Trailer Guide Poles

My boat will load on to a fender also,so I never give it a chance to.I make sure and leave a little fender showing when I back in my trailer.It takes a cit more throttle but she doesn't float off either

Munday

My plan would not be to hold the boat tight, but to narrow the guides to keep it from drifting over the fenders. My guestimate that there is about 2 inches of play on each side.

Easier said than done. This would require one of my young sons to either drive the van or guide the boat. The last time I pulled the boat, it required me to stand in the water (easier in July than in April) and reset the boat a number of times since it shifted on the way out. I am less concerned about my pulling the boat than the times someone else needs to do it.

I have a 1997 196. On the trailer, the boat sits low so the sides of the boat are between the mud guards with the boat's bottom below their tops. Due to sharp angle of the ramp I use, it is easy for the boat to settle onto the tops of the mudguards as I pull the boat out. The trailer guides are not close enough together to keep the boat where it belongs. I am thinking about having them reshaped so they are closer together. Any suggestions comments before I start down this road?

I cut a piece of 2" x 4" tube steel 4" long and I welded the pipe onto the tube steel. Then, I drilled four holes to bolt the tube steel to the trailer frame. I figured if I use bolts, then if I ever need to straighten my guides, I can shim my mount with washers. Here's a pic:

I had my trailer guides made at the exhaust shop. I just asked them to bend a stick of their aluminized exhaust pipe 180 degrees. They charged me $10. Then I took my "exhaust pipe" home, cut it in half and slipped a piece of PVC pipe over it and slipped a guide pad over that. It worked out great:

you could take some pipe down to your local muffler shop and probably get it bent there .Most shops have hidraulic benders that can bend almost any pipe up to 3 inches

   Pat

Ive also been thinking about getting a set of guides bent for my trailer.

Anyone know what is the dia of the steel tubing used ? ..looks like about 1 1/2"?

I know of a guy that builds stock car frames and can mandrel bend tubing...Was going to ask him if he could do this?   

I agree, the dryer hose style is strong. It was one piece of hose sent with two end caps. I lost the caps almost immediately. The water pushed the guides up and the caps fell off and sank. I got some nice Nautique guide covers that cover about 3/4 of the guides. My goal is to keep everything as original as possible, even something as simple as the guide covers. I'll keep looking.

The regular nautique guide pads work fine.

Are you looking for this type ?

Tom,

Can you post a pic of what you've got so we can visualize and suggest a fix? BKH