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Guide-on posts make it easy to load your boat onto your trailer and back your trailer down the ramp. They clamp to the rear of your I-beam trailer frame and extend out of the water, providing visual targets to center the boat between during loading.
Features:
Specs:
Note: Check with your state Department of Transportation for restrictions regarding maximum trailer width.
Guide Your Boat Into and Out of the Water with Ease
When your boat trailer has been backed down the ramp and is partially submerged, these 75-inch-tall guideposts that are mounted on the rear corners of the frame will stick out of the water, giving you two highly visible targets to guide your boat between for loading. The PVC posts also provide a visual aid to help you back your boat trailer down the ramp when you're unloading and loading your boat.
Installation
The posts are simple to install. Slide the PVC posts over the galvanized steel support posts. Then use the included I-beam clamps to mount the posts on the top or below the trailer's I-beam frame, as close to the rear corners as possible. Adjust the posts so that the distance between each post and your boat is less than 1 inch.
Pre-Galvanized Steel
Pre-galvanized steel parts are stamped from a sheet of steel after it has already been galvanized. The edges of pre-galvanized parts often lose their zinc coating during the stamping process. Because of the thinness of the coating (less than 1 mm) and the fact that the edges remain exposed, pre-galvanized parts can begin to oxidize and rust quickly, so it's recommended that they be primed and painted.
California residents: click here
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey guys, it's Randy here at etrailer.com.Often times when it comes to loading boats or getting your boat into a slip, it can be a challenge. Whether it's wind, maybe it's waves from other boaters out on the water. Maybe you're on a river and you've got some current coming to the side, or maybe you're just not that good at driving a boat. Whatever the case is, these guides from C.E. Smith provides you with an excellent way to get that boat loaded. They use a PVC that's very strong, very durable, it's a thick wall, but it allows your boat just to slide up and around.We're going to mount these.
This is the 60 inch version, this is the 75 inch version. Just depending on how high your rub rail on your boat sits up off your trailer. Or in loading and unloading in a lot of rivers guys will opt for the longer one because sometimes that trailer does dip pretty far down on some of the steeper ramps. You just pick your size accordingly. Get one that's going to work for you.
I always prefer to go with one a little bit longer than shorter. Its because they're going to be up and out of the water and be very visible. It's going to mark your trailer outsides for you. You'll know right where your boat needs to go.It's also going to keep that wind and those other things we talked about from blowing you off course. Essentially on this side, as you're coming in with your boat, you just want the edge to just barely touch it and use that guide to run your right up and on.
They work really, really well.Working with customers, they've had issues. They come to us and say, "This is what's going on. What can I do to fix it How can I get my boat loaded on the trailer without spending 30 minutes on the boat ramp and aggravating people".Basically, this is it. You're going to put these on. They're going to come out and up.
Now, this kit's designed specifically for I-beams. We can go anywhere from a two and a half inch I-beam up to a four and a half inch I-beam. Generally, aluminum trailers is what we're looking at. We also have these to fit onto regular square beam or rectangular beam trailers. They can save you a lot of headaches.You see with the I-beams these can be mounted below, if you've got some interference up on top or above, if you have interference on the bottom. If you have an opening, generally, you want these to be as close to the rear of the trailer as you can get them. Being able to do that, either low mount or high mount, it's going to give you a lot of options so we can get them more perfectly positioned as far back on the trailer as possible.Now, C.E. Smith isn't the only boat guide manufacturer out there. There are several and several different brands but in my experience in the years that I've been out boating, C.E. Smith seemed to last the longest. The other ones have thinner material that these are constructed out of down here and I generally see people that go with models that aren't C.E. Smith looking for these after they've ruined that first set. Now I'm not saying we can take these at cruising speed, ram into and expect them to last. If you're just good enough of a driver to where you can ease your boat up there, allow it to rest on it and come on in, you're not going to have any problems. These are going to save a ton of headaches. They save you embarrassment.You're just not that good at navigating your boat or those precise maneuvers. All we have to do is get up and touch it, roll on in. We'll be off the ramp in just a few minutes. You won't be wasting other people's time. You won't have to worry about them looking at you, you don't have to worry about a mocking you. You'll be on your trailer, you'll be on the road, you'll be on your way home.Also to ensure they last a very long time for you we're going to have galvanized treatment on all the steel components on our clamp. Well, with the exception of the bolt, that's got a clear zinc finish on it, but everything else should last for a very long time. I have not seen a lot of rust and corrosion on the clamps or on the pipes themselves, even after years of use.Now, if night time loading is something that you do we have a couple of options for lights for these. There are replacement caps that will go on and you can use your running light circuit to light those with LED lights, or there are your actual trailer light replacements. You can bring a clamp up here and your light will hang off here to the side. I like those as options, especially if you're loading up in the middle of the night and stuff like that. Just to give you a little bit more of a frame of reference on where you need to be.Now, as far as the installation process goes, it's really straight forward. You're just going to need two nine 16th wrenches, two nine 16th sockets, whatever you need. We've got this one