There's an understatement. I remember looking at them when I was A-frame and tank rack shopping.
Zip; you should be able to find a local fabricator who can bend up stainless or aluminum tubing and weld it up to your design. Draw it up, and start calling local metal shops (if you're going aluminum, try local muffler shops as well.) The critical parts are the mounting base dimensions, so you may want to arrange an in-boat fitting prior to completion. The rest is relatively simple (well, except for the bending and welding part... )
I checked on local craigs list looking for a wake board tower you could use or modify.But even used ones of those were around the $600 mark.
So I think you are going to be lucky to drop on an economical solution
I will keep my eyes open.
cheers dal
I would try a local fab shop or even a shop that works on race car chassis frames and 4x4 tube work. I bent mine up in a couple of hours but it was just a single leg one. Made mine out of mild steel as I do not have a tig or spool gun.
My arch is (manufacturer made) of 2" aluminum tubing. It has broken a couple of times due to side-to-side flex from (I believe) trailering the boat.
I"ve got it rigged with a repair that allows it to felx a bit at the weak point (rather than having it rewelded); if it goes again, I'll look into replacing with a SS arch. If that proves too costly, I'll have a cross-brace welded in.
Kind of a pain to do, as I've got a bunch of wiring going up the arch that has to be pulled out.
Botom line: if you go aluminum, make sure the thing is very rigidly designed. Aluminum doesn't like repeated flexing.
I have had both aluminum and stainless and I would have to agree jky in that the aluminum flexes a lot. Stainless is a bit heavier, but it is solid. I had my aluminum one made and it ran me $400.00. But it got scratched over time even with the coating.
Luckily, I was able to score my stainless for $250.00. But I have been thinking about purchasing a 12 ton bender and making my own. When you take the cost of the bender which is $100.00 or less and the cost for some schedule 40 2" aluminum at 20 feet is 65.00. It almost warrants for someone to give it a try. Stainless is 90.00 for 1 inch in a 20 foot lengths.
I would like to make something like on this Nov 450DL
Perhaps you can get by with a single post (or perhaps a couple of posts.) Less material, and simpler mounting.
Might also try a muffler shop once you get plans together; they'd probably be a lot cheaper than a marine fabricator.
jky
I had a pair of frames bent up by a race car muffler shop and then laser cut & bent the sections which link the two to give more strength
Less than £500.00 the lot
)
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