Tubing Trouble

[gleavens]

I went tubing for the first time yesterday, brand new tube (Gladiator Switch),when the boat accelerates the tube digs into the water and dives! What am I doing wrong?

 

[Ciera2450]

Re: Tubing Trouble

Lean back until the tube planes out.

 

[blifsey]

Re: Tubing Trouble

Another thing I do is when the front goes under give the throttle a quick shot forward just a little and then back off completely. This will make the buoyancy of the tube pop the front up out of water a little. When it does, then hit the throttle. Just be sure of 2 things...1 - your riders are still on tube a holding on. You don't want tube to submarine so much they are coming over the front when you hit throttle. 2 - The rope hasn't gone to slack when you back off throttle. You don't want it to snap the tube too hard when you hit throttle.

Somtimes the kids want to make the tube submarine for fun. If I see them doing that and it is a safe situation (no other riders in waters, no boats close by, etc), I'll go ahead and give it some throttle to pull tube under and throw the riders over off.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Tubing Trouble

also the driver of the boat MAY be trying to start out slow.... works MUCH better if you get the slack out of the rope at slow idle... continue slow idle till rider is ready and leans back.... Then GAS it till on plane... after that the driver can back off the throttle

 

[Maclin]

Re: Tubing Trouble

Excerpt from a description of the Gladiator Switch towable.....: "...switches from a deck tube to a cockpit tube ..."

Which way are you using it when it digs in?

Does it dig in both ways?

Do you tow from just one side of the boat, or do you have a tow ring in the middle, or do you use a tow harness?

How high or low is the tow rope connected to the boat in relation to the water line at towing speed?

The take off method may indeed be too slow. I had a flat tube and it did not like to be towed too slow or it wallowed around if someone was on it. I had to tell the more skittish riders that "it is a RIDE, so hang on!".

It make may a difference as to how the tow rope is connected to the tube's quik connect. I have the rope come into the hole from below. If I had a tube like that I would want to reconnect the tow rope when switching. That is just one of my idiosyncrasies.

 

[gleavens]

Re: Tubing Trouble

I have the rope connected to the tow ring in the middle of the boat above the swim platform. The rope on the tube is connected with the loop up thru the bottom and then around the hook.
The operator ( my wife -inexperienced) was moving forward slowly until the slack was gone from the rope and then accelerated, but as soon as she hit the throttle the tube goes almost straight down, thus ejecting the two riders almost immediately. I then got back in the boat and attempted to tow the tube empty, same results

 

[LMM1967]

Re: Tubing Trouble

underinflated? Sometimes the cool(er) water causes the air inside the tube to condense.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Tubing Trouble

When my son graduated from the kind of tube you sit in to the flat kind with no hole we had the exact same problem. I tried all sorts of things like changing inflation, rope attaching point on the boat, etc., etc. to no real effect. We were exasperated to the point of preparing to return it. As it turned out, as others have said, I was launching too slowly. The hole kind naturally floated nose high when our kid was sitting inside leaning back. You could do a very leisurely start and it would just rise up as you increased speed.

Not so for the one we have now. You've got to let the line tighten at idle, make sure the kiddies are holding on and slid back to get the weight off the leading edge, then hammer the throttle to the stops. The tube pops up smartly and planes out, then I can throttle back while they get settled (and I prepare do dump them azz over teakettle back in the drink....)

FWIW, this is the type we have....

 

[jmarty10]

Re: Tubing Trouble

I'll tell ya - every time I've had a a problem with a tube submerging its been inflation. There is no gauge on tubes so you really dont kow when full is. Make sure the tube is pretty solid/full it will help a lot. We just purchased a two person tube where the kids sit upright and no problems at all pulling. But man it take a 1/2 to 45 mins on my electric air pump to fill it properly