Location of rear neat cleats?

[yabetcha]

Are people still having dealers install the rear set of neat cleats on top of the deck on v-drives due to the factory location just above the rubrail being too low? I remember reading a thread in the past about this, but curious if others have had problems with the rear cleat location being too low.

[WakeGirl]

Well....we asked them to not install our cleats at the factory for 2 reasons. 1) We wanted them mounted as high up on the boat as possible & 2) we wanted the rear ones mounted up on top of the deck rather than on the side. They mounted them at the factory anyway. If you can get them to let your dealer do it, I'd definitely go that way, but don't count on them slowing down enough on the production line to remember to not do it.

[Pistol Pete]

On the top is the only way to go.

I could never understand why you would mount them on the side.

[chadellt85]

I would also have to recommend putting the cleats on the top deck on the rear. When I picked up my buddies VLX after putting the pop up cleats on, i knew there were going to be stress cracks soon. and sure enough, they appeared a short time after. Because of the roundness of the mounting location, the stress was not spread out. This was mainly caused by poor installation at my "favorite" dealer in wilsonville.

they claimed that the cleats were not meant to have a load on them, they were intended for bumpers only. Not to tie up with....the only thing my friend could do was laugh.

[WakeGirl]

There are enough other places to tie off to on the boat that we only use them for fenders, but they are in the ideal locations for that. I believe the reason that they put them on the side is for ease of installation - there is a bunch of wiring up underneath the gunnel that would make you have to take a lot more care upon installation. With the way that they run those boats through the factory, I can see how time is money. If I had the choice, I'd want them up on top, but they do work on the side for fenders as well. YMMV