Minimum ID for Aluminum Tubing - Building a Tower

ferrarispider95 · Criminal Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 90

Having a flight control inspired tower built for my nautique.

I am purchasing some aluminum tubing i the range of 1.75" up to 2", and my question is how much inner wall do I need for strength?

Also on the mounts, nautique just uses flat mounts with no joints. I was thinking of doing the same, and renforcing the fiberglass underneath, and the mounts will be on a completely horizontal surface. Does that sound ok?

It is a 82 Ski Nautique 2001 and I was ready to buy a monster tower, but just not 100% on the looks on my boat. I will mention, monster tower looks great on many of the boats I see. My boat is pretty angular, so a tower that has more sharpness to it, seems to looks better.

Any help, is appreciated. thanks and will post pics.

joedirt00 · Posted: Mar 18, 2005 12:33 pm Post subject:

Check this site, look like exactly what you need to know.

http://www.inboardtalk.com/tower/tower.html

Same style boat, same tower design.

keithroo · Criminal Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 90

I'd go with 1 7/8" OD 6061 tubing and I'd say .188 wall, or better yet consider some of the other universal towers on the market that appeal more to the look you're after.

keithroo · Criminal Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 90

I'd go with 1 7/8" OD 6061 tubing and I'd say .188 wall, or better yet consider some of the other universal towers on the market that appeal more to the look you're after.

Cyclonecj · Soul Rider Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 338 City: Atlanta

I've seen some Super Sports and 2001's that did not have factory support for the tower, you could grab the vertical tower bar and move the tower back and forth, the top of the tower moved about 8" Those boats were not designed for a tower. On CC boats, the tower is mounted to the top of the gunwale, it is not stiff enough to support a tower. Poor engineering, if they stuck it to the side, it would be 10X as strong from side to side. But, they are the best so nobody will say anything bad about them.

Fishmaster · Posted: Mar 19, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject:

Check out http://www.engineersedge.com/calculators/section_square_case_12.htm if you want the nitty gritty but basically the strenght and stiffness of tubing increases to the fourth power with increasing OD, which greatly favors larger diameter tubing. Five years ago most towers were 1.5" to 1.875", today most towers are 1.875" to 2-1/2", with some even larger diameter. You dont see 1.5", 1.625" or 1.75" diameter towers any more.

I'll spare you the engineering lesson and just summarize that the larger the diameter the better, and if you go with the same tubing diameter and wall thickness as commercially available towers you'll be happy with the result.