[Bosgarage57]

Never heard of fluidcore but they have a nice package for thier cobra tower, and lifetime warranty.

[Bakes]

Originally Posted by gahooligan

Baholtz h2owarehouse IS Ariel. It's one and the same. Kane, the guy at Fluidcore in Austin carries all their towers. He matched prices on Ariel's package deal and his come with better speakers even. Also, he powder coats here in the USA. My tower will be shipped today. I'll take some pics. Looking at their photos fluidcore quality looks equal too or better than Ariel. He said Ariel makes good towers but manufacturers overseas and it's always a long wait to receive product. I know I wished they had been honest upfront about lead time. Not telling me until after they charged my card really put a bad taste in my mouth...

I had a similar issues with Aerial, delay in shipping then came powder coating issues that had chips (covered up with black paint) and thread issues. The customer service is horrible when trying to get any assistance, they like to pass the buck. Ended up having to get pieces re-powder coated which was a hassle but they finally came off of it to pay for it.

[baholtz]

I'm a couple of hours into my install. Confused is the best way to describe my current state.

Double and triple checked the layout of the legs. Holes were right on the money. Made sure I leveled the boat and the plumbed the legs. Started on the legs to the receiver today. My buddy and I spent over an hour trying to figure out how much the legs should bury into the receiver. Seem to me you should be able to measure the foot dimensions and look at a chart for this info. Nope. Nothing tells you how wide it's supposed to be. Looks to me like you just guess.
Back legs were 1/8" different. Not perfect but okay. Drilled and started on the fronts. Again it's all how you look at it. Putting them at the same meant the thing was racked terribly. Probably 1" in each direction (one leg pushing out, the other pulling in). Did my best and just let it go where it wanted to. One side is still racked but the other isn't bad. Front legs are 1/2-3/4" different.
Is it noticable? No. Will it fold perfectly? Probably not. Oh well.
I'm in construction so pretty good at this type of stuff. It's not overtly hard or complex but if they gave you an idea of dimensions you could at least try to verify you were putting it up with the right dimensions. uploadfromtaptalk1431138114335.jpg

[Motoxxx43]

Looks fine to me... Wouldn't notice that minute difference if you never mentioned it!

[gahooligan]

I am ocd and it was a nightmare for me. I have a severe symmetry complex too. If it's out 1/2" I see it and it kills me. I do a write up on mine too. Btw, that fiberglass is some thick stuff ain't it??!! Mariah really did build a Damm good boat!

[baholtz]

Thanks Moto. Yes Gahooligan, pretty thick. The whole thing will come apart and I'll reinforce connection points and loc-tight everything when it's going back together.

[baholtz]

What did you guys use for reinforcement? I'm gonna use 3/4" form-ply (cause I've got it). Trying to decide whether to set that in bondo or fiberglass resin or just 3m 5200

[gahooligan]

I used 1/2 hardwood ply. The bolts weren't long enough after going thru the 1/2 to 3/4" of fiberglass to use anything thicker. I used loc tite on anything that did not have to be loosened for folding. To run speaker wires I used 18/8 cable and passed it thru the hull using a pcv grommet from the auto parts store

[baholtz]

Unhooked the tower to fold it down. Man those legs were shaky! I dropped it off to a buddy of mine who owns a fabrication shop to weld the legs to the head receiver. Those 2 bolts per leg just weren't going to cut it. TIG it together. I'm hoping to reduce the amount of shake and side wobble. At this point I didn't notice too much wiggle when pulling it over to him. When only one side hit a hole or a bump it shook but not much. And I haven't even reinforced or cranked down the feet to the hull yet.

Found what I think is the issue with the alignment on the front. Spread from front connection to back connection points! Drivers side to passenger's side varied by 3/4". Yup. How does that happen?

[baholtz]

All,

Put up a How To on my install. Just FYI.
http://www.mariahownersclub.com/foru...html#post57139

Thanks,
Brandon