What type of guide on's do you use?

AZcamperguy

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Feb 28, 2009
Messages
130
Re: What type of guide on's do you use?

"I have a question for you guys. It is hard to tell from the pictures. How far out from the gunwales? are your guide ons? Couple of inches?"
The closer they are, the better centered your boat will be. I always set mine to less than 1" clearance .
hth

Thanks, I did mine like Pony's picture. I think I have the clearance to be around an inch or so at the widest point which gives me a couple of inches more towards the stern. I am taking it out next week so I guess I'll find out then if I got it right :) I am bringing some 2" extension pipes just in case I cut it too close. It is hard to tell for certain without popping it in the water. If it works I will take a pictuire and post it up when I get back in a couple weeks.
 

clarkbre

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
176
Re: What type of guide on's do you use?

I have a question for you guys. It is hard to tell from the pictures. How far out from the gunwhales? are your guide ons? Couple of inches?

Below are a couple pics of my guide ons on my trailer. Instead of using the supplied ubolts, I ended up drilling 3/8" holes in the 1 1/2" square tubing and bolting them directly to the trailer. This helped with better weight distribution and provided a stronger mount. The boat has about 1 1/2" to 2" clearance from the guide ons. They work great and have made retrieving the boat so much easier.

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71b1badd1a6e__1241297766000.jpg
 

Tafflad

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
544
Re: What type of guide on's do you use?

A couple of years ago I got the Tie Down engineering guideons with the yellow poly cover. Basically the ones here on I-boats part #86104. Mine also came with the 48" PVC posts. Having checked the others, I also thought they flexed too much to be of any real use. They are SOLID and have the flexability of some angle adjustment.

looked up that pn ... those are made by TieDown ... the original posters issue was quality of TieDown product.
 

Tafflad

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
544
Re: What type of guide on's do you use?

I'm planning on making a few sets for my boat trailers here.
What I plan to do is use 1 1/2" square galvanized tubing, mandrel bend it at 90 degrees and weld on a 3/8" flat flange and attach each post with U bolts. I'll just touch up the tubing with galvanized spray and silver paint where I weld.

I have one trailer that has solid galvanized steel posts, which are shaped to fit the boat and trailer, a 14' flat bottom boat, and they have 1" PVC guides over top of the rod with a bushing at each end. They work fine for a small boat but would no doubt flex if the boat wasn't so light.

All but one of my boats now are aluminum, and would work fine with even just PVC guide ons but I'm more concerned with a heavy guide on bouncing and flexing down where it mounts to the frame, this would no doubt break something sooner or later.

I like TD's clamp on guides, they distribute the weight and movement well being clamped across the top of the frame like that. What I find is that every trailer or frame material or type often takes a different mounting method to work well.

I have a set of home made bunk boards on my one trailer, they are 30" carpeted 2x4s mounted to a forward and rear 1/4" galvanized flat bar about 24" long with the appropriate bends on each end to match the boat. These bolt to the same bolts as my fenders do.

Why weld on Galvanized tubing ? - it will destroy the Galv.
better would be to bronze weld (braze) this does not harm the galv ... is just as strong and gives not rust problems.
 
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