installed on the top of our beam, as you can see. We're able to use the two pieces of the clamp grab each side. Then, of course, we pass our support through and we'll use a bolt on top. Now you're going to have two different size bolts. We've got our shorter bolt here and longer bolt here.For this one, I think this one is about three and a quarter inches wide. This one was up closer to three and three quarters of an inch wide. That smaller bolt seems to work. I'd say anything under three and three quarters-ish you'll use the smaller bolt. Once you get over that, you're probably going to want to use that larger bolt.To install it, we're going to mount this one on the bottom of this one. These can be mounted on top or on the bottom. It's going to take one slid on that way, take our other one and slide it on the other way. We want these basically to be facing one another up to the position we want it. We want that clamp to fit around there, just like that. That allows us to adjust in or out.Now, ideally put your pipe on there when you're setting that distance. What we're looking for no more than two inches, no more than three inches. You want it to be pretty close. That way as you get lined up there and you're getting going, getting guided in, it'll take care of it for you. Once you've got it in the position you want it, the bolt's going to pass through, we'll place on our washer and our locknut there. Grab our wrenches. Just begin to tighten that down. You want good pressure on it but there's no need to really bend these clamps or anything. We don't want to deform anything. That squeezing pressure holds our bar in place really well. At that point, you'll put your PVC down and on.Once those are installed on your beam, just want that slot to line up with the tab on the inside. That's going to keep that tight from rolling around or spinning just like that. As long as you have the appropriate spacing, you're going to be ready to go.I think as you can see, these are going to be an excellent choice, whether you're an experienced boater and you want to just counteract the wind or the current. Or maybe you're newer to it and you're just trying to figure out how to get your boat loaded up. These are going to be a really good solution. Or get your boat into the slip these are going to be a really good solution for that. These would definitely be something that I would own..
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (2298 Customer Reviews)
Guide-on posts make it easy to load your boat onto your trailer and back your trailer down the ramp. They clamp to the rear of your I-beam trailer frame and extend out of the water, providing visual targets to center the boat between during loading.Very happy with guide on post! The brackets fit my huge 7.5 x 4.5 I beams on my trailer! This trailer hauls a 2001 Sea Ray 280 Sundancer that is 31.9 ft long and 9.5 feet wide. This kit works perfect and came with all the hardware I needed!
I got the 75 inch guide post with I beam clips and they were super easy to install and I couldn’t be more happy with the product. Amazing customer service of etrailer. They were very helpful on getting you information and making sure the product you order gets to you in a timely manner. The product you see in the picture is the product you will be getting.
The guides are very well built and we’re easy to install. My only complaint is that the white PVC tubes were dirty and scuffed in a few places. The heavy black dirty marks did not come clean. I have seen other comments about this, but it doesn’t seem like any steps have been taken to protect them. They should be wrapped in paper to protect them.
The guides work great. Easy to install
Very simple installation. It took maybe 20 minutes. Seemingly good solid construction. Went on my 4" I-beam trailer no problem.
My only complaints are that the PVC came scratched up from rubbing metal parts inside the shipping box. Some protection in packaging would have been nice.
Also, and I'm not sure this matters, the posts lean slightly in once installed. Meaning they stick out farther at the base than they do at the top. For my boat I would have liked to have them lean slightly outwards to hug the boats profile. Either way, I'm going to see how they work this next weekend and if its a problem I will bend the metal posts out slightly.
Still a 5 star review for now!
As advertised. Simple installation. Excellent Product!
Received product yesterday. Looks like good quality. Looks like an easy installation. Only complaint I have. You should have wrapped the brackets or the pvc pipe. Mine was all scratched up from rubbing against each other during shipping.
The guides work very well and make it much easier to load the boat.
The quality of this product is excellent. This would have been a five star rating except for two minor items. First, the parts arrived extremely dirty from manufacturing with no sign that they tried to wipe anything down before packaging. Second, the package includes two different length bolts to accommodate different I-beam frame widths but neither was wide enough for my frame requiring me to make a hardware store run for a couple bolts. So, very pleased with the overall quality and would purchase them again but they fell short of a five star rating.
The guides for boat are great quality and seem like they are strong enough for the job
Very heavy duty. Longest clamp bolts were still too short for our Easy Loader I beam trailer. The need to be primed and painted is puzzling for a product that is designed to be immersed in water.
The clamps are galvanized and rugged. Two bolt lengths were provided so I had a wide I-beam I wouldn't be off to the hardware store. My 3" I-beam used the shorter bolts and they included washer and nylon insert lock nuts. The 90 degree bend metal box tubes are also rugged; didn't measure the wall thickness, but its certainly stiff enough for the job. PVC pipes and caps included. Probably took me 15 minutes to install and that's because I was fussy with the gap I wanted between the PVC pipe and the rub rail on the boat. The only blemish is that the tubes have black marks on them most likely from shipping as the metal box tubes are shipped loose they can bang around and mark up the PVC pipes. The hardware is bagged so there is very little chance of coming up short on the hardware. The tubes are long, and I do mean long, but with some of the steep boat launch ramps I use having that added length is a lot better than coming up short.
