2008 210 transom towing / lifting eye

[ally505]

Any suggestions for methods of attaching a rope to the transom towing / lifting eye? It seems a somewhat daft design as you can't loop a rope around it in the normal fashion. The information sign suggests this can be used for towing, however generally referred to as a lifting eye.

[ScooterMcgavin]

From the pic it looks like your ski pylon could be possibly broken? It's supposed to pull up twist and lock, with a place on top to connect rope. I've included a pic of my 09 210 and you can see the top of my ski pylon because it's not all the way down. But notice the eye on top for the rope, I believe yours should be the same.

[ally505]

Certainly no damage to mine, just looks to be a different design. I'm reluctant to use a small length of rope and shackle as it will likely bounce around and damage the gel.

[ScooterMcgavin]

Does yours pull up anymore that what's shown in your pic? Yes it does look different, but it is there for towing and not lifting the boat. To answer your question as to how to connect a rope to it, you just pull the rope thru the eye until desired length then put the handle of the rope thru the same desired length loop after it passes thru the pylon and pull the rest of the rope thru. And to remove just reverse the process. Hope that helps and I'm understanding your question correctly.

[Quinner]

Looking at those pics I bet that is a lifting ring and not a tow point, never seen a true tow point that was not either a ring/finger or circular like the top of a pylon or the tower tow point, technically if it is a lift ring it is designed for a vertical load, using it as a tow point could potentially cause gel cracks or failure. Safety stickers are on the transom regardless, don't think it was placed there to infer that lift ring is a tow point. If there are no lift points under your platform then I would say that is almost certainly your lift ring.

That being said would I tow light loads from a lift ring, yes, particularly with the gel shape at that transom.

[ScooterMcgavin]

Here's a few shots of the lifting rings under the platform and what I thought was a towable water sports pylon. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but are you not supposed to use the pylon for towable water sports?

[charlesml3]

Looking at those pics I bet that is a lifting ring and not a tow point, never seen a true tow point that was not either a ring/finger or circular like the top of a pylon or the tower tow point, technically if it is a lift ring it is designed for a vertical load, using it as a tow point could potentially cause gel cracks or failure. Safety stickers are on the transom regardless, don't think it was placed there to infer that lift ring is a tow point. If there are no lift points under your platform then I would say that is almost certainly your lift ring.

That being said would I tow light loads from a lift ring, yes, particularly with the gel shape at that transom.

I'm pretty sure that if this ring is strong enough to lift the boat, it's plenty strong enough to tow most anything.

[scottb7]

Nothing is broken...That is the lifting ring, not the combo lift ring, rope thingy, but of course you can use it for pulling whatever for water sports...i.e. tubes and skiers...I have read it from Nautique somewhere....Since we usually wakeboard off the tower and it was pretty infrequent when we used that I either just put the end of the rope thru and tied like 6 knots so it never got too hard to come out...Or I just used a huge carabiner clip.

[ally505]

I have no doubt the lifting ring/crappy design towing eye is plenty strong enough for towing biscuits/skiers etc, The Combo one certainly makes sense, I may see if I can swap mine over for that.

[Quinner]

What the ...........
That is crazy, what is the deal with 2 different pull out pieces? And there are lift rings below the platform as well? Scooter's latest pic is definitely shaped to be a tow point and apparently also functions as a lift ring yet ally's looks to be just a lift ring? Makes me wonder if how they are integrated to the deck/hull varies as well??

[Quinner]

I'm pretty sure that if this ring is strong enough to lift the boat, it's plenty strong enough to tow most anything.

On many models lift rings are not true multi function designed like the OP's boat, the deck mounted ring is pretty much a pass thru with a trim ring, the rigid mount designed to carry the load is in the hull bottom, a threaded rod goes up from the hull bottom then thru the deck to where it is attached to the lift ring. When used as intended for a vertical load, to lift, the load transfers to the hull bottom not the deck. If you use a lift ring for a horizontal load as a tow point the load will transfer to the deck, not down to the hull bottom as intended.

[swatguy]

That's definitely a lifting ring not a tow point on you boat Ally .

there were 3 options in 2008 IIRC. ALLY has the base option 1) standard lift ring
scooter posted option 2) the combo lift ring /towpoint, my boat has option 3 which is a pop up pylon (sorry no pics). As mentioned a lift ring is designed to support the weight of the vertically, it's not designed to take the horizontal forces put on it by a skier or whipping a tube around. There are a reason ski pylons and tow points have different reinforcement aspects to them than lifting rings . Simply put the tow point areas are much beefier and designed to disburse horizontal stress.


With that said. I'd be curious to see how the pop up lift ring is mounted compared to my pop up pylon. I have never seen the standard lift ring option in all my years in these boats. Always the combo or the ski pylon . I won't say for certain you can't tow there , because I don't know exactly how that mounts......... but considering there were two other options available that were designed specifically to pull (skiers, tubes, etc ) I would venture to say using that lift ring as a towpoint is a bad idea and it was not mounted the proper way to be used as such given the other two options were available.......but again that's merely speculation on my part

[ally505]

I'll snap some pics of the internals, appreciate if you could do likewise. it would be interesting to see how my setup differs from the other two options. My guess, and hope, the combo pop up mounting to the hull will be very similar... Primarily I need an option to pull kids on a ski biscuit when they are not in the mood to ski or board...

[Quinner]

Was hoping you would jump in here Kris. Guessing then your boat (option 3) has the (2) lift points below the platform where Ally & Scooter would not?? Really curious to see pics how everything is attached on each boat including the below platform rings.

Ally, not sure if it would work on your boat without buggering up vinyl or anything else, if you can feed the rope thru your lift ring and then to the tower tow point, that "should" put a majority of the horizontal load directly to the tower?? This method works well with a direct drive from the pylon, may be too much angle trying from the tower??

[ScooterMcgavin]

Was hoping you would jump in here Kris. Guessing then your boat (option 3) has the (2) lift points below the platform where Ally & Scooter would not?? Really curious to see pics how everything is attached on each boat including the below platform rings.

Ally, not sure if it would work on your boat without buggering up vinyl or anything else, if you can feed the rope thru your lift ring and then to the tower tow point, that "should" put a majority of the horizontal load directly to the tower?? This method works well with a direct drive from the pylon, may be too much angle trying from the tower??

Quinner see pics above, mine does have lifting rings under platform and the combo lift ring/ tow point. I don't have pics of how they are attached to the hull though.