Crestliner Eagle Wobbly Hardtop

[dt5150]

i have a 2000 crestliner eagle 2450 hardtop, a wobbly hardtop. it'll shimmy side to side pretty good when hitting the waves. it has 4 points where it bolts down, 2 on the dash and 2 on the back of the cockpit area. i'm wondering if someone else out there may have a solution for securing the top a little better so it doesn't wobble as much.

 

here's a couple pics of the attachment points. for the dash points, there are alum. backing plates underneath that are roughly the same size as the "foot" on the top side. i have the idea of using a single piece of alum. to attach to both sides, essentially tying the two together. when you hit a wake/wave, you can see the dashboard (black colored area in pic, which is alum sheeting) flex quite a bit. my thinking is by using one long piece as a backing plate to both feet, it would/should help quite a bit with the dashboard flexing.

 

for the rear attachment points, you can see from the pic where they are. access to the back side to get to the nuts isn't terrible, have to remove the panel. i don't know what kind of backing plate (if any) was used on these, but they flex a fair amount too. if there are just washers or something back there, i could add some alum flat stock as a backing plate which may improve things. but if there are backing plates already in place, i don't really have any ideas on how i could improve on that.

 

any ideas or suggestions guys? thanks...

[dt5150]

a little closer shot of the dash mount

[juthunter32]

I'd imagine the problem is where it connects to the roof. If they aren't rigid then you would get the sloppiness. The mounts to the boat are just receiving the secondary stresses due to the sloppiness at the roof. Check those connection's and take a closer picture of those so we get a better idea of how it mounts there.

[dt5150]

i see what you're saying. i don't have any pics of the roof attachments, and she's still shrink wrapped for her long winter's nap.

 

when it shakes side to side, i can see the aluminum dashboard (the black area) flex. i'm guessing that the setup itself is very top heavy, causing excessive movement in the mounts.

[juthunter32]

Yeah and once those roof mounts get loose the forces applied with keep making it worse. Stress cracking and screws pulling through. Like a roll cage for a car, I believe there should be cross members going horizontal from front left to front right and back left to back right. This provides the rigidity then slap the fiberglass roof on top. Unfortunately alot of tops don't do this and rely heavily on the fiberglass to provide the rigidity. Adding horizontals to the structure may be necessary if the fiberglass is weakened.

 

[dt5150]

i've had that thought as well. been trying to visualize some way of adding supplemental left/right bracing without it being too obtrusive. 

oh, no glass on this rig. it's all aluminum.

[juthunter32]

What about having tubes made to mimick the ones that are vertical and applying on the top of the roof thru bolting the roof mounts to the new tubes. Could mount lights or light bar on the front tube. The rear looks like you have a rod Arch already for rocket launcher but does that Arch connect from upright to upright? Or does it utilize the roof. The roof without a substructure being aluminum could flex in the middle allowing movement and I'd imagine that hanging dash adds a lot of weight to the aluminum roof. The flexing of that would mean the roof is "buckling" in the middle when the movement happens.

[dt5150]

i may end up going that route, or something similar. i'm going to try beefing up the backing plates up front first, then see how the rear mounts look, and go from there. i really don't want to add more tubing to it if i don't have to. $$$.

[lineman49]

  It seems like it should have some cross ties on it form one side to the other like a building roof/truss.

[juthunter32]

Have someone push the roof side to side while you are looking at the mounts at bottom and top and see where the most play is. I bet you'll notice it's in those upper mounts, could just need some tightening or possibly thru bolting.

[dt5150]

thanks, i'll do that.

if i had designed this, it definitely would've had some cross bracing in the mix (along with some other stuff). just common sense. but alas, they didn't request my presence with the design team.

[p3434]

I had same problem with my 21 ft Striper . During rough water , my hard top would wobble side to side . I fixed that problem, by buying two ratchet straps . Went from top of pole by the roof to a cleat on side of boat . Did that on both sides. No more wobble during rough seas.


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[jimski2]

How about slowing down in rough seas? Slamming your boat down causes more damage than the roof supports.

[Todd in NY]

My Crestliner Sabre hardtop flexed a little bit in rough seas, so the previous owner added a 2x4 to the back of the hardtop. I know our hardtops are mounted completely different, but adding the 2x4 provided the side to side rigidity that the hardtop needed.

 

There are some good suggestions thrown out there already, so just wanted to add a slightly different possible "fix".

 

[dt5150]

thanks todd.

[Todd in NY]

5 hours ago, dt5150 said:

thanks todd.

 

Hope you find a permanent and inexpensive solution.

[lakebound88]

I would add a gusset across the front. That should fix the wobble. Check out some bigger units boats and you will see what I mean.

Nick

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[dt5150]

that's an option. looking at other models for reference purposes. the hard part would be keeping it clean looking and unobtrusive so it doesn't block too much visually.

[lakebound88]

I would sacrifice a bit of vis off my port, and decrease the likelihood of losing a mount... I'm sure there's other options, but usually you can get the support bent to still give you visibility with the much need torque support.

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[dt5150]

some custom bent stainless tubing...

[lineman49]

3 hours ago, dt5150 said:

some custom bent stainless tubing...

  Is it steel or aluminum?

[dt5150]

tubing is all stainless.

[lineman49]

  My hard top frame  is all welded  aluminum.

Edited February 12, 2018 by lineman49