Illusion Tower Help - Kill Myself

[LouisburgBluesMan]

Okay foks, I've just spent the last two weekends trying to put my 1st generation Illusion tower back together. These are rare, so I really don't expect anyone to be able to help, but has ANYONE taken one apart before and tried to get it back together? I took off the board racks to have them replaced/refinished. You unbolt 4 bolts in each rack, then spread the legs apart and remove the rack base off 4 tabs welded to the tower tubes. You would think to get them back together would mean simply spreading the tubes again, put the base in there, and replace the bolts. However, it appears as if the tubes were "under load" when the bases are mounted? Is that possible?

NO amount of whacking, pushing, tie-down squeezing, etc. will get the plates in line with the tabs. And if they WERE in line, the mounting points for the tower to hull would be off by about 3/4". I've got 15 hours at least into trying to get the tower back together. I think I may have even ruined the darn thing.

Has anyone taken on of these apart before? HELP! I have no idea what to do from here short of buying a new tower and I love how this one looks on the boat. (Why, oh why, did i think the chrome needed refinishing?)

Please help. I'm at wits end. So depressing... I'm actually wondering if I need to cut the top metal sheeting that holds the two tubes together, bolt up the racks, then re-weld.

Tower off boat... Before wakeboard base removed..."under load?" (i.e. the bolts line up with the holes)

Before the nightmare began... for reference purposes...

[Molarbu]

Oh man I wish I could help! You've come to the right place though, someone will hook you up!

[martinarcher]

So you can't get the racks back in or can't get the tower back on the bases on the boat?

BTW - that is one of the coolest towers I've seen. Don't see many 1st gen Illusion - very cool.

[NorCaliBu]

And if they WERE in line, the mounting points for the tower to hull would be off by about 3/4".

They have to fit. When you took them off did anything "recoil" as if you releasing tension?

I would get those plates back in there (spreading the tower tubes), leaving all of the hardware loose for as much wiggle room as possible and then fit it back to the bases. Your estimate that the legs would be 3/4" off may be erroneous. Forcing the tubes apart at the ends to get adjustment in the middle doesn't mean the ends will stay "spread" once you release the tension it takes to spread the tabs.

Good luck. Where are you located?

EDIT: Never mind on the location. LouisburgBluesMan is probably in Louisburg, NC. No?

Edited June 20, 2011 by NorCaliBu

[Chia]

have you tried with the tower at a different angle, it looks like you are working on it in the full down position. Attach the tower to the boat and then try lifting it some to find the right angle where the racks will attach easily.

looks like you have the best kept property on the block btw. It is not everyday you see 2 weed whackers and 2 blowers in one garage.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Cervelo

[TheHardWay]

Man this one has me stumped. I have the same tower, but have yet to try taking it apart.

Can you get any pictures of trying to piece it back together? I'd like to see in what direction the holes aren't lining up.

Has the heim joint bolt in the base of the tower moved at all? Even if they didn't move, perhaps you can use a combination of moving the four heim bolts in or out to shift the tower forward, backward, left, or right.....depending on the direction you need to go. In this case I would get the rack into place on the tower, start the bolts, and then adjust accordingly.

Here is a photo from my boat to show you what I am talking about.

Secondly, as Cervelo stated, maybe try mounting the tower on the boat first. Start the bolts, but don't snug them up. See if you can get the rack in place and start the rack screws too. If you have to, it may be possible to push up and/or pull down on the tower where it spans the boat from side to side. Having it bolted to the bases may give you enough leverage to flex the tubes to where everything lines up. Of course you will need two people to do this.

[TheHardWay]

Just another thought....

I noticed our bases are mounted differently. Your bases have the bolt going towards the boat from the outside, where as mine are the opposite...Starting from inside the boat, and threading away from it. Is it possible that you took the bases off to get refinished, and you put them on backwards from the way they were when you re-installed them?

[TheHardWay]

Alright, so I will put my foot in my mouth, I was right and wrong

Upon closer inspection of my tower bases, I found that the front bases are mounted different than yours, but the rear ones are mounted the same.

See the pictures below. (they are kind of hard to distinguish, but I think you will see what I am talking about.) Coming back to my previous post, could it be that you didn't mount the bases the exact same way?

[LouisburgBluesMan]

looks like you have the best kept property on the block btw. It is not everyday you see 2 weed whackers and 2 blowers in one garage.

Doesn't mean the get used...

Thanks for all the suggestions. The tower is mounted on the boat at this time. That's how I know the legs won't fit when the racks are installed... which makes no sense. I had the racks "close" (about 1/8" off holes) when I last put it on the boat (it's on there now), and the legs had to be spread to get them to the mounting points, thus causing the racks to become more mis-aligned again. As it stands, the two tubes have to be "squeezed" closer together.

