Gladiator Towe Custom Surf Rack

[JJOcean 30]

51 minutes ago, RhuntIII said:

No, it looks real good. I think your gonna be very happy once you get your boards up and out of the way, Looks way cooler than surfboards hanging off the side of the tower. What are your plans for the bimini and getting it over the tower and under the racks. Did you see the pics of my bimini mod?

The threaded 2" x 1/2" bolts are the only thing that holds the spacer & racks on - bolt simply passes through the rack & spacer (neither are threaded).  You back that bolt  out of the tapped hole in the tower - everything is completely disconnected from the tower.  My plan is to put the bimini up without the racks on.  The bimini has 4 1.5" holes cut & hemmed exactly where the tapped holes are & the spacers go - 1/2" extra clearance in the bimini holes for buffer.  Once the bimini is up, I place the spacers up there one at a a time in each opening, put the rack on top of that & feed the bolt through both the rack/spacer and into the threaded hole in the tower to secure everything.  I'll thread the bolts loose one at a time & then tighten down once they are all in.

If I every need/want to take the top down - I just remove the bolts and the spacers/racks are disconnected. I just need to hold onto the spacer & rack when I pull the bolt out to make sure they don't slide down the side of the bimini and into the water

I'll take pics of it all once I get my boat back from the dealer - pics will probably make it a little clearer.

[JJOcean 30]

Finally got the boat back from the dealer this week ... took forever on parts, some parts missing, wait for second shipment, etc.  All working as it should now.  Anyway, got the racks mounted.  I hope to use them this coming weekend.

[P10-WRC 6]

racks look good but just wondering how you are going to reach them being that high up and that much bimini.  Are you going to have to stand on the gunwales?  

[RhuntIII 555]

Yes he will have to stand on the gunwales. What about your bimini, Do you have to take the racks off to remove the bimini?

 

[Nick213 583]

X2?

I really like how your zippers work out on yours Rhunt and I like the brackets JJ did! If I were to put these racks on my tower I'd use JJ's bracket mount concept and the zippers in the Bimini like Rhunt. The only reason I won't add these racks are because I won't be able to reach my boards without climbing all over the boat to get to my boards but if I had a long board that would be a different story.

[JJOcean 30]

Yes - I will have to stand on the gunwales to get the boards on/off.  Yes - I have to take the racks off to take the bimini down.  All trade-offs I made.

My deciding factors were:

I'm 6'4", so no way they could they go under - already hit head on inner speakers from time to time.  As for the bimin, it stays up for us all season, so I wanted as clean and small as openings as possible.  If I was trailering the boat I would have gone the zipper route.

[WakeDoc 471]

Why not add pocket to the binimi like the newer boat come with?

 

[JJOcean 30]

7 hours ago, WakeDoc said:

Why not add pocket to the binimi like the newer boat come with?

 

I had templates for the pockets, but my bimini top angles up, flat for a little bit and angles down.  I really didn't realize how much curve was up there until I laid my board up there.  When I laid the templates out on the top, there were just too many curves for it to work well.  The newer style biminis are really straight/flat and work well for pockets.  I like the pockets, just couldn't figure out how to make them work well for my top.