Those look great, Bill! I forget if I mention it before, but an alternative to carpet that I found worked wonderful for the guides on my sailboat trailer are those foam noodles. I got two bright, fat, orange noodles with a hold in the middle and after lots of scrunching and sliding into place, they worked even better than I imagined. Not only did they comfortably absorb the hardest of hits, but the bright orange was impossible to miss going down the highway or looking in the rearview mirror. Congrats on the fine set of guides -- I'm sure you won't have any trouble with those breaking on you!
----- Original Message -----
From: BLDFW
To: omc-boats@...
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 2:09 PM
Subject: [OMC-Boats] Continuing Boat Guide Project
Hey guys,
A little post holiday sharing......
After spending a fair amount of time this late summer trying to get my boat back on it's trailer (somewhat unsuccessfully) I opted to eliminate that future source of post boating frustration and install a guides. I want to be able to load and unload by myself without assistance......or the agony.
At first I tried 3" PVC guide posts but that didn't work too well as they were too easily broken off so I decided to go with the full length side type. I came up with an idea for the support arms and drafted out a set of plans after measuring about 20 times. A buddy works for a metal fabrication plant so I contracted with them to do the work. I could have taken the boat somewhere and had a set permanently welded on but I wanted to be able to remove them so my idea was to bolt them in place over the frame. The metal company fabricated a sample piece for fitting and after finding that it fit perfectly, I authorized them to go ahead.
I'm pretty impressed with them. At 16lbs each, they're a bit heftier than expected but at least they won't be flexing around while running down the road and I can't break them off like I did my PVC version.
They're designed to sandwich the I-beam and bolt tight at the bottom. That way they can be removed if desired. I still have to paint them and add the 2x6 carpeted side guides but thought I'd share some pics of one of the support arms. Hopefully the pics aren't too big to download.
Each support arm has two holes at the top for the 2x6 guide and one at the bottom to slide a bolt through so it can be tighted down over the frame. They also have a threaded hole on each side of the upper part where it slips over the I-beam so that it could be snugged down inside the upper I-beam. It's likely I might have to install a set of upright post guides at the rear so that they can keep the boat centered on first approach but we'll see about that later. I'll send some more pics later after I get the sides mounted.
I'm looking forward to my first try out with them! ;-)
-Bill
Dallas, TX
1970 Evinrude Explorer - 155 Buick V6 - OMC Sterndrive
http://www.photobucket.com/evinrude_explorer
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