***WARNING*** 2015-18 YAMAHA “AR” BOAT OWNERS WITH FORWARD SWEPT WAKEBOARD TOWERS

[Bruce]

Did you feel the waves were dangerous? Were you nervous about just "making it"

This is my boat but can give you some perspective. It was rough. I never had water in the boat. My kids were pretty relaxed.

 

[mraz72]

Wow, that didn't look fun.

I would have been worried about lightening, any concerns there? What do you do when you are a way from land and lightening is in the area? Drive away from it even if it's not the direction you are traveling?

 

[djetok]

This is my boat but can give you some perspective. It was rough. I never had water in the boat. My kids were pretty relaxed.

Nice vid rana and Bruce. That kind of looked like a bad day at grand lake. I'm sure it was not fun but like you said I have seen waves like this on lakes. Heck my demo of my boat was at grand and it looked like that if not worse. #yamaha needs to step up. And to think I was worried about my bimini top being covered for warranty.
Stuff like this will alienate people and in a hurry.

 

[Bruce]

I would have been worried about lightening, any concerns there?

We are getting off topic but one of the theories in leaving early is that we are less likely to encounter storms. We were in the "small" storm for a few minutes. Storms are a daily occurrence in that area but are typically in the afternoon.

Boating Mag has some good info - http://www.boatingmag.com/surviving-lightning-strikes-while-boating-0

 

[Emmett]

@swatski sorry to hear what happened! Hope you and your family are doing ok? I still don't understand why they would make two different style tower locking systems for basically the same boat AR vs LS? I hope they make this right. I liked being a proud Yamaha Boat owner! I don't want to have to trade it in for a Scarab! haha Hope those speakers are working good for you Swat!

 

[swatski]

Did you feel the waves were dangerous? Were you nervous about just "making it" (not about the tower coming down). I can imaging my daughter telling me I'm an idiot for going out in rough weather lol

Actually we did not feel even remotely endangered, albeit lightening is never fun. But I admit I've been in some rough stuff before where I was not well prepared - and that can be scary. Here, during Bimini Flings, we are prepared really well. Most of us are, anyway.
My daughters kind of loved everything about it, up to a point. But when the damn thing fell - they were in shear panic as they thought I was dead (the tower threw me to the floor and I was pinned and kind of covered by the bimini/frame). We had to take a moment to regroup... (I have to say I'm pretty good handling stuff like that, in general). And then we just ran some checks, and continued.
On the way back - my two daughters had a choice (our youngest 11 yo and my wife traveled in comfort with @tim h) - and they chose to come back with me in our towerless boat. Thank God @Edgar Almonte stepped in and transported the tower using his US Boat tow service to bring his boat back.
Then, we took almost twice as long driving slowly back to STL with the tower strapped inside the boat on the trailer (not to mention - it immediately ripped and ruined my cover) - to bring ALL THE PARTS back for Yamaha for their diagnostics. Well, that worked out great. NOT.

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[mraz72]

That's terrible, glad you're here to talk about it.

 

[GMAN2015]

It is beyond me why they didn't do a cross pin like the 242X / 212X tower. This is a poor design. Look at the leverage point and how much forward weight there is for just 2 threaded connections. Sorry to read this @swatski

I am not a mechanic or anything, but man that looks like the bolt itself is too short to perform the job properly. Putting stress on what looks to be just the first 3 threads is not enough to secure a tower.

 

[subysti]

Yea I think this may be my first and last Yamaha boat. My wife is afraid to go on the boat now. There have been a few issues with the new boats and basically Yamaha says go screw. The problems with the wrong voltages being displayed, foam falling off, water coming through anchor drains, etc etc. love my 3 Yamaha snowmobiles but they may be going also as snowmobiling sucks lately. Plan was to use that to upgrade the boat to a 242X but now I'm thinking other brands it's better quality control and customer service.

 

[swatski]

Swatski might be at the ACCEPTANCE stage

Oh, not at all. I'm just warming up, frankly.

I made my earnest effort to try to resolve this quickly and amicably with Yamaha. I neither expected nor asked for any handouts or freebies, and fully expected to pay a price. But when I got off the phone last night, with Yamaha telling me about their "expert findings", things changed.

