OT-Nylon Glide trailer Bunk covers

[Sea Gristle]

Champion Trailer parts catalog shows a product called "nylon Glide Board Covers" for 2x4 and 2x6 bunks, covers the whole surface of the bunk. Screws go in the sides instead of the face like glide slicks. I saw a boatless Wesco trailer going up the road and they looked pretty good except for the diagonal grooves which seemed like more friction area than a glide slick. Anybody tried them yet?

[Tom Kidwell]

Kevin,

One of my fishing buds tried the early version that was as slick as glass and took them off.

The problem was he could not get the boat to hold to the front long enough to hook up the winch cable because the boat would slide back off.

Could be that the grooves are designed to provide enough friction to eliminate that problem.

Tom

[Sea Gristle]

Yikes-that's something I never considered!

[finnfur]

I leave mine in forward idle and hook eye [from boat] before cutting power. But I have a 20' CC and easy to do .Another solution on all bunks is to mix part carpet in back part of bunk . When the stern floats it comes off the carpet and slides off the trailer. Dont back down as far when loading and the carpet friction will hold it on.

[Kevin Smith]

Kevin,

We put nylon/plastic covers on a fishing friends boat and they are very slick because the UHMW type material contains oils and has a very smooth surface too. Here are a couple of the problems we noticed.

Ramp angle will affect if your boat will stay on the trailer without the cable attached. This creates a real problem when fishing alone because-if the ramp is steep, your boat will slide back off the trailer when loading or unloading. Nothing worse than a boat headed into the water with the cable attached and the handle spinning at 2,000 rpms when unloading. Or when loading, you might have to leave the motor in gear to keep the boat on the trailer, while you try and hook up the cable. Then you have to climb back into the boat to turn it off before you finish cranking in your boat.

Under hard braking conditions the boat will ride up the pillar of the trailer unless it is really locked down on the front and has heavy duty trailer straps on the back.

I guess they might work for bass boats when loading or unloading during busy tournaments, but they sure create problems for heavy boats and really light weight boats.

My 2 cents.

Kevin
Weekend Mistress[excited][excited][excited]

[TKH]

Thanks for the input,I think I am going to just put new carpet back on my bunks.They make a spray for the carpet has anyone tried this stuff?

[L3Lt]

The Liquid Rollers Spray is very good, It makes a world of difference. I helped Bills Marine load up after the Hampton Boat show and the boats on bunks just slid right on. If we pushed the back of the boat the guy winching had to keep up with the pushing. Keep in mind this was loading dry too! It made me buy some.

[capt. dave]

A fellow I worked with a couple of years ago had a brand new 28' boat. He had those Teflon bunk strips put on the trailer bunks. After a couple of launches and retrieves we began to notice the Teflon strips were actually cutting scratches in the gel coat on the bottom. It was hard to believe this at first but there was no mistaking the result so we pulled them off. He got his money back when he returned them, but his boat was scratched quite noticeably. I don't know if the Nylon ones would do the same thing, but if I were you I'd watch it very closely and if there was any evidence of scratches I would return them.

[Lone Ranger]

I have to second Capt.Daves observations.I have seen a 3 year old 206 Kencraft that the Slick bunks[white ones] had worn ALL the way thru the Gel-Coat to BARE Fiberglass!!Now it did look like the Fellow must have been power loading the Boat as the worn parts of the Hull measured about 2/3 of the Hull lenghth.

Went and looked at a 2001 Edgewater last week,Was put on a 2003 Slick Bunk?[yellow bunks] trailer last year.Less than a Year it had already started to shread the Gel-Coat on the Hull!NO slick-Bunks for Me.

[springtide]

Just spray your carpeted bunks with silicone and don't unhook the eye until your ready to launch.