tube pulling
Moderators: Redneck_Randy, badmoonrising, lakerunner
Re: tube pulling
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'07 22 ft SunTracker Regency 135hp i/o
'02 Dodge 2500, Edge Juice w/Attitude
Colorado Springs, CO.



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'07 22 ft SunTracker Regency 135hp i/o
'02 Dodge 2500, Edge Juice w/Attitude
Colorado Springs, CO.
Re: tube pulling
our toon has U bolts on each side of the transom, we were told to use those for towing a tube, not the ski tow bar. The ski bar specifically says not to tow anything other than a skier or wakeboarder due to the stresses tubes can put on it.
2010 25' Premier Escapade with PTX
200hp Mercury Verado
200hp Mercury Verado
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Re: tube pulling
jimrs wrote:If you don't have any place to pull from, try pushing the tube.
or maybe tie it to the tap fins

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Re: tube pulling
rsmith wrote:our toon has U bolts on each side of the transom, we were told to use those for towing a tube, not the ski tow bar. The ski bar specifically says not to tow anything other than a skier or wakeboarder due to the stresses tubes can put on it.
i keep reading that all over the place. i'm looking for the hard engineering data on it.
i doubt that a tube puts more strain than a big guy digging hard while slaloming.
shouldn't be hard to design a ski/wake pylon stronger than the tow rope.
i'm actually in that process.
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Re: tube pulling
found that ski ropes are made to take steady loads, towable ropes are made to take
shock loading when the tube line goes completely slack and then quickly taught again.
so for skiing/wakeboarding, it sounds like the bar/pylon/tower is designed to overload
standards, while for towables the criteria are impact and fatigue limits.
also came across some limits for tube rope strengths, like 3,500 lb for 1 to 3 people
and 6,000 lb for 6 people, supposedly from the water sports industry association.
i have no idea if those are accurate, because the wsia website sucks.
good wakeboard ropes are 2,000 to 4,000 lb, so not that different in load magnitude,
but it sounds like it's the pounding loads causing metal fatigue concerns.
btw, some ski pylons are rated at 500 lb, which seems ridiculously low given the
above values. also, it's obviously very important to look at how those loads will
ground through the boat structure to the supporting water.
shock loading when the tube line goes completely slack and then quickly taught again.
so for skiing/wakeboarding, it sounds like the bar/pylon/tower is designed to overload
standards, while for towables the criteria are impact and fatigue limits.
also came across some limits for tube rope strengths, like 3,500 lb for 1 to 3 people
and 6,000 lb for 6 people, supposedly from the water sports industry association.
i have no idea if those are accurate, because the wsia website sucks.
good wakeboard ropes are 2,000 to 4,000 lb, so not that different in load magnitude,
but it sounds like it's the pounding loads causing metal fatigue concerns.
btw, some ski pylons are rated at 500 lb, which seems ridiculously low given the
above values. also, it's obviously very important to look at how those loads will
ground through the boat structure to the supporting water.