Two things about trailering.

Has anyone done anything to better help launch and retrieve boat in shallow water or with a landing that has very little angle to it. Maybe like rollers on the back after the bunks. Or any suggestions.

And the second, when retrieving the boat and putting it on the trailer, I want to have my side guides higher so I can put the trailer back in the water further. If I put the guilds under the water (just the last foot of them , even if you hit it straight on, it will sometimes blow to the side on the edge with the wind or in some cases current. Anyone modified their trailer in for that?

Teflon bunks or gatorglide, the trailer bunks don't even have to be in the water then...

was this on unloading or loading or does it matter? You can load it up with the trailer that much out of the water?

My bunks are rubberized. I may have to try gator glide.

RUBBERIZED???? Like truck bed liner type of shit?
Get new bunks with carpet and some GG on your hull.....

Yeah, get rid of that shit fast. Either take a grinder and buff it off the bunks and carpet over the bare wood, or get new bunks with carpet. Water will eventually get under that rubber and rot the wood so just carpeting over it as it is now wouldnt do yourself any favors.....

Not sure what kind of trailer you have but the older ones have the pin you pull put and the trailer will tilt to help when you have none or a lil water..

Yeah, what Chaz said!


Also, Chaz, your deckboards will suffer the same fate as VD's trailer bunks.

Yeah, I was talking about the crewboat. Mostly just trying to start some shit with you though. They look good painted, but they rot faster.

The carpet wont trap the water like the rubber will. It can dry out between launchings.

Ok it sure will eat through the bottom of ur boat though


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The best thing to do is put plastic over ur boards


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Silicone spray for your bunks cheap and easy fix

I use a second Hand winch attached to the post on the trailer with the line run through a snatch block chained to one of the beams on the rear of the trailer. Hook it up to the bow eye and it cranks the boat right off the trailer. Works well. I also used old fire hose on the bunks which helps a lot.

Gator glide and u can push it off with one hand and mine is 18\60


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To the OP, regardless of tricks with your bunks, gator glide, etc. see if there is room for you to mount your leaf springs under the axle rather than them sitting on top. That will lower your entire trailer/boat height by roughly 4" which makes a big difference when launching shallow water or a not-so-steep decline.

^^This^^

Also you could make your own lowrider trailer with torsion spring spindles pretty easy.....


Just weld them on up high somewhere....

The "lowering" of trailer is best option overall but be careful with a GTR and trailering bracket.

I've seen some leave my shop with low trailer or even too tall of hitch height and tell them I hope you don't go over a lot of dips or uneven roads because I can see the skeg scraping pavement.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful, lots to think about. Gator Glide will be something I will do in the fall, probably after I get through my busy season. And I may cover the bunks with silcone or the fire hose (where can you get some of that?) I like the second winch idea if I did not gator glide it soon, would take only a few minutes to install and not that much money.

On the tilting trailer, I do not have one of those. But that would be helpful.

Gator Glide is all you need to do. You will also then see the real benefits of GG. The trailer thing is just an added benefit. Trust me!

GG is slick for sure! First time I have been able to just drive my boat right up on trailer on a steep ramp. And boards were not in water. Had to get gf to hook hand winch up bc boat would not stay! Highly recommend!!

You don't need higher side guides ("drunk boards" is what I call them) just make them longer. I have 6' guides on my 17' boat and they don't go all the way to the transom. Always some of them out of the water.

I had my welder at work build some pipe guides for me last week. I like them way better than guide boards! I set them tight so the boat can't slide far side to side when I'm trailering it too. I made the steel pipes 2' tall and the PVC pipes that slide over them 4'. I'm going to cut the PVC down to 3' or less though because I never back the bunks in the water, due to the GG. I'll post a pic tomorrow if you'd like.

Coot, yes, post some photos, thanks.

Thanks to all that responded too.

Not sure if this is what you're lookin for but I took a piece of square tubing that would slide into the main tongue of the trailer and selded the coupler on to it then I drilled holes for a pull pin through both the outside and inside tubing in a "pulling" position (coupler close to the end of the square tubing) and another hole in the inner tubing closer to the end. By doing this I am able to extend the tongue of the trailer by 10 ft or so if needed to get the boat out far enough to get into the water. Ill see if I have some photos to post later.

i screwed UHMW to the bunks and i removed the 13 inch wheels an dput on 8 inch glof crt wheels
takes some effort but way easier getting on and off in the mud
a friend of mine did the same but he installed rollers on top of the bunks and wow he just simply lines up hits the gas in reverse and hits the breaks and presto in the water and when done he has a winch on his trailer he just pulls it back up with
and im talking a twin screw 2060 prodrive not alittle boat

Thanks posting that Coot, that's what I'm gonna do

Thanks Coot for posting photos. I did not see this until now, while I was using search for something else.

I looked at the bunks, I thought they looked like rubber, but after looking at them closer they are plastic that sort of look like rubber. I had to thump them to make sure.

I also saw a trailer that has some bunk extension on the back. They looked like covered aluminum on edge rather than flat that were angled at what looked like a 45 degree right behind the bunks. So if you were in a situation where there was no or not much landing incline it would just angle it up tot he bunks. Looked like they were only about a foot long each. I think there were 4 of them.