2530 Tower

[BradV]

Well its not done as of yet but here is a photo the builder sent me. Should be ready next week so I can start rigging it.

 

[Bryan 2530]

I don't know, that pine may not hold up so well.

Can't wait to see this one done!!!!!!!!!

 

[DaleH]

Pine? You 'Southern boys' sure like youse honey pine don't you :?: ?

Man, if you couldn't spring the ca$h for teak, at least you could have used good Honduras' mahogany at 1/3rd the price of teak.

 

[ppem45]

I can't wait to see this one done, it's a sweet ride. Maybe I can stretch my 2120 to be a 2530

 

[BradV]

yeah budget got tight towards the end of the build so i had them swap out the aluminum for wood. Eventually it will have a 41" Control Box, belly band, bench seat with backrest, and foldable buggy top. It will end up being almost 7' off the cabin roof overall height.

 

[Robert Cibran]

Brad,

That is going to be a very nice functional tower,the people at Birdsall are great,they did the T-Top on my 2300CCDV,great guy Bob Jr.

Top of the line company and products,good luck,post some pics when done.

robert
Miami/key largo

 

[BradV]

i didnt use birdsall this time. I went with bluewater towers in boynton beach. They just got the control box from birdsall since they make a specific one. Birdsall was alot more money and i liked the designs that i had with Bluewater better.

 

[BradV]

well i have most of the rigging done. took it out today to see how everything was working. Here are a few pics. will have the full run down on Monday or tuesday still waiting for the buggy top and cushions

 

[Bryan 2530]

Tease!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :twisted:

 

[BradV]

Alright its finally finished. Foldable buggy top built by Bluewater Towers in Boynton Beach. Options on it are Helm with Aluminum 13" Wheel, Yamaha 704 Dual Binnacle, Trim tab switch, Command Mic, Start stop and kill switch, Remote control for the CMD 5, Poly Planar 6 x 9's, and the Garmin 4208 networked into the 4212 inside the cabin. Also hooked up the NMEA 2000 chord to the Commandlink Guages so that i have all engine information on the tower along with fuel burn and range and all that. Probably the best 40 bucks i spent for the wire. Well worth it if you have the option. Hopefully i will have some pictures of it on the water soon. We are planning another island run here in the next few weeks.

 

[BradV]

Here is the valance that we built in the berth that hides where the cables come in from the control tube and the wires running across to the back of the helm. Made from PVC and carpeted with Parker carpet. It comes down flush with the door opening.

 

[grouperjim]

thats 's some top-notch work you have there.

i still find it amazing that the Parker roof can hold these towers in place securely even though there are NO mechanical fasteners holding the roof onto the PH..........glue only.

 

[BradV]

I guess the roof is two parts. The actual shell of the pilothouse and then the overhang is a separate piece. I think that the grab rails on the roof probably help hold them together since the one on mine was thru bolted. I did all the rigging by myself since i didnt want to spend the money on paying someone to do it. Never done it before in my life. But so glad i took the time to learn it all so if i ever have a problem.

 

[Bryan 2530]

Nice job!!!!!!

Care to share anymore about the twin engine, dual station rigging?

As far as I know you are the first on this site to do it with twins.

Also how about a profile shot with the tower on? 8) 8) 8)

 

[grouperjim]

Brad:

looks like you trailer your boat. (?) does just the overhead shade fold down, or the whole thing? if just the shade, then is there plenty of clearance towing with the lower half in place? seems like there would be considering Parkers are low profile anyway.

 

[Megabyte]

Wow... Very nice work!
You have a nice little fly bridge there! :wink:

 

[BradV]

yeah i am still under 13'6" with the buggy top folded down. The two front pins unscrew and the two back are fixed with plastic washers. pretty neat system ill take pictures of the front since you dont need tools with it.

As far as the dual station dual engine controls what a pain in the butt. You have two control boxes one for starboard and one for port. Each has 4 cables coming in 2 shift and 2 throttles. Then each has 1 cable going out for the throttle. they also have electronic cables that go to the shift actuators which has 1 cable going out. They do this so the system will only allow one station in gear at a time. The pain in the butt part comes because you have to make sure that all the cables are set up the same way so when you give it throttle on the upper station the binnacle is relatively the same distance. In theory its not hard to set up just time consuming to get the adjustments right. It ended up taking me about 8 days of working on it to finish the whole thing and thats not knowing what im doing. Not bad from what i was given estimates on. What other questions do you have? i will get some pictures of it on the water Thursday when we take it down to Sailfish Marina

 

[Bryan 2530]

What other questions do you have? i will get some pictures of it on the water Thursday when we take it down to Sailfish Marina

I want to add either a tower or dual controls, I may wait until I have to repower in the distant future but who knows. A few Q's.

Do you have to get new cables?

Do you have to get a new Binnacle in the cabin?

Do the levers move on the other station?

Where did you source parts?

That's it for now.

 

[BradV]

I did not have to get new cables i am sure i could have but i just ended up using the ones that already went back to the engines to the control boxes and put a big loop in them in the transom. I got the entire dual station kit used from Henley Marine down here. Somebody took them off their brand new bahama after 3 months so they could repower with the 350's. I left the binnacle downstairs. The binnacle that you are not using does not move since all the cables from both binnacles go into the control boxes and are not hooked to one another. From there they control the cables going back to the engine. Depending on the age of your engines i dont think youll be repowering too soon. if i did repower or do it again i would probably go with full electric controls. But since i found it used i went with these. If you didnt want to spend the money you could definately fit 2 of the morse dual binnacle controls on the tower. you would be starved for electronics but could make it work. i did find some pretty nice electric kits for about 5k. you just have to find a spot to mount the 4 boxes but its not that hard with the big pilot house. Although theres a 28 here locally that has them mounted in the cabin just to the right of the captains chair in a similar location to mine and they put a fibreglass panel over it to conceal them. The control boxes are pretty simple in their design. the throttles when pushed push a lever which pushes the cable going back to the engine. While the shift is hooked up to a dimmer switch time device so when it moves one direction it sends an electric signal to the actuator for forward or reverse depending on which way it moves. pretty neat and it has a manual override if for whatever reason the shift wont work. the throttles are straight mechanical so you can never (in theory) not have them work anymore so then regular rigging.

 

[BradV]

As far as the other parts my buddy owns Integ Marine down here and sells me items for basically the cheapest price you can find them on the internet. The Trim tabs, Stereo Remote, and VHF were all plug and play. The helm had the 3 hoses and was fairly straight forward. then the Garmin had a Network Cable, NMEA cable and a power cable and that was all that took. The start stop buttons and all the trim hooked into the wiring harness provided in the Yamaha kit. Obviously the speakers hooked up to the Amp down Below. So now i have 4 Clarion 6" speakers running off the head unit. 2 6" Clarion Speakers running off one channel, 2 Under Gunnel Poly Planar speakers running off another channel, and each 6 x 9 has its own channel.