Ski Pylon for ZX 225

[Eric E]

OK, I know this is not the best of ideas, but a few times a year, when the family gets together at the lake, we use my Skeeter to pull skiers, kneeboarders and wakeboaders. The rings on the jackplate are too low for this. Has anyone outfitted their ZX 225 with a pylon to keep the ski rope above the motor? I know their are some models out there, but I was hoping someone with personal experience could let me know what has worked for them.

As much as it kills me to see my fishing machine outfitted (even temporarily) for such use, sometimes I have to keep the wife and kids happy.


Thanks for any help.

[skeetzx225]

I cringe at the thought of this...I've seen ski pilons for sale that screw into the rear pedistal mount , it also has 2 support legs that will need to be installed as well.

[fishin couillon]

I'd becareful with that. Just a couple weeks ago some had an older ranger bass boat and use a ski pylon and busted his top cap around the livewells and storage boxes. Now i believe he's been doing it over a long period of time but you never can tell.

[JJohnSind]

Do you have an issue with your tow rope rubbing against the motor when you make turns? I just realized that the Skeeter's transom tie down rings are on the jackplate instead of the transom. It seems like they are to close together to work properly using the typical ski/tow harness.

[Eric E]

The problem is not rubbing against the motor. I use a Y harness with a pulley to stop that. However, the ski rope, being so low, tends to get caught in the wake any time there is a hint of slack. When it comes out of the water, it snaps and rips the rope right out of your hands. You can deal with it as an adult, but for the kids, it is a sure fire bust.

[CincyBas]

I am in a similar situation and looking for answers myself. I currently have the Ski Pole from BPS sitting in my boats rear seat hole. I see two problems with this pole:

1) Out of the box the pole is way too low and definitely will rub and hit the motor. I set the ski pole on a 12"-18" seat pole and it will drastically reduce the chance of the rope hitting the motor but if I was too use this method I would get one of those motor cover/skins to help protect your motor cover.

2) The support poles need to have anchoring boats mounted in your top cap. Which I was at first ok with because I was planning to reinforce the area where I plan to mount them. Then I got thinking about those anchors sticking up when the ski pole was not mounted and wasn't too keen about having them.

So I decided to return the ski pole and be satisfied with using the tie-downs on my jack plate . & Yes my next boat will be another Skeeter because for fishing this has been one great boat.

I was thinking of trying a rope "Y" without the heavy pulley ...

[fishin couillon]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CincyBas &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was thinking of trying a rope "Y" without the heavy pulley ...</TD></TR></TABLE>
I've used one like that a couple of times. It came with a float attached to it. I have the SX model with the tie downs on the transom itself. Worked great until i put the motor in reverse. The only damage was to the harness. I knew i had a chance of it happening so i was watching when it happened.