[MariahMan]

Well i got a chance to go through all of the pictures that got taken over this past summer. No shot with the bimini up, sorry.

The picture i thought had the mounting of the tower supports actually had them covered by the carpet. So no luck on either shot. I may be able to at least get a shot of the mounting in a couple weeks after the boat is winterized. I gotta pull out the batteries so i can take a shot of the mounting while i'm there.

Update:

I did find this on ebay though:

There's a good example of how not to do a tower. It really ruined the lines on that Mariah, sorry to say.

Here's the whole listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Maria...QQcmdZViewItem

[97 Z222]

[QUOTE=MariahMan;2249]
There's a good example of how not to do a tower. It really ruined the lines on that Mariah, sorry to say.

I have to agree with you on that one. I think custom is the way to go. It's more money, but you end up enhancing the lines and the look.

[BarnzieZ222]

just ran across this thread....crazy....

i am undecided about it. I am actually the new owner of that boat....my first one ever... yes it looks a bit out of place on there but i wakeskate quite a bit and love the old school Fulks Mariah boats so i had a hard time passing this one up. and it was only 2 hours away in Des Moines. i have to take it half apart so the boat fits in my shop. if it becomes a pain storing it, (wich i think it is going to be) i might just ditch it. funny to see the pic of it on here. Thank you guys for the cool site..i have learned quite a bit here in the last few months..keep up the good work

Jon Barnes

[MariahMan]

Hey Jon, welcome to the club.

Sorry the first thing you saw was us ragging on your boat man, that's no good. We can't fault you since you bought it like that. Regardless, still a great boat with our without the tower.

Thanks for the kind words and we're glad to have you as a member.

[dudders]

Jon, Your boat looks real nice, I especially like your choice in colours. Any Mariah is a good Mariah.
Is there any way of easily disconnecting the wake tower when storing or not being used?
Can you get quick release mounting brackets or catches for these things.
If I put a tower on my boat there would be no way I could store it under cover.

[mikeyt]

Originally Posted by MariahMan

Hey Jon, welcome to the club.

Sorry the first thing you saw was us ragging on your boat man, that's no good. We can't fault you since you bought it like that. Regardless, still a great boat with our without the tower.

Thanks for the kind words and we're glad to have you as a member.

Way to go Ryan!!

I agree though that it wasn't the best way to do the tower installation but it may have been simply what the prior owner could afford or he didn't think/know about the custom side of these things.

Either way....it's still a nice Mariah!

[BarnzieZ222]

well thanks guys. Like i said before, i might ditch the thing if it becomes a pain. As for disassembly, the rear legs are in two pieces with a male/female connection and a bolt two feet up from the anchor point (just below where the bimini attaches). remove the bolts, pop the tower towards the bow and the legs fall limp aginst the side and allow the tower to tilt back. I use a few patio cushions to shim between the tower and the gelcoat when it is tilted back to prevent dings. It rattles like hell when on the water so i was going to ask if that was common to most aftermarket towers or does the old "you get what you pay for" saying hold true in this case? most boats i have been towed behind didnt have a tower..the only tower boat i have been on is a tige with a factory tower....it didnt rattle so thats why im curious about the one on my boat. thank you again for the kind words....i know that sucker is ugly...no hurt feelings from this end!!

[schweddy]

I would hesitate to say that rattling would be common for all aftermarket towers, as well as the ‘you get what you paid for” (for some cases at least). There has got to be a way to make it stop rattling/stiffen it up. Maybe look for worn fasteners, joints with extra play in them etc. If you are really interested in getting rid of it, send your dimensions to Samson. I bet they could design a sweet tower around your already existing mounting locations.

As for the “you get what you pay for”… There is no doubt that paying more normally gets you an overall better product. But when I worked as an engineer for HO Sports/Hyperlite we had a “fleet” (3 or 4 depending who was on a trip) of top of the line Mastercraft wakeboarding and ski boats. The wakeboarding boats had the most poorly designed towers I have ever seen. They worried more about what kind of crazy designs could be CNC machined into their giant aluminum sides instead of making them actually function superiorly well. They flexed, rattled, came loose and were overall giant piles of crap.

You may notice that many hardcore/competition wakeboard boats have been refitted with nice towers like the ones Samson makes.

[97 Z222]

I was at the Seattle boat show last week-end, great show, much better than the Vancouver boat show. Sampson Sports was there, and I talked to one of the designers who had a lap top with him to show samples of towers. He had about 6 Mariah's, including Mariah Man's. I've decided that these guy's will build my tower for me, with speaker wires and built in bimini top. I've looked for a while now, and I haven't found any towers custom or otherwise that look as good as there custom tower, IMO. I may wait until the end of this coming season as I am probably looking at $3000-$3500. Other features I like are the ability of being able to colapse the tower almost completely flat for storage, with one person, without having to remove it. The mounting blocks are machined to fit the shape of the boat so there are no stress points on the hull. The use all stainless fasteners. Just a well built tower.
I wonder if my wife would think this a good birthday gift for her, then I wouldn't have to wait

[schweddy]

Yeah, there is no doubt Samson towers are some of the best out there. Good idea to get it wired for speakers, if you even think that you would put lights up there too, I would recommend that you also have them run some wires through for that too - it will save you a lot of swearing should you ever decide to add them.

I think MariahMan will join me on this next piece of knowledge. The only "bad" thing I can think of about Samson towers are the handles used to hold the joints together. They are pretty easy to drop when trying to assemble/disassemble which isn’t so bad, unless you are on the water (no big deal to get more.. McMaster Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/) sells them for $7, but it is an easy way to ruin a day out on the water, it is probably not a bad idea to carry a spare in your boat). One of MariahMan’s is sitting at the bottom of Lake Chelan right now, the worst part of the whole thing is that the water was so clear we could see the damn thing sitting on the bottom just out of reach for our free-diving abilities. Luckily we could borrow one from someone else’s boat which was not being used and the weekend was saved.