanical engineer but I do a lot of mechanical engineering for a living and as a hobby. No way I would trust that thing...especially the brackets.

[Littlehoe]

Well after adding in my solid bolts with washers and nuts instead of those silly adjuster things it worked much better. We pulled kids on the big tube for probably 8 solid hours over the weekend and the brackets still look straight. It still isn't quite at the height I want it to be yet but this fall once the boat is out of the water I will make some more adjustments too it.

[singard325]

I know this is an old post, but I just had a similar problem with the turboswing bar and bracket bending. When I contacted Turboswing and sent them the pictures, they noticed that the tubes that the bar goes into were installed upside down just like the ones in your picture. The curved end is supposed to be on the bottom. I believe the issue is that when it is installed upside down, it sticks up from the bracket on the boat and creates a moment arm for the forces of pulling someone on tubes to bend the bracket and bar.

See page 4 from the manual:

https://turboswing.com/pub/media/turbos ... ctions.pdf

They also gave this advice:
We do not hear that the bar bends often. As far as the brackets, this could have been caused by improper installation or an extremely hard pull to the tow bar. To prevent this from happening to you again, we have a couple of suggestions.
Please make sure the grooved nuts are properly seated into the tube holder during installation. You can even tighten groove nuts before attaching to the motor mounts, please see attached drawing. A loose or improperly seated grooved nut could cause the bracket to malfunction. The TurboSwing is very strong, but not indestructible. Please make sure your tube is properly inflated so it will glide across the top of the water. If the tube starts to dive under water, throttle down immediately. Please ask kids and other riders to lean back when taking off. Gradually slow the boat to prevent the nose dive of the tube. If slack develops in rope during a whip, please throttle down immediately. Basically, try your best to keep the tube on top of the water with a taut, tightly drawn rope at all times. If the tube goes under and you continue to pull, it can put thousands of pounds of pressure on the product and the brackets will bend. Inevitably, something has to give.
Most common cause for the brackets/bar to fail is an extremely hard pull.

[jlh3rd]

I purchased a turbo swing about 3 years ago. It's on a 24' pontoon with a 115hp CT motor. I can and have pulled two tubes at one time with 3 teens on one tube and 2 teens in the other. I have had no problems.
I can tilt the motor up fully and the bar moves up with it.