Has Anyone Put Pads on their Boat Hoist Guide Poles?

[North Woody]

I’m looking for some wisdom from the pros here ..... We all put pads on the guide poles on our trailers, but has anyone found a good way to similarly put pads on the guide poles on your boat hoist? I’ve got 3 sons who are all still getting proficient with docking the boat, but as you all know it can get a bit hairy when they come steaming into the hoist and end up banging around a bit.

We’ve got a Pier Pleasure dock and hoist system, and I measured the guide poles to see if I could just use a set of trailer covers for a cheap & cheerful solution, but no dice. The hoist guide poles are 3” diameter PVC over a 2” x 2” square metal pole. So I’m on the hunt for an easy solution, but I haven’t yet found an off-the-shelf product to fit over the 3” diameter poles.

I’ll try to post a pic of the rear guide pole on my hoist but I am guessing is pretty standard on most boat hoists. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or creative solutions to offer

[North Woody]

I had to post a pic of the guide poles via Tapatalk as I couldn’t upload them from the website ...




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[North Woody]

One more pic


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[Mendenhall90]

My family has always cut noodles down a side and wrapped around our lift poles. Extremely cheap and surprisingly efficient.


2018 Moomba Craz

[North Woody]

Here’s what I ended up doing ..... Because the guide poles on our Pier Pleasure hoist has 3” diameter guide poles (significantly larger than the trailer guide poles), I couldn’t use the typical pool noodles, so I had to find an alternative solution. I ended up using 3/4” thick 3 1/4” diameter polyethylene pipe insulation in 6’ sections that I bought from Grainger’s which I then cut down to 4’ sections to fit the height of our guide poles. I then had the local canvas shop in town build canvas covers to specifically fit the guide poles to keep everything in place and looking tidy. I had them use the toughest material they had as they can get a bit of a banging when coming in on windy days, and they suggested something called “Trucker’s Tarp” - If it’s good enough for truckers, then it’s good enough for me . They work great and are tough as nails (even with the kids docking the boat...).

Here’s a pic of our set up for both our 2014 LSV as well as our 1936 Chris Craft:




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[North Woody]

And a pic of the LSV:




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[North Woody]

And of the Chris:




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[tarheelskier]

Looks great! I am guessing that the kids don't dock the Chris Craft!

[MJHSupra]

And of the Chris:




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Awesome. How much do you get to take it out for a cruise?

[North Woody]

Awesome. How much do you get to take it out for a cruise?

We take her out every day we’re up here (which is not nearly often enough!), for at least a cocktail cruise if not an early morning coffee cruise as well