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Bow roller


drtortho

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I would like to know what everyone is doing for their bow roller. Are you keeping the stock one (black rubber) changing out to a "yellow" one of even the Bow Buddy (and does this thing work with a Bu)? My roller is leaving a black mark which I have hate to keep cleaning off and besides, it just looks junky on the new gel. Any thots or recommendations. Trailer is Extreme.

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I have the bow buddy, and it works great. All you have to do is set the pin, then drive the bow eye onto it and it will close and you can drive off, no more cranking the boat up the trailor. The only problem is that if the ramp is really steep you might need to wet it or use some lubricant

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The Boat Buddy works great, but isn't the most durable thing I've ever seen. I've had to straighten the two I've owned several times, but they still seem to work well even when bent. I would NOT trust it to hold the boat on the trailer on anything but the shallowest ramps. I almost always connect the strap before taking off, but it still makes the loading process easier.

Anyway, my Boat Buddy marks my hull a little, but not as much as the black roller it replaced.

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We have the yellow one, but we never pull up on the roller. Just leave the boat an inch from the roller and you're good to go.

If I don't pull all the way up the boat bounces on the trailer even with a front tie down strap.

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The Boat Buddy works great, but isn't the most durable thing I've ever seen. I've had to straighten the two I've owned several times, but they still seem to work well even when bent. I would NOT trust it to hold the boat on the trailer on anything but the shallowest ramps. I almost always connect the strap before taking off, but it still makes the loading process easier.

Anyway, my Boat Buddy marks my hull a little, but not as much as the black roller it replaced.

After one season w/ the boat buddy I took that worthless thing off. It never worked and eventually the pin bent and then ceased to work.

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The Boat Buddy works great, but isn't the most durable thing I've ever seen. I've had to straighten the two I've owned several times, but they still seem to work well even when bent. I would NOT trust it to hold the boat on the trailer on anything but the shallowest ramps. I almost always connect the strap before taking off, but it still makes the loading process easier.

Anyway, my Boat Buddy marks my hull a little, but not as much as the black roller it replaced.

After one season w/ the boat buddy I took that worthless thing off. It never worked and eventually the pin bent and then ceased to work.

Boat Buddy (ie: the marriage saver) is the first thing I added to my SLxi when I got it. I would NOT ever have a trailer without the Boat buddy. It leaves an occassional mark on the gel, but not often, and it's a light grey that hardly shows up, not the black from the roller.

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I have the extreme and changed that roller out on the first day as well. This is what you are looking for.

Bow Roller

Thanx........got it this weekend and already like it better. It did interfer with the crank so I just used the 4 inch center part.

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Gee, sounds like I screwed up. So can the "black marks" be cleaned off easily? My trailer had the poly roller on it when I bought it. Not sure what the poly roller looks like new, but mine being a few years old was all gunked up. It left nasty stuff on the nose of the boat, and it wouldn't clean off at all. I ended up having to scrap it off with a razor blade, and then wet sand and polish the nose. Looks like new now, but I took the poly off and went to the black roller just to try something different. Sounds like the key is leaving some slop in it so the roller can spin freely.

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Like Wakegirl said, I make sure that the bow roller can easily roll, and I put some WD-40 on the bolt / center prior to use. The marks and scratches that were on the bow in the past I was able to "gently" remove with a flat straight razor followed up with polishing compound on a R/O buffer. Using that method, all the marks were removed. Obviously the boat has to be off the trailer prior to working on it. Keeping the bow roller free to roll is the key to cutting down on the amount of marks IMO.

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Like Wakegirl said, I make sure that the bow roller can easily roll, and I put some WD-40 on the bolt / center prior to use. The marks and scratches that were on the bow in the past I was able to "gently" remove with a flat straight razor followed up with polishing compound on a R/O buffer. Using that method, all the marks were removed. Obviously the boat has to be off the trailer prior to working on it. Keeping the bow roller free to roll is the key to cutting down on the amount of marks IMO.

Well thanks to this thread I now realize why my new yellow poly roller was still leaving marks.

I had the old black roller which left marks. It also wasn't tight enough, and one time the boat bow slid between the two rubber end caps and the bow got a nice gouge. :(.

I replaced it with the yellow poly, but given the gouge, I made it nice and tight to prevent the bow from sliding between the roller and the end cap....Obviously, I made it too tight!

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  • 1 month later...
I would like to know what everyone is doing for their bow roller. Are you keeping the stock one (black rubber) changing out to a "yellow" one of even the Bow Buddy (and does this thing work with a Bu)? My roller is leaving a black mark which I have hate to keep cleaning off and besides, it just looks junky on the new gel. Any thots or recommendations. Trailer is Extreme.

use acetone. it takes the marks right off. the reason the rollers leave marks is the sun heats up the rubber and when the boat hits the roller it transfers the dirt and crap to the boat. keep the roller clean and before you load the boat pour water on it to cool it down

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