Tow Ring / Lifting eye

not sure if you should but i just dragged my
75 lb daughter around w/her goofy buddies just
this weekend with no problems. they call them
lifting rings and if they can hold the boat up indefinately then they should be able to drag someone around.

but im probably wrong!

I've used the lifting ring for tubes for years without issue. However, I've never pulled on of these giant tubes with 5 or 6 people on it behind my boat. BKH

p/allen has a beautiful boat BTW. Was in Greenlake and I thought it was a contender for best boat in its vintage. Unfortunately he came up against that rare 70s orange promo boat. BKH

Thanks ,BKH. Glad you were there to see it . Hope you can make it next year

Pat

My 83's lift ring had been used to pull something by the previous owner and was bent rearward. i was able to straighten it most of the way but that should answer the question.

JHolton, Im assuming you have a '90+ Nautique? If so, youre right- it would be very hard to pull from the lifting rings since they are so low. The rope would mark up the platform pretty good- I dont even use them to tie up to the dock because of this. You dont want to tow more than 1 skier from that rear pylon- its only through-bolted through the fiberglass.

The older boats that can use the lifting ring to tow because of where it is located. Here is a shot of Alan's '81 that shows it.

JHolton:

I use the tow "spool" on the back of my '93SN to pull tubers. Never had a problem. Tim is right that the spool is simply through bolted with on large bolt, but it should have an aluminum backing plate on the underside of the deck and the deck is very thick in this area.

I would however, avoid pulling two skiers/boarders/tubers at once.

David F wrote: JHolton: I use the tow "spool" on the back of my '93SN to pull tubers. Never had a problem. Tim is right that the spool is simply through bolted with on large bolt, but it should have an aluminum backing plate on the underside of the deck and the deck is very thick in this area. I would however, avoid pulling two skiers/boarders/tubers at once.

David, I just pulled mine off to be powdercoated and there's no backing plate on mine- just a big washer. Youre right though- the glass is very thick.

i believe on my 72 that the lifting ring is also bolted down through and also connected to the back wall of the boat . That is what i seem to remember the last time i took out the gas tank.

Pat

Please don't put a pull ring on the transom or rear deck. May I suggest you simply fix your lifting ring support?

The threaded rod transfer the force from the ring to the steel angle mounted (glassed) to the transom. The ring is threaded onto the threaded rod. Simply remove the top side screws on the ring, remove the nuts from the threaded rod and pull the ring straight up and out of the boat. Attempt to purchase stainless threaded rod. Or, buy regular threaded rod and paint liberally after installation.

Now, reassemble everything making sure the new plywood block is sandwiched tight to the underside of the deck (make sure you use Life Boat Caulk or equal to seal the ring/deck). This effectively clamps the deck between the ring and plywood block. Next, clamp the steel angle bracket with two nuts on the threaded rod. Make sure you do not cause the deck to pull down or lift up when doing this step. Finally, replace the two sheet metal screws on the lifting ring.

What you should have noticed is that the wood blocks purpose is to prevent the deck from moving down and away from the lifting ring when people step on the deck close to the ring. If the deck were to move, it would cause the two sheet metal screws to pull out fo the fiberglass. The two screws are simply there to prevent the ring from rotating.

And finally, the threaded rod contributes very little to the strength of the ring assembly when pulling skiers/tubers/boarders. The strength in this scenario comes more from the clamping force of the wood block under the deck...so yes, this needs to be relatively tight. Forgot to mention, use double larger washers between the wood block and nut. You also should double nut (i.e. jamb nut) to prevent it from coming loose in the future. Use lock washers at the steel angle.

Hope this helps.

Well I hate to admit this. But after I took my youngest wake skating late yesterday afternoon, he brought a couple of friends over. They, of course, wanted to tube, so we did. Now, his friends are 10th and 11th grade. One of them weighed in at 300+ and the other about 220#. We've got two tubes, both were hooked up to the rear lift ring of our 69 SN. No problems.
It did however get interesting when my son went back to his wake skate and I had these two guys both sitting in the forward observer seat. We were a bit bow heavy--had to take it easy on the left hand power turns, and watch the angle I approached rollers at idle speed.
There is still hope for America's youth, because both were truly impressed to be riding in a classic with a 318 rumbling.
Chuck

How 'bout
"You want big air kid, pull my finger, or try trick skis."