Show your tower down thread.

[Bevan]

With all the various tower options and fold down heights I thought it would be fun to have a thread showing clearances ( or lack ) when garaging our boats.
Here's mine

[SkiTower]

Good idea on threads, my suggestion is make sure you should specify door size in the description and tell what boat it is. I don't have a pic, but I have to wheel mine in with the nose jack all the way down, and it still brushes by the door. NO chance getting it in hooked to a truck. (7' door, 07 211)

[Nauti-Cats]

Sorry. No pics. Our boat is a 2008 230TE. The trailer is an EZ loader with basic (boring wheels). We would have to fold the tower and remove the sections of the tower that held the wakeboard racks. The door height was 8'. Even with the sections removed, the clearance was less than 5". I say WAS because I had the roof raised three feet last fall. Now the door is 11'. I can put her away without folding anything other than the 360 light. Now I have about 6" of clearance. Definitely reduced the stress between me and the wife on lake days.

[core-rider]

2003 SANTE 210, 7' garage, trailer tounge has to be low to give me about 1" clearance. It comes out hooked to my truck, but it's lowered so the tounge sits about 16".

[AndrewC]

My house was the biggest mission to make our new '07' 220 into. Not only did we have to extend the garage length and winden the old opening at the back where the extension originated from, we also had to modify the tower and the way it folds to get it lower. Raising the door height was not option unfortunately.

The door height is 6ft 10in, problem is, when the original tower is folded and the nose of the trailer is lowered right down, the heighest point is still over seven and a half feet!

So, the project began, lift the tower off and take to it with a grinder and welder! The finished job meant the tower maintained its original folded up height, but the pivot points are now lower. The photos of the silver tower are before and the black is after.

As you can see the lower or fixed loops of the tower have been shortened. This then allowed the top sections legs to be lengthened to make up for the lost height of the shortened lower loops.

Shortening the bottom loops was not that simple. Originally these bars pass over the windscreen. To get to the height I need, they now have to pass around the windscreen. This has meant that the whole tower has ended up jst over 1 ft wider at the top.

Next problem is now that the top halfs legs are longer, they stick up heigher in the air when the tower is folded onto the bow. Well out with the grinder and welder again and I made some removeable legs that screw off to get it out of the garage. The extensions are not screwed on all the way in the photo, but you get the idea any ways.

The grab handles on the side of the tower also had to be cut off and welded onto a new position as they ended up out of square after the lower loop got re-dirested around the wind screen.

When theis tower is folder up, it is as rock solid as before I started, so I am quite pleased. The highest part of this boat now is the windscreen.

The only down side about the whole process is that I cannot use my spinner board racks as the straddle the towers top half and the removeable legs. I had to get new quick release racks as a non removeable rack meant they would have hit the garage door head when the tower is folded down.

Why go to all this trouble?? The boat was a bagin so I had to make it fit!

[EntiatSkier]

Our garage is crazy to get into! First you have to back down a hill to get to the garage. But then you need to put blocks down because the back will scrape the ground for about 10' with out them. Once you get it barely in the garage, you must unhook it so that the hitch doesn't hit. Then you have to wheel it back into its final position.

I dont have a picture, but i will take some tomorrow.

I have to take the teak deck off and i only have about 2" of clearance on both the front and back of the boat.

[Bevan]

Good idea on threads, my suggestion is make sure you should specify door size in the description and tell what boat it is. I don't have a pic, but I have to wheel mine in with the nose jack all the way down, and it still brushes by the door. NO chance getting it in hooked to a truck. (7' door, 07 211)

Thanks! 7' garage door, boat is an 08 210, FCT Titan tower on a Ramlin trailer with factory alloys. As you can see just squeaks under

[acs220]

Bevan,

does the rear section of the tower rest on the vinyl or does it stop before the speakers hit. thx.

[SkiTower]

I'm getting my boat out again this weekend...I'll try to take pictures.

[GCSuper]

Don't have a current picture, but my 2011 210 fits into my 8 ft door with the tower all the way down and board racks folded in. It clears by an inch or so. It's also wide as it's close on each side of a 10 ft wide door

[Bevan]

Bevan,

does the rear section of the tower rest on the vinyl or does it stop before the speakers hit. thx.

I place a couple life jackets on the seats for the rear section to sit on while reversing boat into garage. When in the garage I suspend both front & rear tower sections from the ceiling.

[scottb7]

Don Schnurr II at Lauderdale Lakes Chicago was kind enough to give me these pics for 2007 sante 210 that i am considering...thought many would like to see them for tower down...

He also said that it is 2 person job to lower...That concerns me as when my wife drives the boat for me she probably will not want to help lower it....Thoughts? Is 2008 tower better?

[SkiTower]

Here's mine clearing (barely) the garage door. 7' door, jack all the way down.

[Nauti-Cats]

Scottb7,

We have an '08 230. The tower is definitely a two person job to raise/lower. There were times when I didn't think the wife and I were going to be able to do it. I actually had to use a pulley system on those days. That problem prompted the raising the
roof of our detached garage. Now I can back the boat in without lowering the tower. What a relief!

[ski4evr]

Don't forget that the more speakers you add, the heavier it gets--really fast!!