Overall, it's a quality item and if you want all white pipes, be prepared to clean them up when you are ready to install them. Try some naptha first and if that doesn't do it, go to a mild ScotchBrite pad. I have not yet launched or retrieved my 20' Key West with these trailer guides in place, but I expect no problems whatsoever.
Chris M.
7/7/2017
Been a year with a dozen launch and retrievals will never have another boat on a trailer without them. Absolutely no problems with the hardware easy to adjust even after a year in and out of salt water and the amount of flex in the tubes is just right to keep the boat aligned on the trailer without impact. Excellent.
When I first purchased the boat guides I was excited about them. But after having them for a while they became a pain!! When I say pain I mean the way they mount to my trailer was really a poor design. The clamps that you bolt on to the trailer came off pretty much most of the time whether you off load the boat or loading the boat back on the trailer. So at this point the guides are off my trailer because it got frustrating mounting them back on. There should be a better way to mount them so they will stay in place. Maybe have a square tube that is already pre drilled so the boat guides will stay mounted. I did everything I could to make them work but with no luck. Adding washers so the clamps would mount tighter to the frame and even that didnt work.
I haven't used the guide-ons yet, but it looks like they will do the job perfectly. I was thinking about making my own guides, as I did on a small aluminum boat trailer, but decided to get the CE Smith guides instead. After paying the high prices for all the parts needed, I would have wound up with inferior guides, and would have wasted a few hours making them. Also, some welding would have been needed. Too much work to justify making them. Price was right at etrailer, so it was a no-brainer.
The trailer has been outstanding and I have towed my boat from Florida to Washington state and back and all over Washington State. The only problem I have with it is the surge brake which is manufactured in Atlanta. The diaphragm that keeps the outside air out of the brake fluid and is supposed to be glued to the filler cap keeps coming adrift and when it does that, the brake fluid squirts out of the breather hole. The manufacturer has been quite helpful and gave me two more caps, but the problem continues. So I travel with three caps and a tube of superglue! The brake fluid probably breaks down the glue. I check it daily when I am on the road and two caps are used for the 3300 mile trip to the far corners of the Nation.
etrailer has been my-go-to source for all my boat trailer needs. Their parts have always coordinated with my equipment and their tech advice has been helpful. Ordering is easy and convenient and delivery prompt. You guys are time-savers and problem-solvers. Thanks.
Installed this on my manic tilt trailer that sits a 2005 Four Winns 194 Funship. The trailer is a pain to load this boat from the water. I purchased these in hopes it would make it better by allowing me to better judge how far to pull the trailer in and give me a reference to know when the boat was centered on the bunks. It installed in the matter of a 30 minutes which included taking it out of the box and my helper was 10 yrs old. They seemed a little wobbly it ended up sturdy during towing and turns out you want them to be forgiving when loading the boat. They worked out perfectly as I’m now able to know when the boat is centered, no more out and in to adjust the boat for center!!
I am very pleased with the trailer guides and the installation went well until I found that the inside diameter of one of the PVC pipes was almost one eighth inch more narrow than it should be. This pipe did not fit over the steel post of either guide. I ended up using a grinder to grind down just enough of all four sides of one steel post guide to allow the PVC pipe to slide down. This problem could have been found before shipping by simply trying out the fit before it was boxed. I have been pleased with e-trailer for previous purchases and am pleased with the delivery and overall quality of these guides; however, I should not have had to make major modifications in order to compensate for a manufacturing defect.
White posts were scratched from metal posts because they were not wrapped in bubble wrap. Shipping box had tears in it. Bracket system for guides proved to be difficult to install. However, it will suit the purpose intended.
Jenny N.
6/20/2022
Well shoot, I am sorry to hear that the guide on posts arrived scratched. I will let our shipping department know and will have our customer service team reach out to you.
Easy install and after a year still like new... product works great and simplifies trailering the boat, especially on deeper slips.
We love the boat trailer guides we purchased. They were so easy to install and they make loading the boat so much easier! Thank you for a great product!
CE Smith I beam bracket design was a must due to the size of my aluminum boat trailer. However the I beam brackets needed slight modification, and the hardware (bolt) were 3/4" to short.
I ordered a set of ce smith boat trailer guiding post via phone, instead of online, because I had specific questions about the product prior to purchasing. My specific questions were answered by Heidi M who was familiar with the product. She took my CC information and processed the order successfully. I received the product via USPS free shipping (purchase was more than 99$) on-time as promised. This is my first time doing business with etrailer, overall I am very satisfied with etrailer service, website and personnel. Will definitely purchase from etrailer again, based on my positive experience, will recommend etrailer for friends and others.
The I-beam clamp kit was very easy to install and adjust to the trailer and boat. They seem very robust and while only using them a few times so far I think they will hold up very well and work perfectly to guide the boat on the trailer. Great product!
Great quality and the order arrived qui ckly.
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Jenny N.
5/17/2023
I am sorry that it arrived and needed to be wiped off. I can only say that being stored in a warehouse setting may have contributed to it. The three eighths diameter bolts that come with this will fit with I-beam frames that are 2.5 inches up to 4 inches wide. You can buy longer bolts if your frame is wider.