towerlights and towerspeakers, do you need them

I dont think this options are worth the money.
Towerlights don´t give you enough light to board in the night, you can ride but it will be hard to spott your landing.
Towerspeakers are very expensive because you need more than 4 often 6 of good quality to hear something. You wont be hearing it very good 65 feet behind the boat either.
A shower if you ride in a lake, if you ride in saltwater it´s a good thing to have.
Instead of a heater use a warm fleecesweater and a windstopperjacket on your upper part of your body and a cap on your head.
Your body will get warm by itself.
It´s just hype, instead of buying this options you can use the money to buy wakeboards, bindings and gas.
What do you people think, right or wrong.

I have a very loud stereo in our boat and opted not to go with tower speakers. As my good friend neeley put it, "You had better be a good rider to have loud tower speakers drawing attention to you." I m not a great rider so i opt not to. I bought perfect pass instead

Tower lights: I've never ridden behind a boat at night, so I have nothing to offer here.

Tower speakers: Sorry, but you can hear them VERY well from 65'. Yeah, they draw attention to you, but who @&@* cares? I suck, and I don't care who knows it.

Showers: Warm water in the wetsuit is almost as good as sex. (Maybe I'm not doing it right.)

Heaters: Heaters rock! Sweatshirts, etc. are great, until they get wet, then there's nothing better than a towel and the heater vent.

Why would a shower in salt water be any different than in a lake? It's not like you have a water reservoir. The water comes straight from the motor. Unless you have a closed cooling system, then a shower would be a pain.

If you don't like the options, don't buy them. There are quite a few people who like the little extras and are willing to pay for them. They may not be for everybody, but that's OK.

While I prefer to do most of this stuff myself, meaning I didn't get any of these options from my dealer, here are my comments:

Lights: great for docking at night, and trolling. you have better have a great system of lights for boarding at night!

Tower speakers: even if you don't have a system loud enough to hear while riding (I do) they are fun to have for partying at the beach or where ever you anchor!!!

Showers: I board in SALT, so obviously I don't want hot salt water over my hear... My solution... http://www.wakescene.com/Features-Reviews/features2-%20shower.htm

Heaters: I am working on putting one together out of an old Ford Heater Core, a blower fan and some tubing, with multiple ports within the boat. Great for Spring and Fall skiing, and while I don't have one, I have friends that do, and the benefit is great.

Dealer options don't ever tend to be worth the money, but install of heaters and showers may make them worth-while. Tower equip not so much!

KG

KG" Hit the Nail on the Head" It's funny when people say you don't need this or that. If you take that aproach you don't realy need anything but Air, Food, Shelter, and a little love. Everything else is a Bonus!

Last year we upgraded from a twenty year old, open bow ski boat with a Merc 185 O/B.

So, yeah, I just added PerfectPass *AND* a shower *AND* a heater to the Air Nautique.
Next I'm going to build an automated pump system for the fat-sacs... I don't need that either.
Bumping up the stereo system is lower on my list of priorities, the system I've got works good, so it can wait. Lights? When I decide I want them, I'll probably add them too. A nice camera mount might make the list before that though.

Make your list, add the things you want, and if you can afford it, why not do it all?

Amen, Dan!!

Very nice setup Kevin Geary and fresh water in a tank was the reason i sad that a shower have more use in salt water. In a lake there is no big need to take a shower and if you are freezing you can use a wetsuit and your bodytemperature will warm the water in the wetsuit and that will warm you up.I forgot to mention that a freshwater tank was the type of shower I talked about.
My point is that some people buy all the options they can find in the catalog but they don´t need all that. They just want to show that they can afford the most expensive wakeboardboat; the CC SAN with all options including aluminiumwheels for the trailer. I´m not jealous because I could by this options to if I needed them and the CC SAN. Thats actually a problem, people buy this overpriced boats so the companys build bigger boats and the prices goes up.

