My home-made jon boat guide-on poles

[G Lap]

I made some home-made guide on poles for my Weldbilt jon boat. I cut a long piece of 1 3/4" square tubing (kind used for street signs), and welded uprights on each end. It goes all the way across the trailer frame, then extends up each side about 30". I bolted a piece of sch40 PVC to each upright with two bolts a piece. I bolted the PCV poles to the square tubing to keep them solid. The PVC protects the boat, and gave me a place to mount the trailer lights. I bought some trailer lights that have the wiring going through the threaded part on the bottom ($7.99 each) from Tractor Supply. Holes were drilled in the center of the PVC caps on the top and I mounted these here. The whole set up was attached to my trailer frame with large u-bolts. Right where the square tubing intersects the trailer frame, I welded some angle iron on both sides, to reduce any possibility for the whole set-up to roll when hit by the boat. Finally, I added some reflective tape to the top cap on each side. They work really well and are very solid. If you shake them, the whole trailer moves.

 

[Ringo Steele]

Nice job onthe guides! Is that water pipe on the gunwales? I have been thinking along those same lines. Are they working out well for protecting the gunwales?

 

[sixgun86]

Turned out really nice, now to figure out how to replicated it without welding..

 

[BtsNhoS]

nice job, what is that holding your transom saver?

 

[G Lap]

Nice job onthe guides! Is that water pipe on the gunwales? I have been thinking along those same lines. Are they working out well for protecting the gunwales?

That is 1 1/4" grey PVC, used for electric conduit. I often fish under a large bridge with concrete pillings. The front of the boat is tied to one of the pillings, and the boat rubs against the next pilling on that row. When the waves are bad, the boat can do a lot of scraping against the pilling. Had the same thing on my last jon boat. After about 8 yrs of fishing, it was rubbed nearly all the way through the PVC. I am not one to go in just because the water gets rough . . . especially if I am nailing the catfish. It is definetly not so easy to snap those suckers on the boat rails, but I like how they have worked for me in the past.

 

[G Lap]

nice job, what is that holding your transom saver?

If you're talking about the trailer end of the transom saver, it is just a boat roller that is set pretty low.

 

[pelagicbldr]

Sweet set-up Thanks for the pics

 

[JMichael]

Nice looking addition.

 

[PSG-1]

Guides are SO useful.

First, when the trailer is empty, and your truck has a toolbox, with the tailgate up, when you begin backing down a ramp, without guides, you lose sight of the trailer and risk jack-knifing it. If you have guides, you always know the position of your trailer, whether the boat is on it or not.

Guides help when putting the boat on the trailer, too, as they mark the left and right sides of the trailer frame, and if you build them where they are close in to the hull, it will keep the boat centered as you drive it onto the trailer.

And most important, guides give you a higher point to mount your trailer lights. This is good for 2 reasons.

First, it puts the lights up higher, so people behind you on the road clearly see them, and are less likely to plow into the back of your boat.

Another advantage of putting the lights up on the guides is that it keeps them out of the water. A lot of manufacturers tout their lights as being "waterproof" What a crock of BS!! I have NEVER seen trailer lights that didn't leak. Once water gets into them, if it doesn't bust a hot bulb, it will cause corrosion of internal parts, and the light will quit working. I've seen it happen too many times to count. Putting them on guides eliminates all of this aggravation.

 

[JMichael]

Guides are SO useful.

First, when the trailer is empty, and your truck has a toolbox, with the tailgate up, when you begin backing down a ramp, without guides, you lose sight of the trailer and risk jack-knifing it. If you have guides, you always know the position of your trailer, whether the boat is on it or not.

Guides help when putting the boat on the trailer, too, as they mark the left and right sides of the trailer frame, and if you build them where they are close in to the hull, it will keep the boat centered as you drive it onto the trailer.

And most important, guides give you a higher point to mount your trailer lights. This is good for 2 reasons.

First, it puts the lights up higher, so people behind you on the road clearly see them, and are less likely to plow into the back of your boat.

Another advantage of putting the lights up on the guides is that it keeps them out of the water. A lot of manufacturers tout their lights as being "waterproof" What a crock of BS!! I have NEVER seen trailer lights that didn't leak. Once water gets into them, if it doesn't bust a hot bulb, it will cause corrosion of internal parts, and the light will quit working. I've seen it happen too many times to count. Putting them on guides eliminates all of this aggravation.

+1 to all of this.

I know that with the advent of LED tail lights, they've eliminated the dangers of busting a hot bulb, but there is still the advantage of higher visibility gained by installing them higher up. I don't know if the LED lights still have to worry about rust and corrosion though. When my trailer was built, they took it one step farther and installed marker lights on the back side of the tail light. This makes it so much easier when backing a trailer up at night, empty or loaded.

Another advantage to elevated lights that I've come to appreciate is this. After launching on the same ramp a couple of times, I know exactly how far to back my trailer down into the water for loading/unloading just by looking at the distance from the light to the water. I can't count the number of times I've had to get back in the truck and either pull up or back down a little farther without raised lights.

 

[richg99]

All looks great...My compliments. I've had lights on my poles on a number of my boats. Sure helps in many ways.

One question though...does your red tape extend towards the FRONT? If so, you may get stopped by the police.

I think that, facing FRONT...you can only have YELLOW. Red has to face BACKWARDS.

Probably different rules depending on where you live, but...no sense taking any chances breaking a law.

I heard that some guys here in TX are getting stopped because the yellow caution light-bulbs ON THE SIDE OF THE TRAILER have blown out and hadn't been replaced. I have one of those issues right now and have to have it fixed soon.

Sheesh..... any excuse to stop somebody, I guess. The police are probably just looking to see if any other, or bigger, laws are being broken when they stop a fisherman for something as minor as that.

regards, Rich

 

[Jdholmes]

Check your laws out. Here in Nevada you don't have to have lights on the side unless it is over a certain length...otherwise reflectors are all you need if I recall correctly.

In regards to the red light I would be concerned if the light was facing front but not so much the tape, unless it is reflective tape.

 

[screwballl]

Looks great! I plan to do something just like that with mine in the future, about the same time I add 2-3 ft to my trailer tongue.
I think my main difference will be using LED lights since they have less problems with water and weather.