Scarab 215 - tow wakeboarder without tower? Best suggestions as i dont have a tower yet

[Tdankworth1]

Best suggestions as i dont have a tower yet

I have a 2018 Scarab 215 G.......looking at towers but wont have one in time to have installed by next weekend (and having trouble finding watersports dealers willing to install aftermarket towers)

Thanks!

 

[Dean P]

Check out these guys. Maybe they can help. Wakeboard Tower | Wakeboard & Boat Towers | Big Air

 

[Tdankworth1]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jgorm]

Absolutely. I've been wakeboarding for 25 years without a tower. A tower is better, but not by a huge amount. Until you are clearing the wake you won't even notice a difference.

 

[swatski]

Best suggestions as i dont have a tower yet

I have a 2018 Scarab 215 G.......looking at towers but wont have one in time to have installed by next weekend (and having trouble finding watersports dealers willing to install aftermarket towers)

Thanks!

You can certainly wakeboard without a tower! However having a high attachment point and a shorter rope can be very helpful to get beginners up on the board which can be the most frustrating part of the operation when first starting. So, a tower can help very much.

As far as aftermarket towers, it’s usually best to find a tower which would attach where the factory tower sits, as they typically design the hull around it. Typically the hull cap is the strongest point in these new FRP boats as the hull fiberglass/FRP tends to be extremely thin. Just something to consider.

I have mounted a couple of aftermarket towers in older boats in the past, with old-style fiberglass w/core plywood that was a different proposition. Your hull is probably quarter inch thick and will not support the tower without some serious enforcement. Even then it can be tricky.

As an interim solution you may want to look for a pylon. Those can be very inexpensive and a robust substitute for a tower.

—

 

[Scarabpaul]

i installed a monster tower last fall on my 215 Scarab. fairly easy and as Swastki said, i used the factory mounting point as it was reinforced already.

 

[Shallow_jetter]

@Scarabpaul - How is your HS1 tower working out? I have a 215HO and did not think I wanted a tower until I ripped the bimini off at 40mph. Now I'm thinking I may want one mostly as a bimini holder but also for towing. I see this tower only came out in 2017, but it is not even mentioned on the Monster Tower website. I can still find them for sale, just wondering if they stopped making it for a reason or just moved on.

 

[Franchise]

@Scarabpaul - How is your HS1 tower working out? I have a 215HO and did not think I wanted a tower until I ripped the bimini off at 40mph. Now I'm thinking I may want one mostly as a bimini holder but also for towing. I see this tower only came out in 2017, but it is not even mentioned on the Monster Tower website. I can still find them for sale, just wondering if they stopped making it for a reason or just moved on.

The HS1 was on the site last year and I too noticed it's now gone. I wonder if we can get a good deal on one.

 

[Shallow_jetter]

I spoke to Monster and the HS1 is now sold exclusively to Brunswick for Bayliner OEM.

 

[Franchise]

I spoke to Monster and the HS1 is now sold exclusively to Brunswick for Bayliner OEM.

well that sucks! can we still buy from them for ours or did they change the specs?

 

[Julian]

I agree with @swatski you don't have to have a tower to be able to wakeboard behind a boat. I wakeboarded behind my SX230 for years without a tower. I wasn't good enough to try getting big air (much air at all). Its really only when you want to start jumping that a tower helps. As a first step, you could also buy a pylon (that is what I had on my SX), but a tower is so much better as it gets everything out of the way, and you can hang board racks on it too!

My Pylon was made by InsanityPylons. Worked well....certainly cheaper than a tower!

 

[Shallow_jetter]

Not sure, they were pretty vague.