[LouisburgBluesMan]

Red:

The picture shows them both to the outside, which was taken before I started the work. I didn't move those eye bolts at all, they're in the same spot as when I started. I didn't want to move them so I could keep as many constants as possible. (It is weird that you have one turned in and one turned out.) I can tell you that when I do mount up the tower (w/out bases fully bolted up), the 4 eye bolts line up perfectly... less than 1/8 "push" on the front of the tower needed by the person holding it up.

Here's what is really odd, even not mounted (i.e. on the floor of my basement), I can't get the board base holes to align. They're that far off. It's as if the two archs aren't aligned. I've hammered (rubber mallet), torgued (ratching straps), and cursed. When attached to the boat, front mounts only, it's the same story. So I've tried a) off the boat, b) fronts only and c) all 4 mounted... no joy. It's as if the tower needs to be pulled "forward" at the top (tow rope spot) to decrease the distance between the mounting tabs. It makes sense they would be "under load" because that would create a stiffer tower. But what confuses me is how that could be part of the manufacturing process.

[Bill_AirJunky]

So any chance you have the two side X brackets reversed?

[jk13]

Red:

It's as if the tower needs to be pulled "forward" at the top (tow rope spot) to decrease the distance between the mounting tabs. It makes sense they would be "under load" because that would create a stiffer tower.

Have you tried bolting it to the boat and using a ratchet strap from the tow point around the bow to pull it forward? Like a Fly-high pole. Just make sure to go through the bow eye and if you don't have a nice soft strap, use a towel or something on the rub rail and gel coat.

Or have someone pull down on it to see if that's enough.

Good luck.

Edited June 20, 2011 by jk13

[LouisburgBluesMan]

So any chance you have the two side X brackets reversed?

Done the measuring and sure seems like the two X bases are identical. They're off by the same amount, and in the same direction as each other. It's not like one has holes high and the other low.

Re: pulling down/forward... that's our next approach I guess... I think we want forward more than down, so might attach a long strap to a spot on a basketball pole or truck or something...

[TheHardWay]

Re: pulling down/forward... that's our next approach I guess... I think we want forward more than down, so might attach a long strap to a spot on a basketball pole or truck or something...

This sounds like your best bet. I'd use a tow strap with a slip knot and a clevis over a ratchet strap. I know a guy who lost his front when trying to winch with a ratchet strap.

Out of curiosity (maybe I missed it in a previous post) but did the tower spring apart when you dismantled it? It does seem logical that they would build the tower under some tension in order to make it more rigid for better structural integrity.

[Chia]

Done the measuring and sure seems like the two X bases are identical. They're off by the same amount, and in the same direction as each other. It's not like one has holes high and the other low.

Re: pulling down/forward... that's our next approach I guess... I think we want forward more than down, so might attach a long strap to a spot on a basketball pole or truck or something...

good idea, what could possibly go wrong trying that.

If it is going to take a lot of pressure to get the plate to line up, that will put a lot of strain on those bolts, you will want to keep an eye on them moving forward.

Has your dealer suggested any options?

[LouisburgBluesMan]

... did the tower spring apart when you dismantled it? It does seem logical that they would build the tower under some tension in order to make it more rigid for better structural integrity.

It's hard to know for sure if it "sprang apart" but seemed to a little. The bolts were heck to get out, had to pound them out with a mallet so clearly the holes were aligned under tension. Not sure if that was caused by 8 years of using the tower or original tube tension. IF there was tension at manufacture, how in the world did they load that tension?

I talked to Bret at StarOne just now. He seems to know about the history of the tower somewhat. The tower was clearly manufactured independantly from the boat and then shipped down to Merced for mounting. He wasn't sure on whether or not the side billets were mounted before or after they mounted up the tower on the boat. He also thinks my tower has to be one of the first 10 (trial run) towers out the door based on the size of my side billets. They're slightly smaller than the replacement ones he sent out to me which they had some "New Old Stock" still sitting in the warehouse shelves. It's no wonder this design lasted only a short time. Looks awesome... but man...

[ski_500]

Blues Man,

I don't know if you got this resolved yet. I have the same tower and I have removed the board-rack bases a couple of times to polish them up. Each time I removed the rear tower bolts and pivoted it forward on the front mounts. Then I pulled to bases (x-braces) out for cleaning. Putting it back together required compression to get the holes to line up. Once I got the braces back in, the rear legs lined up OK with the mounts on the gunnel.

I hope this helps.