2017 AR-190

[Riley Hunter]

I’m needing to remover my tower to take it to get powder coated. Has anyone done this that can give me a heads up on what to expect.

 

[haknslash]

4 bolts and nut under the gunnels. Remove the side rear storage cushions and look up where the tower base is and you'll see the nuts. You'll need a second pair of trust hands as the tower is heavy. FYI the entire tower will need to be shot blasted prior to having new powder coat sprayed.

At around the 0:36 mark in my video you can see the nuts for the tower base....

 

[Riley Hunter]

Thanks that’s what I needed to see. My tower is not coated yet but the shop told me they still had to prep it before coating

 

[2kwik4u]

@Riley Hunter You don't need to remove those nuts. In fact I would NOT remove those nuts, I didn't when I took my tower off on my 2017 AR190.



Here it is with the tower removed. Here's what I did.

Remove the stops on the end of the cables.
Unplug the electrical connector on the starboard side (anchor light)
Remove the snap ring that holds the pivot pin in place (You'll want snap ring pliers for this)
Remove the pivot pins
Remove the tower.

This way the brackets don't move, and don't have to be realigned to the boat later. I had the tower off with the help of a friend, in my garage, in less than an hour.

Here's the pin once it's out. There is an INTERNAL groove on the tower that holds it in place. On mine it was VERY poorly machined and significantly off center so only one side of the ring actually caught anything. If you are getting the tower powdercoated, you'll want to keep this bore and groove clear of powdercoating. I suggest a rubber plug of sorts. used to use them when I was anodizing items years ago.



Here's the bracket on the boat without the tower. by removing the pin instead of the bolts, it stays "aligned" to the boat, and there is no worry of getting it back on square and in the right position. There is also no concern of over/under torqueing the mount bolts and messing up the gel coat. The pins do have to be "tapped" back into place with a small hammer. I want to call it a precision fit, but the machining is simply not that good.



I had mine off, the wires fished for the soundbar, and put back on the boat in about 2hours or so. It's pretty easy really, and only requires simple hand tools and a set of snap ring pliers.

Any thoughts @haknslash ??

 

[haknslash]

Good idea. Forgot how the tower was designed since its been a while not owing the 192. Wouldn't hurt adding a light coat of grease on the pin before reinstalling and tapping her home.