http://www.fishonarches.com/index.htmlAnybody ever use these guys, price is good. Been looking around for one for the old girl,alantic towers looks good but more pricey.Our local guys are double the price.
Ken,While the price may be good on the Uni-Arch, in comparison to say, Atlantic Towers and the like, I was not impressed with it, in many ways. First, I had to cut 6" out of it to get it narrow enough to attach to the wings of Chilkie's HS. Even though their website said it would have fit, it didn't...period. So once that was done, the next problem arose, the O-rings that tey supply to snug up the center tubes to the side arches simply would not go into the gap formed by the 2 pieces, regardless of lubricant and assembly method I used. So I ditched the o-rings, and secured all the pieces, once I got them centered, with #10 3/4" Panheads. It's certainly not going to go anywhere. Next problem, the mounting bolts, although very nice allen head 1/4-20 bolts, had a shank on them probably 2" long before you encountered threads. Now, a wing on a typical WA is, at most, 3/8" thick...so, off to Ace to buy the proper length bolts. Back to the dimensional problem. Once I cut off the 3" on each end of the aft center tube, that put the additional rod holder Chilkie sped way closer to the others, i.e. effed up the spacing. He was cool with that, but I didn't like it. Next problem. Most wings on WAs have a radius fore to aft. The arch is designed to fit a flat surface. Therefore, with the aft legs flush with the wing, the forward legs stuck out from the sides about an inch. Now, if I had brought them in simply by torquing down on the bolts, the arch would have been so racked, it would never have been able to be folded down, not to mention the associated stress on the wings themselves. I fabbed 1/2" spacers out of starboard to help out the situation, but it's still going to be probably a 3-man job to tweak the arch to get all the holes lined up when they fold it back up... Wiring was pretty easy compared to a T-top, of course you have to drill all your wire pass through holes, here's a pic of when it was done, with a pair of ScarabChris' spreaders and the anchor light. I used grommets and 3/8" split loom to clean things up...
Thank you sir Besides the fab you had to, do you think its good or bad? In other words would you put one on your boat?