Here is my main problem:

I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT DID I DO WRONG, IF ANYTHING.

Let's say - I bought a brand new AR240 today - what would I do different with the tower? I do not know.
Let's say - I did cross thread the bolt or bolts. How would I know that?

There are no specs in the manual. When I was picking up my boat from the dealer today, I looked and I touched every knob in every AR tower in their inventory. These screws/bolts/lock knobs do not give precise feedback going in. They feel pretty LOUSY actually. I think I can tell whenever those go strait in, and I think that's what I had been doing in my boat. But is it? Tight is tight, right..?

I had that tower down exactly ONCE during my ownership of the boat. After that I put maybe 20 hours on it, all hard towing and playing in the water. I trailered across the country. And I tighten the knobs, all the time, by hand, until they are tight.

So, had I been I tightening bolt(s) that were already cross threaded?

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[mraz72]

Let's say - I did cross thread the bolt or bolts. How would I know that?

I think it would have been obvious, we have all screwed a screw in sideways, it gets really tight pretty quickly.

I don't think there is anything you can do other than make sure bolts are tight and possible lock tight if the bolt loosens from vibration.

 

[djetok]

Yea I think this may be my first and last Yamaha boat. My wife is afraid to go on the boat now. There have been a few issues with the new boats and basically Yamaha says go screw. The problems with the wrong voltages being displayed, foam falling off, water coming through anchor drains, etc etc. love my 3 Yamaha snowmobiles but they may be going also as snowmobiling sucks lately. Plan was to use that to upgrade the boat to a 242X but now I'm thinking other brands it's better quality control and customer service.

I agree. I was looking at boats today online gonna look at a cobalt. I will most likely wait until the boat show

 

[swatski]

I am not a mechanic or anything, but man that looks like the bolt itself is too short to perform the job properly. Putting stress on what looks to be just the first 3 threads is not enough to secure a tower.

It is spring loaded so it looks shorter that it actually is (it sticks out more when pushed up). But yes, that is a part of the problem, I think.

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[mraz72]

I agree. I was looking at boats today online gonna look at a cobalt. I will most likely wait until the boat show

And someone just bought Cobalt, so who knows if they have some issue like this, but as someone else said, it's all in how they handle it afterwards.....

Cobalts look really sweet, I'll say that....

 

[swatski]

I think it would have been obvious, we have all screwed a screw in sideways, it gets really tight pretty quickly.

I guess it fooled me. I must have missed it.
I'm willing to accept I had it wrong, cross threaded.

Is it a safe design?

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[Ramblin Wreck]

Have they commented on your broken seat or anchor hatch?

 

[Neutron]

I havent had my cover off and assistance to lower my tower since all this fiasco, but i do know the 2 times the tower has been down that the threads felt crappy. And i know when a bolt goes in crappy I work on automobiles 5 days a week 12 to 15 cars per day. And quite a lot of bolts and nuts.
I never have seen aluminum filings anywhere on my boat ftom the tower. But now in light of Yamaha's "findings" i will be coming up with a fix for their shortcomings.

 

[swatski]

Have they commented on your broken seat or anchor hatch?

Yes. They found "no evidence of manufacturing defects" that would make it eligible for warranty repair.

I should point out that:
My boat is still under 1-year full FACTORY warranty.
I have extra 3 years of YES, too.

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[Neutron]

I guess it fooled me. I must have missed it.
I'm willing to accept I had it wrong, cross threaded.

Is it a safe design?

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Even if it was "all user error" the real problem i have is why have a hold down for a heavy tower that is so easily crossed threaded or stripped.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Yes. They found "no evidence of manufacturing defects" that would make it eligible for warranty repair.

I should point out that:
My boat is still under 1-year full FACTORY warranty.
I have extra 3 years of YES, too.

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You have got to be kidding me. What a complete joke. How the heck can you break a seat. I'm definitely not a lawyer kind of guy but it's about principle as much as it is the money. Man I just hate you are having to deal with this. I really thought more of Yamaha with their willingness to replace their faulty chains once they prematurely break. I guess that goodwill flew right out the window.