Help with boat set up

Iowa Fireman · Newbie Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 2 City: Muscatine

I've been wakeboarding for four years on the Mississippi River. I've only seen two boats with towers and have only seen one boat actually pulling a boarder in over 14 years. So in other words, there isn't much interest around here or people enjoying the sport. So I am looking for a little advice.

I own a 04' Fourwinns 170 Horizon with a 190hp inboard and a max capacity of 1150 lbs. I've been looking at towers and am thinking about possibly a Monster. Other things I'm curious about is adding weight, and if I need to change my prop. Any suggestions on how to upgrade the boat or if it is even worth it will be greatly appreciated.

640Pressman · Addict Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 753

The monster is the best tower out there for the $$$ IMHO. You can add a fat sack or two but I'm not sure how much weight a 17ft I/O will handle. You might want to get a lower pitch prop also for better hole shots and it might help holding speed.

Kento911 · Addict Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 958 City: Devore

Iowa Fireman, at 190 hp, I gotta assume that your boat has a six cylinder or possibly even a four, this really does not bode well for adding weight, but I think you could add a tower just fine, and monster towers are very well made and affordable, I would say buy a tower for your current boat and enjoy, if you feel you want the advantage of ballast, I would say save up and look for a new/used wake boat somewhere down the line, or you could even find an older Nautique, Mastercraft, Malibu, or any name brand ski boat and then upgrade it with a tower, and the small block v-8 those come with should handle some fat sacs just fine

munchkin9 · Outlaw Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 174 City: Mandan, ND

i don't mean 2 get off subject but were on da mississippi do you board?

Iowa Fireman · Newbie Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 2 City: Muscatine

Thanks for the replys so far. I'm not really in the market to buy something else for a while so, I need to see what I can do to make this work. The wake is pretty crappy but we still manage to get some decent airs. We started running this year with no fins and swing wide on our edges to hit the wake faster.

We are in pool 16 and 17 on the Mississippi.

noneya · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 796 City: Roxboro, NC

Tower = Definetly

I think you could add a 300# sac with no prob, it would definetly help.

What speed and rope length are you running, that also has a lot to do with wake shape/size. Never ridden in that boat boarding (but have skiing) but if i had to guess I would say go for about 19-20 w/ about 55' of rope (if you are pulling off the rear ski tie)

matt1808 · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 1981

when weighing down an inboard/outboard you want to put more weight up front than in back. like noneya, said a 300# sac should be fine. If you put it up front you should see a change. But I don't think your engine would be able to take a whole lot more than that.

Also I don't really think a new prop is needed.

640Pressman · Addict Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 753

How do you know if a prop in not needed with out being in the boat ? If your boat is slow to plane out and you have trouble holding a correct wakeboarding speed a lower pitch prop should help.