Ski Pylon

How well do the ski pylons work that attach to the back of a boat. My girls got to go tubing this weekend and loved it. I am looking at buying a center console, and will be attaching a ski pylon to pull my girls. Anyone have experience with any of them. Any recommendations?

Dont be bashful. Which one do you guys use.

I have one on my Ranger and it worked well but it would be different than what you would put in a CC. I could not tell you the brand because I bought it with the boat. A ski pole works much better than a bridle hooked to the transom. You can do a lot better job at slinging a tube. If you decide to tube without a pole just attach the rope to one of the transom eyes. I use to pull a dude that slalomed and this is how he liked it with a short rope.

David, we need to look at the back to see if we can put a pylon back there. Swivel Eeze makes a good one that has two side support braces. Haven't put in one in a CC before, but if it has room and the rear deck has the right design, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I dont have a boat yet. Just checking so when I get a boat. My girls had way too much fun on the tube for me not to get the ski pylon to pull them with.

bartswatersports.com is where I found my swivel-eze ski pylon cheaper than anywhere else... I went with the bass boat set up, but I know they have other mount applications. They work MUCH better than the ski bridal.. good luck!

I also have the swivel-eze ski pylon for my Skeeter works good and is strong screws in your back seat whole and then has 2 braces that run down to brackets in the floor.

Hey Michael, I too am looking at doing this to my 2000 ZX202. Any chance I could get some advice on where to mount the 2 support braces. I am at Ray Roberts and could meet up with you sometime for you to take a look. I am just not sure where they go since the back two compartments take up the entire back half of my boat and I am not crazy about punching holes in my fiberglass...hard to get those holes our once you put something in there.

Hey Whata bass is that a Champion boat you got? If so I would like to know how you mounted that ski pylon. I have a Champion 181 and I cant see how I am going to be able to get the nuts on the mounting brackets for the support braces. My uncle has one on his older Champion 196 but he has vents installed on the transon that he can remove to get his hands down inside to install the nuts to the mounting base but I dont have anything like that. Any help you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hey David, I got one of these for the back of my CC and it works great, just an option.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores...ROSSSELL_SEARCH

PM Replied Rzor,

I had the same setup already installed on a 98 ZX202c and loved it on that boat too!

Here is my Ski Pylon, I have the 1.77" holes for my bass seats so I needed the "1.77" to Pin" adapter. Barts had that too... All for about 250.00.

If you are just pulling em tubing, forget the pylon. You don't need it. Pylons are for pulling a skier upwards out of the water instead of dragging em thru the water to get em up. Example: I had an old Doggett stick steer boat(1972) with a 50hp Johnson. I skied behind it. Could not get up on 1, instead had to kick one off after getting up. Another guy that camped atrMcCown Valley back in those days had the exact boat, also with a 50. We had the same props even. He made himself a pylon to pull his son. It pulled me up easily. Every ski boat I had after had the pylon but I always tried em both ways just to show people with me how much easier it is, on the boat and the skier.

Oh definitely easier to pull up a skier (esp. slolunm) or wakeboarder with the pylon... Knee boards and tubes can get by without one...

Thanks for the pics. I would have to do something similar to what you have on your boat. Personally I would rather attach it to the transom for better support. I have heard some people say that they pulled through the deck. Do you add extra support under the deck with this set up. Thanks again for your reply and especially the pics.

There was additional wood about 1" thick below the glass back there so I should be OK for the occasional skiing...

You can always cut piece of 1x4 or 3/4" ply to use as a backer. On the top side just go to some bigger washers. If you set it up correctly most of the stress will be on the pylon itself. When you install it you put some tension on the arms to keep them rigid. I totally disagree with the statements that you do not need it for tubing. Pulling a tube is much easier with the pylon and you have much more control. Getting a tube up on plane can be just as tough as pulling up a skier.

Sure it is, but it is NOT needed for tubing. You also do not use a 3/4" plain pin base. I know the pole itself is the threaded one but DO use a threaded base, LOL. I saw a guy get a pylon once and just plugged into his regular base. Yep, had the arm supports and all. The 250# biscuit eater he was trying to pull up pulled it out of the base and busted the cowl all to heck, LOL LOL LOL.

It is no needed for skiing either. In high we did not even know what a pylon was. Like I said in an earlier post I used to pull a guy slalom and he used a 50' rope tied directly to one eye.

it should say high school

I pull my kids on a tube from time to time in my bay boat. I use a harness attached to the transom eyes. Problem is that the rope on the tube is so low it drags in the water and creates spray which is miserable for the tubers. It also makes it hard to get the tubers outside the wake unless you really sling them real hard. I have a 7ft pylon that attached to the boat via steel cables we use to pull wakeboarders, it’s a pain in the neck to set up. The pylon works MUCH better for tubing at least on my boat. Keeps the rope out of the water and is much easier to get them outside the wake with little effort. Bad thing is most pylons are not rated for pulling tubes.

NO KIDDING! Look, pylons were made to pull skiers UP out of the water, not thru the water. A tube is already up on the water. I would not spend the $ for a pylon and drilling holes for the support brackets if I was only going to just tube. When tubing, you do not run the speeds normally run while skiing. Unless your boat can run slow while on plane(I used an Attwood hydrofoil and I could run on plane in my Champion at under 20mph)then you are putting lots of pressure at an angle on that pylon. I would use a harness for tubing and skip the $ on adding a pylon. Sure, it works and works good, but simply not needed for tubing. Pylons get a skier up much quicker and that my friend is what they were designed for. Uses a lot less fuel is what it results in in that application.

The tube is already up on the water until you put a 250 lber on it. I tubed at or above the same speeds that we did skiing. In fact when slinging someone I increased the RPMs a fair amount. The only time I really pulled a skier faster than a tuber was a crazy buddy that just liked the speed. I had him outside the wake at 60 mph. It made me a little nervous because skis can do some bodily damage if something bad happens. I had 13 stitches in my head once to prove it. We could go back and forth on this all day.

You are right we could. David wasn't talkin about pullin a 250# and being crazy trying to sling em off. These are kids, his kids. We all did and have done crazy things and tried to throw our buddies off by going fast and stuff, but you do realize that aint what we are talkin about. These are his daughters, OK?

I am just wanting to pull my kids around. They are 2 and 5, there aint gonna be no slinging.

David... I would wait till they start skiing for the pylon... tubing and such for now should be fine with a ski bridal...

I am just going to hold off on the pylon.

You wont even have that boat by the time they take skiing serious then we will be talkin about some dude in a wakeboard boat pulling some young things and to top it off the wakeboard boat had a TFF sticker on it with a special logo signifying first member with 1,000,000 posts. LOL