wake tower

floater212

I have a 2005 captiva xr1 with a wake tower.... I have noticed that the rear arms where they attach now have some spider cracks in the gel coat. has anybody else had this and what did you do to fix it. I'm a little concerned about this as we use the tower for everything, wakeboarding, kneeboarding skiing and tubing. last year the bolts loosened up so as I tightened them I added a larger fender washer to spread out the point of pressure. HELP!!! thanks.

Black_Diamond

Spider cracks per se are not always bad, that's just the gelcoat and coupd be easily fixed if the cosmetics bother you.  If the underlying fiberglass is cracked, that is another story.  Since the tower loosened on you last season it might be worth having a fiberglass person take a look at it. 

Replacing the nuts with self-locking ones can help prevent loosening too, assuming they are torqued properly to start with... the latter is always key.  Good job on adding larger washers to distribute the loads!