Gatorback vs Ultimate Bunk Boards

[Highcentered]

Boat is a Tracker 175txw and I never have the winch strap unhooked unless the boat has water under it. One option is cheaper than the other and when loading I do have to wet the carpeted bunks for it to load correctly so there's that...basically I want my bunks to be slick when loading. Also have a pair of keel centering bunks that was a popular mod for the trailers for the Revolution hulls on here for a while. Without them loading is a nightmare. Today I noticed one of my keel centering bunks was basically being held together by the carpet and not sure how much life the other three have left in them. Given what I just said about my particular rig and habits which would you go with?

https://www.ultimatebunkboards.com/
http://gatorbak.com/

[apenland01]

I'm getting ready to replace my bunks, so....

[Mullins057]

Well, i just had gatorbaks put on my boat. They work great but look, well not so good (installed by dealer). I will be changing either the bunk board and try reinstall, ultimate bunk or call ranger and buy new. But i will not keep them on my boat as is....

[wmitch2]

I have 3 new boxes of Caliper Bunk covers listed in the classifieds. These are made mainly for Metal Boats. Saves ya a bunch of $$$

http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=1067653

[mikesxpress]

The Gatorbak bunks are not slick. About as "grippy" as carpet.

[USMC2112]

I just put an aluminum trailer under my Lowe and since I wanted to go all in I installed Gatorbaks. My boards are 2x6x8. In my opinion the Gatorbaks are almost too “grippy” for my purposes. Even backing the trailer in and wetting the bunks they seem to grab the hull and make winching the last few inches difficult. I am looking at Ultimate Bunks or just putting the carpeted bunks back on.

[Boat4Life]

I have Ultimate Bunks without any carpet and they are very slick.

[TDobb]

I put something similar to the Ultimate Bunk Boards on my little 14 foot boat trailer when I rebuilt it several years back. They were absolutely awesome. If I need to replace the bunks on my Ranger trailer I will likely go with the Ultimate Bunk Boards. I really like several things about them, no wood so no chance at absorbing water, no carpet to get little bits of sand or gravel or weeds or zeebs stuck in scratching up the bottom of the boat, wont rot out, and they would be very easy to winch the boat onto. All that said, they are also much easier to slide the boat off of so you want to keep the winch strap hooked up until you are in the water, no issue for me as I always do that anyway.

[Highcentered]

I'm leaning heavily towards the Ultimate boards now because of long term durability and the fact my boat needs to be able to shift a bit on the bunks as it settles before I push the nose hook up to the bow roller on the trailer. My boat idles at a diagonal because of prop torque and the left keel centering bunk takes a hell of a hit and probably why the regular carpeted 2x4 has failed while the other one seems to still be fine up there. The two oem trailer bunks that supports most of the boat are still solid right now.

[Highcentered]

Just put in my order for the bunk boards. Came to about $300 shipped for a pair of 6', pair of 9', and some fresh stainless steel hardware. Considering I'll probably never have to do this again as long as I own this boat I'm fine with that price. Being a tin rig I didn't see any good reason to pay more than twice as much for the ultimate bunk boards with aluminum reinforcement.

[crabska]

Highcentered,
I also have a Tracker but it is a 13' ProGuide 175 deep V. I just broke one of my wood boards Saturday. Did the 9' fit what you needed? My boards are 110" and going with a 9' regular board over a 10' supreme board will save me $325 on cost/shipping. I'm hoping I can cheat the 3" by centering the boards. Thoughts?

[Rick H]

Sure wish Mike would stop showing me his boat!

[Highcentered]

Got an email saying they were running behind on orders for black but could get me gray right away. I said gray would be fine since my hull and boat carpet are gray and should be a neat contrast with the black trailer. Well a week later I send an email asking for a tracking number and they say due to circumstances they can't control it will be the end of August before they can start shipping again. At least the broken bunk board on my trailer is one of the ones I added to center the keel when loading and not one of the boards actually holding the boat up or I'd be pissed. Hopefully I get them in at some point this year and hopefully we have a different FedEx driver on this rural route because the one that's running it now is afraid of dogs and has refused to get out of the truck a few times.