tower speaker mounting opinions

[craig3972]

I wanted to add two new tower speakers to my boat. I wanted to mount them outside of the exsisting speakers to avoid hitting my head on them every time i walk thru the center of the boat. I have the old style setup, the speaker enclosure is thru bolted directly to the tower tube. This means I have to drill holes in the tube to run the bolts thru.

I wouldnt be bothered by this because the original design has holes for bolts in the straight segment of the tube, but in this instance the holes would be drilled on the start of the bend in the tube. I do not want to weaken it to the point where it might fail.

The tube is quite substantial, 2.5" OD with .25" wall thickness. And the axis where the holes are is located is neutral stress plane.

Anybody got any ideas? - I know there are some smart guys out there

[ColdTurkey]

Surprised no one tried to help with this one.

I've been asking a lot of questions about the tower speakers lately and got some good replies. If you get the speakers from 07' and newer they bolt to the tower a little differently.

They don't bolt through from the top, just the bottom. There is a scalloped piece that fits to the tower and then the speaker bolts up to it. It's a ball and socket looking thing and you can spin and point the speakers where you want and then tighten them back up.

MC by design sells the brackets to change the speakers you have to the newer mounting system but I'm unsure if that comes with the part that attaches to the tower.

Let me know how you go, I want to add 3 more pairs to my tower (4 pairs total) so I'll be mounting roughly in the same spot.

Tower brace kit would help with stress too.

[l8kebum]

you need to verify that it is 2.5". that could possibly be the i.d. not the o.d.

my xstar is 2 7/8" o.d. we custom made my speaker cans and mounts. if you need to make a mount, i had great success with using 2" solid aluminum and having a concave bored in it. any local machine shop should be able to do with ease.

sorry, i dont have a pic to attach.

[craig3972]

Thanks for the replys,

I will check the OD again. So what do you think? strong enough with an extra hole in the tube located in the bend?

I like the older style attachment cause the speaker is mounted a bit higher up, less likely I would hit my head on it.


I work in a CNC machine shop so we can pretty much build whatever we can dream up. I was thinking of drawing a mount up in a 3D modeling program (Solidworks) and printing it out in our rapid prototyper before to check for fit, before cutting it out of aluminum. There are two axis that i would like to have adjustable, in so I can make the speakers look right. - seems like a lot of work tho.

[ColdTurkey]

Hard to say how much strength in the tower you will lose. If you are worried about it though get the tower brace kit. It'll strengthen your tower plenty but it may get in the way of where you want to put your new speakers. I'd suggest fitting the brace first if you are going to go down that road.

[craig3972]

Originally Posted by ColdTurkey

Hard to say how much strength in the tower you will lose. If you are worried about it though get the tower brace kit. It'll strengthen your tower plenty but it may get in the way of where you want to put your new speakers. I'd suggest fitting the brace first if you are going to go down that road.

I am not so worried about the side to side motion of the tower as to the force applied to the tower from the tow rope. I believe the 06 - 07 towers had much larger dia. tube than the later models. the later models needed the tower braces to keep them from shaking badly from side to side.

Your kidding right? 8 speakers on your tower?!? thats a lot of stuff up there!

[ColdTurkey]

Yeah I have the 3" tower and it shakes like crazy, I've got my braces on the way.

I'd like to stick with 4 if it were loud enough but something tells me it won't be. I love the look of the JL housings so I'll just keep adding them till it's good. 8 should fit and should do the trick by my reckoning.

[CantRepeat]

I'm a little distracted by the second photo... you want what again?

[craig3972]

Originally Posted by ColdTurkey

Yeah I have the 3" tower and it shakes like crazy, I've got my braces on the way.

I'd like to stick with 4 if it were loud enough but something tells me it won't be. I love the look of the JL housings so I'll just keep adding them till it's good. 8 should fit and should do the trick by my reckoning.

this is what i did a few years back - they are considerably louder than the OEM setup
http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/...ad.php?t=24950