Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Pulled Al out the other day (for only the second time) and had a trailer mishap. I was in the truck and I had a friend tending to the boat. She is pretty good at most of this stuff, but apparently missed this one. Ooops.

My trailer has four uprights for guides. The rear of the boat must have been just a hair crooked and one of the strakes caught on TOP of the rear guide. Ann didn’t notice the rear of the boat rising crookedly and the next thing I heard was the KaWang of the boat tearing the wood piece off the upright as it fell onto the trailer.

No boat damage was done thank God and I only had a minor Atrial Fibrillation.

The steel trailer upright where the guide WAS, was bent pretty good and was thinking of digging into the tube. Fortunately I am a beer drinker and probably distantly related to MacGuyver. A coozie and some duct tape solved the problem temporarily.

Rather than repair the damage to the trailer uprights, I am considering mounting long horizontal guides instead.

Do any of you ‘straked’ guys have any words of wit and wisdom concerning this?

I prefer Guides for sure. Just make sure that they are long enough. Mine are only 8 feet long starting from the back of the trailer moving forward and I hate it. After the season I will install 16 footers.

My trailer came with long, carpeted horizontal guides.



The only time I've ever made contact with them, they have bent near the bottom of the vertical support.

I've discovered through experience that I put just a small part of the bunks in the water. Maybe one or two feet. I crawl the boat into contact with the "V" shaped bunks and let them be my guide to aline the tubes up to the stops. My ramp at home is shallow and power loading is allowed. If it were steep and power loading was forbidden, I would still make the bunks my contact point to begin the pull up with winch.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Surely someone else has run into the same problem?
My ramp is steep, deep, muddy and power loading is an absolute no-no. Therefore the rear of the trailer is dunked quite deep before I can get the bow far enough on for crank-up. That is how I got in trouble on this one. The water is so dark that it is impossible to see what is going on below the surface.
If I convert to long guides, I won't mess around. At least 16' and more likely 20' so that the boat is guided immediately from the bow, then gradually to the stern as the boat settles into the three cradles when I pull out. I don't ever want to hear that sound again. I about needed to go change my drawers after that one
I am talking to the guys that made my trailer and getting a price for four additional posts (to make 8 total) in order to support a long board. The posts are quite stout, except when you try to balance a 3 ton boat on one.

I've just ordered the 4C-Innovations guide system as my upright guides are getting some abuse due to my inexperience. I'll report back in a few weeks once it's installed and tested a few times.

Todd are your strakes on the outside of your toons or just the inside.

redbeard wrote:Todd are your strakes on the outside of your toons or just the inside.

I'm way ahead of you on that one, bro (I think). My center log is fully straked. My two outer logs only have strakes on the inside. I assume that you are thinking of putting two guides on the outside of my boat?
It can't be done, as it would put me over legal width on the road I thought long and hard about going 'outlaw' as it would have been a simple solution, but I don't think BoatCop would approve.

Yes that is where I was going, just been thinking of a way to help out. Btw I just love the bay star.

Can you post a pic of the toon on the trailer?

redbeard wrote:Can you post a pic of the toon on the trailer?

Sorry I have no pics. I know I know....it didn't ha...
I was gonna ask you about that steering. Glad you like it. Hydraulic rules!

Some recent posts on this topic below. I've had trouble with strakes hanging up on top of rear guide posts and slamming down on the trailer bunks but never any damage to guides, trailer or pontoons. In my case I've recently added more guide posts (4 per side, 8 total) and do not bury any posts in water when loading. Also may make the rear guide posts a little higher.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16731

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16577

Thanks for the links, Sunnyside. Some good ideas there.
I like the concept of raising the rear of the guides, although the depth of my water and the fact that I can't power-load might negate the advantage. I also don't need the rear 'flare' as my loading area is mostly wind and current free.
I got a quote from my trailer guys today for 6 more uprights (for a total of 10). I am getting serious at putting in LONG horizontal guides-almost full length.
Cost estimate:
Uprights-$110
(2) 2x6x20' treated-$40
Ebay bunk carpet pre-cut to size-$50
Total-$200

I figure with 20 foot long guides, I won't need the complication of making the mount angle up in the rear. The front of the guides will be out of the water for sure and should continually and consistently settle the boat properly as I slowly pull out.
Does anybody see a drawback to this plan? Other than the cash of course

Just be careful that your uprights don't interfere with your strakes. You should put uprights on every trailer crossmember, however.

I don't think you'll have to go 18' or 20', as 16' is about as long as you can get single boards. That's long enough.

2 x 4's do well enough, and larger wood is not really needed. I just use regular yellow pine anytime I'm around aluminum, as some of the chemical additives in Wolmanized/pressure treated wood reacts with aluminum. It dries quickly when horizontal.

You can go precut carpet. I just go to Home Depot/Lowes and get indoor outdoor carpet off the big rack. Galvanized 1 1/4" roofing nails work well at holding carpet on bunks.

Thanks Bama,
The reason I want to go 2x6 is that they are straighter at such a long length. I already checked at my local Menards and can indeed get 20' (at least in 2x6). With five uprights per board, they will be spaced a little over 3' apart. Also, 16' doesn't quite work right with my cross members.
Plus, I really want to go with the longer boards so that there is no possible doubt at the front end that I am centered properly before even moving an inch.
Great catch with the no-no on treated wood. I had read that a while back and had forgotten. At risk of rot, I will forego the chemicals, thanks.
Finally, I absolutely am going to get precut carpet. I've done enough runner boards in the past to know that I hate it. It's hard to get long runs like that cut properly. In fact, they usually cut it crooked right in the store, which begins the whole nightmare. It's about a twenty dollar difference to get precut...worth every penny. Prolly use stainless staples and an air stapler to make things quick and easy.

Update: I ordered 6 additional uprights and am proceeding as planned. Take a couple of weeks to finish I suppose, but hopefully my Rock addled brain remembers to post the finished shots here.

Just catching up on some threads. I notice that a lot of people are still interested in guide systems.
As planned, I put the long wooden bunk guides on. Tried em out the other day when I wanted to do some power washing.

Although I need to adjust width slightly, they worked PERFECTLY. The front of the boat straddled the rails while the rear of the rails were still several feet under water. As I pulled out, the guides gradually centered the boat. I even tried it a second time with my helper pulling on the stern to simulate a side wind. Didn't matter in the least and the boat loaded straight. Yay!

In my opine, sometimes there is no substitute for stought wood. Each one is 2x6x20. Total cost to modify existing structure--$200[URL=http://s712.photobucket.com/user/tunedu ... l.jpg.html][/URL]