www.iFourWinns.com

Has anyone put an aftermarket wakeboard tower on a 244 Funship with the Factory Bimini? If so, which tower did you go with? I'm looking at the Taylor Wakeboard Tower. I spoke with the company and it sounds like it will work as it's 5 feet tall....And why do none of the adverts for towers ever give their height?

I am having Samson towers build me one on the rear of the boat, I currently have a Barewest mounted in the center, cant use the bimini and wakebard at the same time.

Sounds a bit wierd but think.....

factory bimini up,
Manage the tower from the walk- through
bimini can stow under the tower

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2004 234 Funship

I have a 2006 H240 with a stock aluminum wakeboard tower. Extreme Tower Products (XTP) made the FW towers that year and others. You might try Monster Towers who sell XTP products at:
http://monstertower.com
I ordered an XTP mirror from them last year, got prompt service and an excellant product.

Not a funship, but I just had a Sampson Tower put on my 220 Horizon (2002). I'm very happy with how it matches the lines of the boat.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t225/sullivanmar/DSCN2306.jpg

Which Samson tower are you going with? If i went with Samson I was thinking of going with the Saber and having it mounted far back. I've seen similiar photo shots of the Taylor tower in that position, including one at my marina and it looks good. I was going to order the Taylor tower next month, but I'm definitely going to look further into the Samson option, which also happens to be $500 cheaper at $1999.

Just checking back in to see if you made a decison on the tower. I want to add one but cannot this year due to lack of funds, but have looked at the Taylor Tower. We have a full bimini and would not/could not go without it.

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Todd, Tina, Alex (11) and Ava Grace (7)
'07 244 Funship, Black, Forward Bimini, Custom Cover, 5.7 Gi DP
'03 27TBS Coachman Shasta
'08 F250 PSD
'04 Excusion EB PSD, RAS, Bilsteins and Wood Trim
'96 Camry - What I drive!

I just placed an order 2 days ago for the Samson Saber tower. Spoke with Scott there a number of times and he was a great help. Considered the Reverse Arch also but as we use the Bimini a lot I felt it would be easier to have the Saber tower. We are going to mount it far back so that it is over the back legs of the Bimini.

I think the Samson tower looks nicer than the Taylor tower plus its 2 1/2 inch tubes instead of 2 inch. It's one solid unit as it is custom made where as the Taylor tower is adjustable. Its going to take 2 -3 weeks to build and then another week to ship across the country....and then I have to install it. But I'll try and post some photos here once I finally get it all done.

Great. I would really enjoy seeing the pics when you are done. Are you planning to install yourself? Can you document and take pics of the install also?

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Todd, Tina, Alex (11) and Ava Grace (7)
'07 244 Funship, Black, Forward Bimini, Custom Cover, 5.7 Gi DP
'03 27TBS Coachman Shasta
'08 F250 PSD
'04 Excusion EB PSD, RAS, Bilsteins and Wood Trim
'96 Camry - What I drive!

Planning to do it myself and can take photos and/or video. Website says it should take 4 hours....we'll see!

We just received the tower last week and installed it this weekend. It took rather a long time to get the tower made, as Samson couldn't find a similar boat to get the measurements from. In the end they gave me a $50 discount to go and measure the boat myself. The Tower looks great and I will take some photos this weekend and post them. I am so glad I went with this tower which is all welded together as one piece rather than going with the Taylor Tower that you assemble. The Samon tower is also 2 1/2" tubing instead of 2" which gives is a more rugged feel. If you go with this tower in the rear position, I would suggest you have Samson make it an inch wider than mine. The Bimini top opens and closes fine with the tower, but it is snug at the sides, and I am going to have to find a way to limit the lateral movement of the tower as I think the two and going to rattle against each other when we are under way.

We also got the rope-saver light attached so now I can do away with the light-pole plus we got 2 racks that I need to attach. I got a winter deal so the shipping was largely paid for....I just had to pay $70 to cover shipping to a residential address.

I forgot to take any photos during construction. The trickiest part was holding the tower in place initially to make sure the Bimini would open. The boat is very square at the back so you can move it back and forth quite a bit to find the best position as the width of the boat there is pretty constant. Ideally you need an adult on each side to hold the tower in place, and then someone on the boat, to check the bimini will open ok. Doing it with 2 adults only was tricky and I probably mounted it further back than I needed to, just to be safe.

After that I just had to remove the seat backs to access the inside of the boat. You drill two holes either side and mount the rear hardware. They provide everything you need except a wrench and allen key. You then attach the tower and then work out where the front legs need to attach. The Front legs need 1 hole drilled each for a total of 6 holes. The instructions are pretty clear although there a couple of things I had to read 2 or 3 times before I fully understood. We installed the tower in around 3 1/2 hours although I have yet to replace the seat backs, wire in the navigation light and attach the racks.

One downside. We store our boat in a dry stack Marina and although we could store the boat with the Bimini up, the tower is just too tall now so we will have to fold it down each time......but that is easy to do. You just unscrew the 2 front knobs and roll it back.

Hope this helps and look out for photos soon.

Great to hear that the tower went up with no major issues. Congratulations! I am very interested to see some pictures showing the overall look (especially with the Bimini open) and specific location.

How did the Samson compare with the Taylor Tower in terms of cost?

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Todd, Tina, Alex (11) and Ava Grace (7)
'07 244 Funship, Black, Forward Bimini, Custom Cover, 5.7 Gi DP
'03 27TBS Coachman Shasta
'08 F250 PSD
'04 Excusion EB PSD, RAS, Bilsteins and Wood Trim
'96 Camry - What I drive!

The Samson Tower was $1999 and the Taylor was $2499 (when I checked last year). The Racks were about $250 each from both companies. Taylor's shipping charge was a flat $199 for most of the US and is cheaper as it packs flat. Samson's shipping from WA to GA was around $350 but it was waived as part of a winter promotion. However I had to pay a $70 surcharge for delivery to a residential address.

I will post photos hopefully after this weekend. Samson would also like photos to post on their website in return for a T-shirt. Scott at Samson seems a very knowledgeable person and seems to have gone to great lengths to make sure he has a happy customer. I would definitely recommend them.

I did see the Taylor tower on a boat at our marina. It looks good and it probably a little easier to fit as its fully adjustable. But the Samson tower just looks fantastic and is worth the extra bit of effort (plus its cheaper!).

Here are some photos

http://thefairlies.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

I know this post is about 4 years old,....was wondering how things were going on your FW funship? Thinking of buying a used 244 funship but will have to install a tower as well. Most interested in how the wakeboarding is behind your boat. Is the wake tall enough for your liking? Can you surf behind the boat as well? The one I'm looking at has a double bimini top, but the tower as you have it installed should not be a problem if done the same way. Mostly interested in whether or not I'll be able to wake board and wake surf from this boat. Hoping it's big and heavy enough to create a decent size wake a smaller, say 22 foot or less bowrider would create. Thanks in advance, Bill

We still love our funship and the tower. We wakeboard behind it all the time and now our teenage children are doing the same. We are not experts by any stretch of the imagination but it gives us enough wake for what we need. Not sure about surfing though.....that might be a little ambitious......but if you trimmed the engine up enough, that might help.