Kristoffer: Yes you can "Quote " use a wetsuit and your body temperature will warm the water in the wetsuit and that will warm you up" Yea right! You also don't need to dry off when you come out of the shower you can just run around the block Naked till you get warm and if you get cold just run faster! (Sounds kind of stupid hu) That’s how I see your point. (No Disrespect) Its all what you have been a’ costume to I think the reason Boat companies make things Like "heaters and "showers Lights "Stereo's in there boats is so that it gives the owners one more creature comfort and reason to use the boat regardless of the outside temp. If I didn't have a Heater and or Hot water shower in my boat I wouldn't take it out in the cold days of winter as much. And if I didn't have lights on my boat I wouldn't feel as comfortable going out in the dark. My point is this Yes there is many things’ we don't need. For me all the little extra's make the boat that more enjoyable and special witch make's me want to be out there on the water all the time. Take it all away and give me an Aluminum boat with an outboard motor, Ill still want to go out and wakeboard just not as much! I don’t think all the Accessories are some big conspiracy by boat companies to drive the price of boats up

Going back your original post Kris:


"I dont think this options are worth the money."

That's absolutely fine. Don't buy them. We sold the old boat to a friend and we usually go to the river together. We still use the old boat to tow the tubes when the wind and chop come up and it's fun to have another boat on the sandbar with us. My wife and I wanted something nicer. I agree it is supply/demand economics and I'm willing to pay for the extra goodies. For one thing, if you finance your boat, you extend the cost of all the extras over the term of the loan, instead of making your boat payment AND trying to pay for other items as you add them.


"It´s just hype, instead of buying this options you can use the money to buy wakeboards, bindings and gas."

True. Or you could save a lot more and buy a fiberglass canoe from the Sears catalog and use the rest to feed a hungry child in a third world country. But, if you can afford to buy the boat you like, configured as you like it, and are using your money to responsibly take care of those charities which weigh on your heart, than I assume that you also have enough left over for things like gas and wakeboards.

My point is that to some, yes it's hype, some people place more value on purchasing a 'cool' decal to place on their boat, while you might subscribe to a more utilitarian philosophy and save your money to buy things like ... generic beer. If someone didn't want it, they couldn't sell it.

So keep your boat stripped and enjoy it, and if you get an opportunity to ride on someone else's boat, may I humbly suggest that you not criticize his decision to install pink fuzzy dice, or gold-flake astro-turf, or a whiz-bang-fish-finder. And if anyone on my boat, decides not to take advantage of the warm shower on a cool day, I promise not to be offended.

Different options have higher priorities for others. I personaly wouldn't pay $100 for the best sound system. I am thinking of somehow rigging a heater for under the dash though. I say if someone can afford it and wants to get the option, why not? If I could afford perfect pass, I would own it! It seems that I can only find two drivers to drive my boat at a consistent speed, and they aren't always with.

Grant, you dont need to make fun of other people and call them stupid. A nice neilpryde semidry 5000 series wetsuit will keep you warm and they make them for water tempratures at 10 deegres celsius and colder(tight drysuit not the michelin style). The wetsuits they make now are 10 times better then they where 5-7 years ago.
They are warmer and much more flexible and fitt nice and it´s easy to move in them. windsurfers use them and they are in the water for several hours. I have a lot of experience with this wetsuits.
My goal was not to offend anyone and you are obviously a 100% nautique fan and a gadget guy so I hit a sensitive point. But never the less this wakeboard equipment are heavily overpriced, but the demand are high so they can sell it.
And in Sweden where I live a skiboat/wakeboardboat cost 7 000$ more then it does in the USA and options and even wakeboards 20-50% more and gas 35$/gallon. The incometax is 55%. The good insurance of a new wakeboardboat is 2000$ so then you might understand how expensive this things are. But I´am the only one with a wakeboardboat on the lake 200 yards from my house. Once again I did not intend to offend anyone.

Kristoffer. I didn't mean to call or say you were stupid, Sorry if I Did. Mabye it was in the translation.Your orignal question was Were these options worth the money. My answer should have just been Yes.

