Trailer Guides

brew · Posted: May 24, 2007 6:08 am Post subject: Trailer Guides

I am needing to get some extended trailer guides for my trailer. I have to back the trailer in extremely deep to get the nose of my boat up over the bow stop, so my guides are well under water by that point. All I have seen out there are guide pads which I assume would not work for this situation because they are not sturdy enough. Does anybody know of a place to buy extended guides and then I could buy pads for them?

I could always fashion something out of PVC, but I would rather have something made more for the trailer.

McQuesten1 · Guest

I don't know if it would be the same for your boat, but with my boat I have to get it on the trailor but have the nose right in front of the bow stop, then have someone pull the truck up just a little bit. When you do this it raises the nose up right over it. Maybe it would work for your boat to.

brew · Posted: May 24, 2007 7:16 am Post subject:

My problem is that if I leave the guides out of the water enough that I can see them, the nose of my boat comes in under the bow stop. The only way to get the nose over the stop is to back the trailer significantly deeper in the water. This works fine until I go to pull the trailer out and the boat has drifted over the top of one of the guides and the boat hangs up on it.

Just for illustrative purposes, Sunday when I went to trailer the boat I had the truck backed in to where the exhaust pipe was completely under water (2004 Extended Cab Z-71 with side exit exhaust.) I could probably winch the boat up and over the stop, but I don't want to tear up the front of the boat.

http://forums.wakeboarder.com/viewtopic.php?t=68444

See picture for the guides that are on the trailer. Also, the trailer has an oversized front bow stop with the slide pin locking mechanism on it that locks onto the front tow hook on the boat.[/quote]

McQuesten1 · Guest

Ask the guy you bought it from see what he did.

Geoff Standish · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 843 City: Calgary

brew, is there any reason why you couldn't just slip a steel pipe over the existing guide poles to the height you need? Then cover it in a PVC pipe so as to not damage the boat.

Yooper · Criminal Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 58 City: Marquette

You don't need to back it in DEEPER to keep that from happening.... If the nose goes over the bow stop, you are already in too deep.
You need to have a good portion of your trailer bunks up out of the water. If they are, as you power up, the bunks will lift the nose of the boat for you.
Err on the side of not deep enough, rather than too deep.

Try it. You will be surprised.

brew · Posted: May 24, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject:

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

oshensurfer · Posted: May 31, 2007 3:02 pm Post subject:

brew, Many extended guides are PVC. Mine are not on my new trailer, but on my last one, they were. My wife pounded one of them and snapped it. I went to Home Depot and bought the exact same black PVC pipe and an end cap plug glued on and cut it to fit (I actually have an extra one in my garage left over that I made in case it happened again. The end cap allows the guide to float up with the water so you can see it. I had foam guides over the top to prevent gel coat scratches.

I'll try to find a pic.

oshensurfer · Posted: May 31, 2007 3:08 pm Post subject:

Here's a pic of my old boat.