Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Where do you guys tow from?


cyclone18

Recommended Posts

Hey crew, this might sound like a bit of a dumb question but its getting close to summer over here in aus and I'd like to teach my cousins and other family and friends how to ski and wakeboard etc. some are below 6 years of age so I'd say there's a fair chance that ski tubes are going to be involved at some point throughout the season... My question is where would you tow the tubes from.. The tower or from the ski hooks on each side of the transom? Or from the centre hook ( I'm a little worried about the strength of this Center one) thanks

Link to comment

Center transom bar will be just fine for towing the tubers around. I towed from there for ten years with no problem. A little more vigilance is sometimes required to avoid running over the rope, but that point is plenty strong enough.

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Lol, it's 9pm over here mate! So not too late I guess. I like the idea you just posted.. I actually have an outboard bridle in the garage so I might give that a crack and see how it goes.

Link to comment

I tow tubes from the ski pole on the rear of the Wakesetter, however a mate with a DD tows from the tower, says it keeps the rope above the water and prevents the tube from bogging down. Either way, hooks on the transom work but are a bit low for my liking.

Link to comment

Cyclone, I always tow tubes from the transom hook. It gives much better control because the back of the boat moves from side to side when you turn and allows 'steering' the tube a bit. A centre ski pole or tower hook is at the pivot point of your boat and doesn't properly allow you to swing the tube around etc.

Try them both and you'll quickly work it out.

Looking forward to Summer here!

Good luck, mate.

Stephen.

  • Like 3
Link to comment

The transom eyes are where Malibu recommends hooking tubes and a very strong point on your boat.

Yeah after I posted ... with the words "mate" wondered if you were down under and I checked your location. RTS is in Florida.

Link to comment

I tow my kids in the tubes from the tower just because it keeps the rope from hitting the water all the time and is easy to pull them in when time for the changeover (we usually have 5 kids and 3 adults on the boat) They tube from 20-25mph and love it. The youngest is 6 as is the one always pointing skywards for more speed.

Mate I used to live in Nowra and still have great memories catching Brim and Mullet on the Sholhaven river near the Yeast factory.

Link to comment

I have towed from the tower ski pilon and the center hook on the transom. Tower was definately the funnest for the kids but be careful they will get air and sometimes BIG air. The wipe outs can get a bit rough when you drop three of them on top of each other, boat at 20-25 tube is going a lot faster.

Ski pilon was good as well but in a DD you loose all rear seating. You will have good controll but the rope gets in the water a lot.

Transom makes it hard to steer sometimes due to thetube anchering the transome. without a boost of throttle you may not have enough rudder to make it turn, only at low speed but still an issue.

If you read on the tower it problaby says towing tubes is not recomended or you are not supposed to.

Link to comment

Towing from the tower would worry me. One jerk a little too hard and BOOM spider cracks. Pass. I pull from the ski pylon at the back of my VLX

Edited by wakedncsu
  • Like 3
Link to comment

This is why these forums are so useful especially for those of us newer to boating (my last ski boat was 20 years ago when towers were not invented)

We had people in the back seat on the weekend so I might get a bridle and use the transom tow points in that situation and use the ski pylon other times. The 3 kids all up totaled about 60kg and we did no whips so no problems this past weekend but I definitively will change the tow point for this weekend.

Thanks guys

Link to comment

Stick to the transom hooks. I have pulled tubers a few times and used my pylon (DD so more forward than vdrive). The swivel part of the pylon broke & we were very fortunate it didn't sling off the post and nail someone in the head. Also cost about $300 to fix the pylon. New boat nazi rule... No tubing.

Link to comment

If you tow tubers from transom hooks how do you keep the the rope from constantly splashing water in the riders face?

Use one of the blow up ball things in the middle of the rope to keep the rope out of the water.

Link to comment

I think that I read somewhere here on TMC that towing from the handle on the transom has caused spider cracks in some instances. YMMV. I used to tow sometimes from there but I think that is why I changed to the pylon. Occasionally I will put a tube rope there if I am towing 4 tubes. The kids like to jump back and forth and push each other off.

Link to comment
  • 8 years later...
37 minutes ago, MTBoy said:

So if you have a boat full of people does anyone slalom ski from the transom handle?   

For us that'd be never as the slalom skiers we're out with would pull the boat all over the place giving driver hard times keeping boat even close to straight, and the skiers would not want lots of people/weight in boat creating larger than necessary wakes.

But if it was a recreational 2 skis skier or early 1 ski skier, and they wanted family to watch them, then yes maybe from the transom handle. That's where we tow tubes from. 

 

When teaching we tow skiers on boom, then handle from boom, then short rope from tower to give them extra lift when starting, then 18.25m (15' off) rope from centre pylon.  

Link to comment

Tower when it's calm out and the kids are younger. If it's really windy, the tower tends to create more air under the tube which can have them flying! Transom when you are trying to whip kids off.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...