# Full length guides?



## Clint KY (Jun 16, 2014)

I am going to rebuild my boat trailer this winter and wondered if there was a downside to making my guides 8 feet long. The guides now are about 3 feet long and extend from behind the wheel to the back of trailer. I am considering adding two more supports on each side in front of the wheels and making the guides full length. The way it is now, I occasionally still get the boat catty-whompus if the wind is up. I figure that full-length guides would fix that.


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## TNtroller (Jun 16, 2014)

Extending the existing ones are good, or just add another set of bunks inside the existing ones to help guide/keep the boat centered on the trailer.


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## jethro (Jun 17, 2014)

Are we talking load guides or bunks? Either way, I cant see why making either one as long as you can would have a downside. My bunks are about 8' long but my load guides are just rollers.


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## Clint KY (Jun 17, 2014)

I am talking about load guides - the boards that keep the boat going straight onto the trailer. They sit about an inch below and parallel to the gunnels.

What made me question it is that I have never seen anybody do it before and wondered why they wouldn't.


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## TNtroller (Jun 17, 2014)

Well, I misread your original posting, so just ignore my comment. :LOL2:


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## Clint KY (Jun 17, 2014)

Here is the trailer now:





Here is what I am suggesting - crude drawing but it shows the idea:


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## huntinfool (Jun 18, 2014)

I don't see any problem with it, as long as they aren't too close at the front. You may have issues loading and unloading if they are under the gunnel and too close to the boat. The gunnel may ride on top of it loading or unloading. 

But just to keep you straight in the wind, no problem.


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## Clint KY (Jun 18, 2014)

Thanks - The boat is very straight till about the front 4 feet or so and I will make sure the bunks stay parallel to the gunnels. In fact I plan to clamp the guides up against the boat with spacers to insure they are not too close, and then weld the additional supports to the trailer frame and then run counter-sunk carriage bolts through the guides and the supports . I am going to use Composite Deck Boards for both the bunks and the guides with no carpet. The less expensive store brands are pretty slick with very little faux wood patterning like the upper tier stuff (Trex).


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## smackdaddy53 (Jun 21, 2014)

That is how I am building my trailer guide on boards. Nothing wrong with a little extra!


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