How to get your 2016+ AR192 or AR195 in a garage less than 7'

[SCP1]

Tower base is 18" long.

The other measurement you're looking for and maybe a few others is in this thread https://jetboaters.net/threads/2016-ar190-tower-height-and-position.12817/

Thanks!

 

[SCP1]

Tower base is 18" long.

The other measurement you're looking for and maybe a few others is in this thread https://jetboaters.net/threads/2016-ar190-tower-height-and-position.12817/

One other quick question did they add fiberglass under the tower or just a piece of wood?

 

[haknslash]

One other quick question did they add fiberglass under the tower or just a piece of wood?

I think it's just fiberglassed. Here's a pic I took for you looking up from the bottom port storage compartment.

 

[2kwik4u]

OK, got my brand spankin' new AR190 into the garage last night using this mod. Seriously the VERY first thing i did to the boat after pulling the cover off (was racing the rain actually). Took less than an hour from the time I pulled the cover back until the time it was in the garage. That includes backing it into the garage nervously for the first time. Also, I think the slope of my driveway away from the garage adds some clearance as well.

Opening measures 83.5" to the trim, 83" to the weather flap. Plenty of clearance. (nevermind the junk in the garage, I still have a lot of organizing to do!)

 

[haknslash]

Awesome you got it in and congrats @2kwik4u !!

 

[GoVols01]

I went to the dealer yesterday for the 4th time to look at the 212X again to verify total height is <95". He already had the retention straps removed, so we lowered the tower down and then moved the board racks from the back side of the tower to the front. She measured in at about 90 - 92", so we're goo to go with no further modifications to the trailer or anything else!

 

[2kwik4u]

Just an FYI to those that have modified the tower stops. First trip out I found the washer, nuts, bolt, and couple in the floor of the storage area. Be sure to snug those down good and use some loctite. Trailering and normal use WILL vibrate those loose.

 

[haknslash]

Yea you will need loctite. Use the blue medium strength if you want to be able to remove them easier later on for whatever reason. When the tower is up there is no tension on the cable or hardware so they are swinging and vibrating around in there so you for sure need to use a thread locker of some type to help keep things snug once tightened down.

 

[viper15]

My garage opening is 82 3/4". Using this method I squeezed it in. I had to still take it off the truck hitch and lower the jack all the way, then push it in by hand. But it cleared by 1/4". If I were to take the Bimini off, it would have cleared by probably more than an inch. Maybe could have even left it hooked to the truck.

 

[haknslash]

I also have to take the trailer off my truck and lower the jack all the way down but that's better than paying storage fee$ and having better security at home.

A while back I bought a 5" drop hitch hoping that I could use that and back my truck in so i wouldn't have to hand push the boat in but my garage is 90 degrees from my driveway so it's impossible to make the turn without getting into my neighbors grass or spending 10 minutes doing like 30 times back and forth with the truck to get it lined up, so I just said screw that nonsense and push it in always. Hell it ended up being faster hand pushing it in than it was for me to pull boat down halfway in the driveway, jack trailer off truck, swap hitch, lower trailer on truck, spend forever inching the trailer in at an angle without destroying grass then once in I would have to jack boat up off truck again and swap hitches again so needless to say that wasn't worth my time and all that effort lol. I'll just get muscles...or another hernia ...and push the boat in like I always do

 

[2kwik4u]

I've been taking the bimini off of mine when it goes in/out of the garage. I might try to leave it on this round and see how that works out. Would be nice to have one less thing to attach/detach during the process.

I pretty convinced that the downward slope on my driveway HELPS the situation because I clear my 83" opening with a couple of inches to spare, and the tower is still about 1/2-to-3/4" away from the steering wheel when folded down.

@viper15 Are you towing with the Acadia? If so how does it do? Is it AWD? My wife has a '10 traverse FWD, and I'm debating on dropping the SS as a daily driver/tow vehicle and getting something else (cooling a 6.0L in a midsize SUV while towing is apparently harder than GM thought), but would need to tow with the Traverse while I was in transition. Any thoughts?

