Looking at aftermarket tower for 2012 SX190

[IvanRZB]

Hey all,

Looking at adding a tower, I searched through the forums and saw some folks have installed either Monster or Aerial Freeride. Anyone else have good/bad experiences with either of these or other brands? I personally like the look of the Monster MTK and are leaning that way.

From reading of previous postings it looks like installation is fairly straightforward, although I'm not sure how I feel about making holes in the outer fiberglass...I previously installed a cutoff switch in the battery compartment so I felt like there was some room to mess up. One of my local dealers shows up as a Monster installer so I may give them a shout to check on install pricing.f

 

[swatski]

Hey all,

Looking at adding a tower, I searched through the forums and saw some folks have installed either Monster or Aerial Freeride. Anyone else have good/bad experiences with either of these or other brands? I personally like the look of the Monster MTK and are leaning that way.

From reading of previous postings it looks like installation is fairly straightforward, although I'm not sure how I feel about making holes in the outer fiberglass...I previously installed a cutoff switch in the battery compartment so I felt like there was some room to mess up. One of my local dealers shows up as a Monster installer so I may give them a shout to check on install pricing.f

Whatever you do, mount on top of the hull cap in that boat. I would not mount in gunnels/freeboard (sides).
I posted my install somewhere, it survived 2seasons of hard towing/water sports and a pretty rough Bimini trip.
But it is not trivial to mount those things well. If you have someone who has done that before it can help a lot.

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[swatski]

Here is my install post, same boat:

https://jetboaters.net/threads/sx190-wakeboard-tower.7569/

There are better choices, that’s just an example.

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[r3volol]

Can’t recommend a better tower manufacturer than Monster. They’re actually the same company that makes the towers for current model AR190/195’s (and I assume other models), just under a different name. They’re made about 30 minutes from my house actually. I purchased a monster tower for my previous boat and picked it up direct from the factory. Installation was easy and straight forward. The tower was solid. I wish I had a pic on of the tower but that boat is long gone. I had to mount the tower to the outside of the boat due to how it was molded, and had no issues. Also allowed us to continue to use the bimini top that came with the boat with the tower.

 

[swatski]

Can’t recommend a better tower manufacturer than Monster. They’re actually the same company that makes the towers for current model AR190/195’s (and I assume other models), just under a different name. They’re made about 30 minutes from my house actually. I purchased a monster tower for my previous boat and picked it up direct from the factory. Installation was easy and straight forward. The tower was solid. I wish I had a pic on of the tower but that boat is long gone. I had to mount the tower to the outside of the boat due to how it was molded, and had no issues. Also allowed us to continue to use the bimini top that came with the boat with the tower.

New Yamaha gunnels are thin FRP shell, no core, they are maybe 1/8" thick... There is no debate in my mind where I would want to mount a tower: top of the hull cap.
In the 190s (2012 was the first MY) the entire cap "arch" in the rear, along the stern/swim platform, is reinforced. In the front, there is factory embedded/reinforced section in front of the windshield corners, it is visible under the sides of the bow cap, the AR190 and SX190 share the same hull and those reinforcements are made to support the factory AR towers.
Monster is a division of XTP (the OEM tower and rack maker for Yamaha) that sells to the public. But they don't sell Yamaha OEM towers, or racks, direct.

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[Scarabpaul]

I installed a monster HS1 tower on my Scarab. good quality, easy install. i did it myself. took about 6 hours. believe it or not, one of the most difficult / time consuming parts was to fish the wire for the tower light, that took me 1.5hrs, what a pain!. other than that, solid tower ( mounted on top of gunnel)

 

[CDENsomnia]

Yes! Please don't make the same mistake I did on my old boat and stay away from Aerial towers. Not impressed! Stick with Monster, you can't go wrong!

 

[IvanRZB]

In the 190s (2012 was the first MY) the entire cap "arch" in the rear, along the stern/swim platform, is reinforced. In the front, there is factory embedded/reinforced section in front of the windshield corner...

I didn't realize before that the 2012-2015 AR190s had a different tower type than the newer forward-swept style. Definitely like the look of the forward-swept but the towers that straddle the windshield forward to aft seem like they'd be more stable

 

[IvanRZB]

Yes! Please don't make the same mistake I did on my old boat and stay away from Aerial towers. Not impressed! Stick with Monster, you can't go wrong!

Noted!

 

[swatski]

No argument about Aerial towers, but in reality all the brands are made somewhere, probably in the same place. The price goes with the branding not necessarily weld quality.

I would argue the placement and mounting/ install is 90% of the success - if the mounts flex the tower can not be stable no matter what. I would also argue that almost any tower can be made to work given stable mounts if those have no give/play. The worst case (cheapest towers sets) I’ve seen some hardware may need to be swapped. The weld quality is usually the same as the most expensive ones!

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[ZippyBoater]

I am pleased with my Aerial Assault tower. Works great and the one time I needed a part for something I broke, the company was great at helping me get the right part in a timely manner.

 

[CDENsomnia]

No argument about Aerial towers, but in reality all the brands are made somewhere, probably in the same place. The price goes with the branding not necessarily weld quality.

I would argue the placement and mounting/ install is 90% of the success - if the mounts flex the tower can not be stable no matter what. I would also argue that almost any tower can be made to work given stable mounts if those have no give/play. The worst case (cheapest towers sets) I’ve seen some hardware may need to be swapped. The weld quality is usually the same as the most expensive ones!

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The wiggle was a problem but the functionality was awful. For instance their special super expensive swivel rack was a pile of junk. It used a gear clamping mechanism that would just strip out. Aerial replaced it several times which took months to get.

The bimini was one selling point of ours...it was huge! But they made it where you had to take the front legs of the bimini frame off with an Allen wrench to put the canvas on the frame. Just a couple examples...

 

[TOGA]

Monster MTK. Couldn't be happier.

 

[r3volol]

New Yamaha gunnels are thin FRP shell, no core, they are maybe 1/8" thick... There is no debate in my mind where I would want to mount a tower: top of the hull cap.
In the 190s (2012 was the first MY) the entire cap "arch" in the rear, along the stern/swim platform, is reinforced. In the front, there is factory embedded/reinforced section in front of the windshield corners, it is visible under the sides of the bow cap, the AR190 and SX190 share the same hull and those reinforcements are made to support the factory AR towers.
Monster is a division of XTP (the OEM tower and rack maker for Yamaha) that sells to the public. But they don't sell Yamaha OEM towers, or racks, direct.

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Oh, I wasn’t suggesting he mount it to the side. Just giving my experience from my install.

 

[ripler]

I installed an Aerial airborne on my boat years ago and haven't had 1 issue. Mine is side mounted, if you do it correctly you won't have any issues. Be sure to reinforce the area that you are installing the tower with marine grade plywood, if it isn't already reinforced like swatski said. I was able to install it so that I can use the factory bimini with only a few easy modifications.

@Scarabpaul I know it's too late for you, but here's a tip to make routing wires through the tower easy. After you drill your holes in the tower take a small cotton ball and attach it to a light fishing line. Using a vacuum cleaner with a hose put the hose on one hole and suck the cotton ball through to the other hole. Attach a stronger piece of string to the fishing line on the end you want to pull the wiring to and pull the string to the opposite hole. Attach the wire to the string and fish it through.