I need Trailer guide on ideas

[muskyman73]

I am tired of the guide posts cracking at the bend. I have bought two sets of them and one always seems to crack and bend. These are the ones you can find everywhere and they are cheap thin metal.
I wanna make my own and weld them to the trailer, has anyone made some rock solid bunk guide ons they can post pics of ?

[REW]

Take your trailer to a good aluminum wedling shop and have them weld up some guides out of 3X3 aluminum channel.

REW

[Shotgun]

Look at a pair of Cabela's Deluxe Trailer Guide Ons. Item# IK -018953. I look at the cheaper version and could see myself bending them very easy, which lead me to his style. They are made very strudy with heavy gauge metal. I have an 18 foot Lund Fisherman and there is no way I could bend these guides. Have had them installed for two years. Only issue is the rollers rattle going down the road, which I have reduced by wrapping a strap around each roller when traveling. Good luck!

[REW]

Shotgun,
Looks like a sturdy pair of rollers.
Out of curiosity, why do you care if the rollers rattle?

But, if you do care about the rattling rollers, there is an easy solution.
Remove the clip holding the roller to the guide.
Remove the roller and the shaft from the guide. Get some nice thick heavy grease and completely fill the inside of the rollers and really coat the rod for the rollers. Reassemble the pin and rollers and replace the clip. Wipe up any spilled grease. You will be nice and quiet and have nice turning rollers when needed.

REW

[Shotgun]

REW, the rattling is one of those things that just bugs me. It's been suggested by my 88 year old father to roll up the windows and turn on the stereo . He might have the best solution! The rattling really doesn't hurt a thing. The guides are very solid and bolt on extremely firm. The material is at least as solid as my Karavan trailer. I've bumped them hard when loading the boat in the wind and it just rocked the whole trailer. I did silicone the shafts at the top and bottom of the rollers to stop the movement, which helped the rattling to some degree. Anyway, thanks for the input as I may try some other alternative as you suggested.

[MikeV]

Here are some pics of the guides that came on my Heritage trailer.

I see your not very far from me. If you want to take a look and some measurements, send me a pm.

Mike

[Phil T]

I like the brackets in MikeV's photos. However, I'd like them a lot better if there were lengthwise carpeted boards along the trailer sides, at the height of the boat's splash rails. I have boards about 4' long, and wish they were as long as the parallel sides of my trailer.
My neighbor has long boards for his 19'10" boat. They work really well, even in a strong side wind.

[MikeV]

My original trailers guides were lengthwise. The problem with them was loading in current. When I would load in current, the boat had a tendency to point the nose slightly into the current causing the down stream side of the boat to hit or rub the guide. I have a few small dents in the side of the boat from the old lengthwise guides. When I ordered this new trailer, I went with vertical guides and they work great for what I do.