 

[viper15]

@viper15 Are you towing with the Acadia? If so how does it do? Is it AWD? My wife has a '10 traverse FWD, and I'm debating on dropping the SS as a daily driver/tow vehicle and getting something else (cooling a 6.0L in a midsize SUV while towing is apparently harder than GM thought), but would need to tow with the Traverse while I was in transition. Any thoughts?

The boat is new to us this spring, so I've only towed it a few times. Only once (short 1/2 hr trip) with the Acadia and it was only around 70 deg F outside. Our Acadia is the Denali AWD version. So it has the full towing package which rates it around 5500lb capacity. It does tow surprisingly well. The engine has plenty of power. When it comes to the transmission, all is well in tow/haul mode. But it seems to be better if you anticipate hills with the manual shift. If you let the computer do the shifting, it downshifts a bit late on inclines requiring it to drop two gears instead of one. The only other thing is that the rear springs are a bit on the soft side. It's not a bad thing, but it simply bounces a bit more in the rear than I would like. So I have an air bag kit that I will be installing over the weekend which should alleviate that issue.

You'll want to make sure your Traverse has the tow package, which includes the factory installed hitch, 7-point wiring harness, tow/haul mode and tranny cooler. Without the package, I think the towing capacity will be limited to around 3000lbs.

My normal tow vehicle is my 2010 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT with the 5.3L and tall 3.08 rear end highway gears. And the Acadia tows almost as good as that.

 

[2kwik4u]

@viper15 thanks for the towing info.

My SS does great in terms of power/chassis/brakes, but the cooling system is lacking significantly. It has the 6.0L LS2 which is supposedly a 400hp/400ft-lb engine, and GM put the same radiator in this truck as the ones with the 4.2 I6. To make matter worse it has 4.10 gears in it so at 70mph it's spinning away at almost 2,600rpm!

Her traverse has the tow package on it, but is not AWD. My biggest concern is the ramp on retrieval. It spins the tires pretty badly with medium throttle in the rain, I have to think a crowded ramp wouldn't be any better.

Thanks again for the info......now back to our tower thread

 

[SCP1]

I also have to take the trailer off my truck and lower the jack all the way down but that's better than paying storage fee$ and having better security at home.

A while back I bought a 5" drop hitch hoping that I could use that and back my truck in so i wouldn't have to hand push the boat in but my garage is 90 degrees from my driveway so it's impossible to make the turn without getting into my neighbors grass or spending 10 minutes doing like 30 times back and forth with the truck to get it lined up, so I just said screw that nonsense and push it in always. Hell it ended up being faster hand pushing it in than it was for me to pull boat down halfway in the driveway, jack trailer off truck, swap hitch, lower trailer on truck, spend forever inching the trailer in at an angle without destroying grass then once in I would have to jack boat up off truck again and swap hitches again so needless to say that wasn't worth my time and all that effort lol. I'll just get muscles...or another hernia ...and push the boat in like I always do

Ok so getting close on a AR195 but I need some help. Looking at wakeboard/surf racks. My assumption is the only way a tower is being folded and fitting in a 7' door is with the racks that would swing in is this correct? Also if I put two tower speakers on am I going to cause any issues fitting in the 7' door?

 

[SCP1]

@viper15 thanks for the towing info.

My SS does great in terms of power/chassis/brakes, but the cooling system is lacking significantly. It has the 6.0L LS2 which is supposedly a 400hp/400ft-lb engine, and GM put the same radiator in this truck as the ones with the 4.2 I6. To make matter worse it has 4.10 gears in it so at 70mph it's spinning away at almost 2,600rpm!

Her traverse has the tow package on it, but is not AWD. My biggest concern is the ramp on retrieval. It spins the tires pretty badly with medium throttle in the rain, I have to think a crowded ramp wouldn't be any better.

Thanks again for the info......now back to our tower thread

To be honest I pulled our boat with a Honda Odyssey for a year and I had the same concern as you about the tire spin. However I never had an issue even on a steep ramp.

 

[2kwik4u]

Ok so getting close on a AR195 but I need some help. Looking at wakeboard/surf racks. My assumption is the only way a tower is being folded and fitting in a 7' door is with the racks that would swing in is this correct? Also if I put two tower speakers on am I going to cause any issues fitting in the 7' door?

