Roswell Tower Report

The1fromGunn · Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 8 City: Alberta Beach

Bought an Area 52 SI tower. Does look good, decient price 2800 bucks installed with racks. The quality is good.

I do have concerns with the design. I get a lot of shaking with the tower. Going over any waves it has LOTS of lateral movement. There are 8 pivot points that only have set screws to keep them together. This IMHO is to allow the tower to fit multiple boat designs. The problem is that when after the tower is installed, the screw keep backing out and the side ball and socket joints provide too much play. It is almost like once the tower gets installed, they need a way to PERMINANTLY fix these piviot points

The downfall is then the tower will only be good for that year/make/model of boat but who cares???????

Set screws are not the answer and I am done with the red locktite!!!!

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

The1fromGunn, haha man I had the exact same problem. I tried a lot of different things. I drilled a notch so that the setscrew would actually go inside of the tower instead of just surface tension. That helped a lot but it still would sway a little and creak a lot.

I ended up just getting those joints welded together from a shop that works with aluminum welding a lot. Cost me $120 but it was solid after that. I couldn't take it off and move it to another boat but who does that?

If you search for roswell on this site you'll see some posts I've made about being unhappy with the roswell product. Both of my board racks broke and I had to get them welded back together. Lots of problems for a tower at a premium price. The tower was already installed when I bought the boat but if I were to do it I think I would go with a custom manufacturer like Sampson.

The1fromGunn · Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 8 City: Alberta Beach

WakeBrad,

Do you have the area 52 2006 tower?. Welding those joints was the first thing I thought of but I am concerned that the heat would screw up the clear coating on the 2006 towers

Let me know!!!!

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

no, it was the old style. Probably 4 years old. It just had powdercoating over it, not the new stuff they are spraying. The shop just taped off the edges so it wouldn't remove any unless necessary. Then they sprayed the joint with spraypaint which I was skeptical about but it blended pretty well. You could ask Roswell if it will hurt the clear coat or the shop should be able to tell you.

acurtis_ttu · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 499 City: Houston

not tryign to come off as an a**, but why did you pay $2,800 for a tower that is not custom fit for your boat? Anythign sith set screws does not work as intended on a boat. I had a couple of racks that incorporated them and ended up just throwing them away they were so much trouble.

The1fromGunn · Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 8 City: Alberta Beach

The 2800 included racks and mounting. The plan was since Roswell is here in Edmonton, they can support the product. They are now developing a support bracket for my issue as they have seen it happen themselfs

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

wow, that sounds a lot better than the support I got -- which was none.

hco · Posted: Aug 22, 2006 9:10 am Post subject:

Brad- I appreciate you posting up information like your experiences, you definitely swayed me away from Roswell. I would be ed if I spent a summers worth of pay checks on a tower setup that sucked.