Removable pylon broke on my '13 200v

[NautiqueOasis]

Pulling a 180 lb skier through the course last week and heard a loud pop as skier rounded ball and pulling to the wake. Glanced at the pylon and it had a significant lean towards back of the boat. Broken pylon sleeve in attached pic shows where the weld busted loose; the actual pylon still securely in sleeve. The sleeve was only welded between the two inserts that connected into the aluminum face. Contacted dealer for warranty replacement; Nautique sent next day air to my dock so very little downtime. I received great service from both dealer and Nautique; however, I was extremely disappointed that the weld could break on the pylon sleeve. The replacement sleeve was welded across the entire face surface; wonder if they have had this issue before and now reinforce their pylon sleeves.

[sodbuster88]

Man....I knew that would happen... Mine came from the factory with the pylon leaning significantly to SB. Had to do with mis-aligned holes in the structure. Decided to fix it myself and when I was in there, I noticed the same thing (sub-standard weld at that joint) so I machined an extra bolt hole through the pylon / sleeve so we could use the boom. Haven't had a problem...yet.

[NautiqueOasis]

Did you use a U-bolt around pylon and then thru sleeve to reinforce?

[sodbuster88]

My intention was actually not so much in beefing up that joint...rather, to make the pylon more robust in the receptacle because I didn't trust the nylon foot / lock pin for forces that can be applied rotationally and vertically (for a boom). So I just added a pin hole to go through the sleeve and the receptacle that locks the pylon in place using a 5/8 x 4 SS pull pin. In my case, I didn't fix the weld, but adds another fastener to hold pylon to sleeve...so still susceptible to the same failure as you experienced.

[seth]

That whole setup looks poorly designed. Did the engineers think they were making a mount for a table???

[NautiqueOasis]

Here is an additional pic of the sleeve attached to the mounting bracket/brace in the floor

[sodbuster88]

Here is link to thread with my pylon work...

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/sh...373#post191373