I'll take some pictures tonight for you. I think you're going to have clearance problems between the mount that goes AROUND the tower tubing, and the windshield. The tower in the "extra-low" position actually lightly touches the windshield on my boat for ahead of the mounting location. Not a huge ordeal, but worth checking for clearance. I'm also unsure how easy it will be to run wires in this tower. I think the bottom has a solid plate welded in. I'll take some pictures of that as well. To answer your question though, you will definitely have to swing the racks to the interior of the tower to get "inside" the windshield. Same with teh speakers, you'll want those "under" the tower, both for folding and for bimini top usage.

Another thought.....If you know the size of your board, I'll gladly measure the ski locker. I have my 45cm wakeskate in there right now, and there is TONS of room to spare. The racks on the tower are neat and all, but unless you have a ton of boards they are more sizzle than steak for me. All our friends have dedicated wake boats (Centurion 26ft and Axis 22ft) and rafting up is always a PIA with those damn wake board racks having to swung in and out of the way. I much prefer the ski locker storage for our board.

To be honest I pulled our boat with a Honda Odyssey for a year and I had the same concern as you about the tire spin. However I never had an issue even on a steep ramp.

Thanks for the feedback. I've been reading a ton on the Traverse/Acadia platform message boards the last few weeks. Most people say they tow great, and I don't have any reason to doubt that now. So much so that the wife and I are contemplating trading hers in on a new one with a warranty, and making it the dedicated tow vehicle, and I'll keep repairing the PO-SS that I drive. If you see my other thread, we actually tested it out this weekend. I'll go find a link.

*Edit*

Here is the link to the post about towing with the Traverse

 

[haknslash]

Ok so getting close on a AR195 but I need some help. Looking at wakeboard/surf racks. My assumption is the only way a tower is being folded and fitting in a 7' door is with the racks that would swing in is this correct? Also if I put two tower speakers on am I going to cause any issues fitting in the 7' door?

I don't have any racks yet but yea I would think you would want some that fold in or at least easily removable in a worst case scenario. You would need to mount them on the rear tower tubes of course because the front tubes sit by the window edging. I don't think speakers on the tower would be a big issue as long as they don't stick out back too far. Mine doesn't have any plate inside the bottom preventing running wires however the inside of the rear tube is at a hard angle which could make running the wire a bit of a pain since my fiberglass wire poles would not fit in there. The think the racks would probably be the biggest concern and even if they fold in they would need to kind of go beyond 90° I would think so they would sit within the space and the forks not stick above the tower.

 

[SCP1]

I'll take some pictures tonight for you. I think you're going to have clearance problems between the mount that goes AROUND the tower tubing, and the windshield. The tower in the "extra-low" position actually lightly touches the windshield on my boat for ahead of the mounting location. Not a huge ordeal, but worth checking for clearance. I'm also unsure how easy it will be to run wires in this tower. I think the bottom has a solid plate welded in. I'll take some pictures of that as well. To answer your question though, you will definitely have to swing the racks to the interior of the tower to get "inside" the windshield. Same with teh speakers, you'll want those "under" the tower, both for folding and for bimini top usage.

Another thought.....If you know the size of your board, I'll gladly measure the ski locker. I have my 45cm wakeskate in there right now, and there is TONS of room to spare. The racks on the tower are neat and all, but unless you have a ton of boards they are more sizzle than steak for me. All our friends have dedicated wake boats (Centurion 26ft and Axis 22ft) and rafting up is always a PIA with those damn wake board racks having to swung in and out of the way. I much prefer the ski locker storage for our board.



Thanks for the feedback. I've been reading a ton on the Traverse/Acadia platform message boards the last few weeks. Most people say they tow great, and I don't have any reason to doubt that now. So much so that the wife and I are contemplating trading hers in on a new one with a warranty, and making it the dedicated tow vehicle, and I'll keep repairing the PO-SS that I drive. If you see my other thread, we actually tested it out this weekend. I'll go find a link.

*Edit*

Here is the link to the post about towing with the Traverse

I have a SX190 right now and my wake board will fit but my surf board does not.

 

[Luke7621]

Appreciate this walkthrough and pictures! Worked like a charm with my AR195. I implemented the extensions last night so that I no longer have to crawl down in the boat and detach the cables.

 

[haknslash]

Glad to hear!