TOW BAR FOR A PARTY BARGE

[ELCATAMARAN]

Hello Guys:
I think this may be helpfull for Sun Tracker Party Barge owners.
I own a 2005 Regency Sun Tracker Party Barge. As the engine is fast enough for skiing and tubing I decided to build a tow bar custom made to fit this pontoon. After I finished the bar, installed it and tested it, I can tell you that it worked great. It is strong enough to pull anything in the water, it does not damage the toon as it is very well fixed with several suports and it does not get on the way of anything on the toon, besides it looks nice!!
I made it myself using a mufler pipe bending machine and had it chromed at a local shop.
Hope it helps some body wondering if they can put a tow bar int their pontoon.
Attached are some pictures of the bar.

[Woody]

Good job !!

[Racin929]

VERY nice. You should make another and sell it. To me..

[Mrtoler]

Looks great man, that was a great idea to bend the pipe back under the boat to catch several cross members!

[badmoonrising]

Nice job !

[blackberg]

that is a great idea

looks great
-bb

[fredeboy]

Looks Nice. How are you attaching the rope to the bar?

[gramps]

You did a great job and it looks very sturdy.

[jimrs]

Wow! That's the most over engineered tow bar I have ever seen. That is the way the other manufactures should build Theirs. Excellent job it should last you the rest of your life.

One question I do have is. How much clearance did you give the rope over the top of the motor. Will the rope rub on the top motor cover?

[ELCATAMARAN]

Thanks guys for your nice comments, I´m glad you liked the tow bar!!

Racin929: I would love to build one for you but as I live in Mexico it would be complicated to ship it throught the border, besides I believe shiping cost ill be high considering the size and dimentions of the tow bar. Any way, I´ll be posting a picture with the exact measurments so you can have one build for you at any local automotive mufler shop.

Fredeboy: As you may notice, there is ahook at the top of the tow bar where I attach the ski rope with a couple of loops and off we go!!
Besides, the hook is very easy to reach from the back seat of the pontoon.

Jimrs: I made a "prototype" model of the tow bar with PVC pipes and attached it to the toon to do some clearence testing before building the metal tow bar. Afterwards I have done lots of testing with tubes, water ski and several towables and have no clearence problems neither with the motor cover nor anything else so far.
You may notice on the picture I post here with my boy waterskiing, the rope is far away from everything.

Eventually I´ll post a picture with te exact measurments of the tow bar when I go to the lake where I keep my toon.
I´ll be happy to answer any question about the bar.

Cheeers from Mexico!!
Roberto

[curtiscapk]

Bad Ass!! looks a liittle better than mine.

[Drago]

That is an awesome job. I normally do not comment just to add a post but again I'll say AWESOME!! Like someone said, the way the boatmakers should do it.

[lx22f/c]

That looks good.

[newbie32]

ELCATAMARAN: we have almost the same boat. I have an 05' suntracker with a 115 merc, 4 stroke. We purchased used a few months ago. If you dont mind me asking, what is your top speed? I see you have a skier on the back. We have only towed a tube at this point because we have only been able to get to 19mph. I think it should have more speed than that. Any info you have would be greatly appreciated. We have a tow bar similar to yours on the back as well.

[ELCATAMARAN]

Hi there newbie32: Glad to share the info I got, I should tell you though, that I´m no expert.
Anyway, the top speed I have ever reached is 31 mph with 4 passengers in calm water with no wind and with the bimini top down. With one skier and 2 passengers I´ve got up to 29 mph tops also with the top down. With the top up I loose about 3 mph. All this measurements are with GPS at WOT and using a little bit of trim to get a couple of extra miles and get the engine up to 5,750 RPM.
The difference I see with your engine is that yours is four stroke and mine is two stroke, I don´t really know if this makes a difference in top speed.
Something I would do is check the propeller with an expert at your local marina, maybe you may gain some speed down there and, also a tune up always help.

Hope this info is usefull for you!!