The downside is you have to pay more for Gas and Boat's in Your country. The upside is you don't have crazy people wanting to fly Airplanes in to biuldings in downtown Sweden so stop complaning and go buy a expencieve boat with all the Options
J/K

Hell yeah. Go for it all. Love my tower speakers.

We all enjoy the tower speakers. Plus the lights come in handy from time to time. Are they worth the money ? To me yes. Thats why I have them.

Tower speakers are more important than boat speakers. Really. They fill the boat with sound even if you don't crank them for the rider. I want a second set.

Tower lights are not very worthwhile. I would not get them again.

ha ha ha is this guy a joke, who are you fooling man,

you are just trying to make urself feel better cause you diddnt get them on ur new boat and want to feel secure about your purchase.

whatever man. if it makes you feel better. im glad for you. really.

NOT............. hahhha

I love it, I love it all.

Grant, you are absolutely right about the exposed position USA are in and I´m really sorry about the september 11 attack and the bastards that planed it should burn in hell.
If we talk about USA and the world a lot of people say USA have them self to blame(I dont think so) they just want the oil, for example in Irak.
I think it´s a good thing that USA go down hard on scum like Saddam Hussein and the terrorists.
I´m grateful that USA do what they do and take the heat for it because the world is less dangerous and if you want to secure your future oil supply thats okay because USA pay a high price for it.
But because of the oil recources in the middle east they have a hold on USA and other countries to and thats to bad. Because of the oil USA must take it easy instead of hitting them with maximum power and take them out of business forever.

And Skydog96 take it easy with the dope or you may not see the sky again.

We will begin selling our Skireel WakePro this Spring. Yeah, you can always stop the boat and change or section off the rope length but we allow you to do it as you ride. Is this needed? Not really but is makes life easier. That is what it is all about.

but taking up or letting out a section when the rider cuts out into the flats is part of the fun!

Kris they are all worth the money, but i didnt spend 40k on a new wakeboard specific boat, got an i/o and then added everything, we were out riding just a couple days ago ...with the drysuits and the heater (wasnt on lucky us it was 70) and the tower speakers and the perfect pass,,, did i miss anything... Hell yea they are required, dont have lights yet but from the concensus they dont work that great anyway and id have to be breakin the law-breaking the law to use them and ride at night

Dan, we have reeled the slack out of the rope while doing a railey but not in the flats. Gonna try it though. 85 feet out in the flats and back in to 15 feet to surf. Riding is just easier when you don't have to worry about rope knots and the like.

Kristoffer, what the hell is going on with the Sept. 11 stuff. Stick to you post and give it a break. Over priced Yes. Just talk with your wallet and just don't spend.

Kristoffer,
Just mail me 1/2 of what you think the stuff you don't need costs, I'll kick in the other 1/2 and I'll get the stuff for my boat. Now, don't you feel better? Problem solved.

Damn dude, I understand your plight with wake boats costing $50,000, gas for $35 a gallon, a wakeboard at $1000, $2000 for boat insurance, and 55% income tax. But I guess that how it goes in a socialist society. And in a socialist economy is the only place where that theory (that bigger boats and tower speakers are useless and only there to artificially inflate the price of these boats) could work. In a capitalist economy and particularly in the inboard boat industry where competition is extremely fierce, the only things driving the price is supply and demand, plain and simple. I've never met anybody who bought all the options just to show people they could afford it. They buy the options because THEY WANT THEM. As any body here knows, just buying one of these boats period proves what kind of money you've got. Building boats and components that will perform and survive in the harsh marine environment is extremely time consuming and expensive. There are alot of companies fighting for a piece of a very small market. Any body making any money in this business is earning it.

Kristoffer,

Sorry to hear about the inflated prices of boats, gas and accessories in Sweden. I'm sure there are quite a few politicians in the USA who would like to increase the price of our gasoline, boats while they raise our taxes to pay for their pet programs.

I had a heater and shower installed on my Malibu to make the family happy. They love warming there feet and hands with the shower after a morning ride, and they fight for the hot air from the vents. The more I keep them happy, the more morings I can board. They were both money well spent.