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Old     (hawk22)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 10:08 AM Reply   
I know this has been beatin to death, but whats consensus here? I remember my cousin had one on his boat a long time ago and I thought it was the coolest thing. So when my boat came with one, I was stoked. Then at my launch I couldn't get my nose high enough out of the water and jammed the heck out of it and it was useless.

After reading some threads on here, people talked about being at the right depth and putting carpet on the system to help slide, so I bought a new one and chalked it up to operator error. Well, I don't know if my boat is different but there is a fine line for right depth...I either need to bury my truck past the bumper and it will go on smoothly and float over the system. Or I have just have to bury the wheel wells on the trailer and it will ride the bunks over the system, but it is fully riding on the bunks with lots of resistance...needing one person to crank it on anyway while the driver is floors it.

If someone has got to crank it on anyway, I'm thinking I should just put a roller on there...
Old     (duckguy)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 10:13 AM Reply   
Roller
Old     (chattwake)      Join Date: Jan 2010       08-08-2012, 10:21 AM Reply   
Depends on the boat. The boat buddy worked awesome on my '02 XStar, but never (and I mean NEVER) worked right on my '08 230. For some reason, the shape of the hull on the 230 didn't allow the loop to line up right with the boat buddy, so the pin wouldn't engage, and I always ended up having to crank the boat on. Also, the boat buddy put some nasty grey marks on the front of my 230.

Moral of the story is, if it works, it's awesome. You just drive up on the trailer, hear the pin click through the bow loop, and pull the boat out. No more leaving the boat in gear while you run up to the front to attach a hook and crank up the strap. If it doesn't work, it sucks, because it makes it harder to get to the bow loop and will put marks on your hull.
Old     (jonblarc7)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 10:45 AM Reply   
I threw that piece of S#%!& in the trash, put a nice chip in the nose of the boat once then split the rubber and got the hook hung on the out side to the channel another time. Don't know how many time I held up the line because I couldn't pull the pin out. Mine was a Supra 24V that I found out later that they made the trailer wrong early on. So put on a roller and made some modifications and never look back.
Old     (williamburell)      Join Date: Sep 2011       08-08-2012, 11:14 AM Reply   
I can't stand my boat buddy. Ditto on the marks and chips. x9 here and about to rip the pos off. Things bent to hell anyways and have to jump out to crank now
Old     (wakecumberland)      Join Date: Oct 2007       08-08-2012, 11:29 AM Reply   
I was not a fan of the boat buddy on for my 2006 X2. I'll never have another trailer with one.
Old     (dcooper)      Join Date: Mar 2005       08-08-2012, 11:31 AM Reply   
Boat Buddy click and go. I love watching others trying to crank their boats on... The first thing I did with the current boat was lose the roller.
Old     (jonyb)      Join Date: Nov 2008       08-08-2012, 11:42 AM Reply   
Roller.

Put me on the list of - Had one and hated it.

I don't care how good of a driver you are, the Boat Buddy is not designed for heavy boats like these.
Old     (hawk22)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 11:59 AM Reply   
@ Blair: what kind of mods did you make?
Old     (jonblarc7)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 1:26 PM Reply   
Lowered the bolt hole for the roller 2.5" and cut the extra metal down so the roller would work with the new location. Boatmate will confirm this, The early trailers they made for 06 24 foot supra boats (24v and 24ssv) had the bow roller or boat buddy 2.5" to high. So unless you had the perfect ramp the nose was to low to go up over the boat buddy. Mine was so bad that when the boat was resting on the trailer the front two bunks didn't touch the hull by 2". So the whole front half of the boat was supported by the boat buddy and thats it.

You can call boatmate and they can walk you through the process of modifying the front roller location.

P.S. I did it with the boat on the trailer.
Old     (lifetimewarranty)      Join Date: Oct 2008       08-08-2012, 1:56 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonyb View Post
Roller.

Put me on the list of - Had one and hated it.

I don't care how good of a driver you are, the Boat Buddy is not designed for heavy boats like these.
LOL....Boat buddy is perfect for my '04 X2. I'm with Cooper. Click and go and watch people fiddling with winches as you are pulled away in a flash
Old     (TheSqueakyWheel)      Join Date: Oct 2010       08-08-2012, 2:41 PM Reply   
I couldn't stand the boat buddy. It was an OEM item and I swapped it for a $30 roller. It never worked right.
Old     (Readyaimfire)      Join Date: Jun 2012       08-08-2012, 2:45 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by chattwake View Post
Depends on the boat. The boat buddy worked awesome on my '02 XStar, but never (and I mean NEVER) worked right on my '08 230. For some reason, the shape of the hull on the 230 didn't allow the loop to line up right with the boat buddy, so the pin wouldn't engage, and I always ended up having to crank the boat on. Also, the boat buddy put some nasty grey marks on the front of my 230.

Moral of the story is, if it works, it's awesome. You just drive up on the trailer, hear the pin click through the bow loop, and pull the boat out. No more leaving the boat in gear while you run up to the front to attach a hook and crank up the strap. If it doesn't work, it sucks, because it makes it harder to get to the bow loop and will put marks on your hull.
+1 for the nasty grey marks on my '09 xstar. Sticking with a roller.
Old     (hawk22)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 2:52 PM Reply   
Blair that makes sense. That was kinda my concern...looking at its current location I feel the nose would still tend to go under the roller.
Old     (jonblarc7)      Join Date: Jul 2006       08-08-2012, 3:08 PM Reply   
If you have the same boat I do it won't. Now the front bunks catch the boat and lift it up and over the roller before it hits. I never have a problem now and I used to dread the end of the day when I had to load the boat. This wasn't my first wakeboat either, l've loaded boats thousands of times but it used to be so hard with this boat.
Old     (kybool)      Join Date: Aug 2004       08-08-2012, 3:22 PM Reply   
The Boat Buddy is one of those neat ideas that obviously wasn't thoroughly tested. In 6 years it worked once and that was on accident, total garbage. +1 for the Roller.
Old     (monroeyd)      Join Date: Jun 2006       08-08-2012, 4:14 PM Reply   
+1 for the boat buddy. Only time I had a prob was when I put lead in the nose. Relocated the lead and works great.
Old     (eaglejackson)      Join Date: Oct 2004       08-08-2012, 4:49 PM Reply   
Roller. I had a boat buddy for my MC 05 X-2 and hated it. And when the pin bends, it's a real PITA. I replaced it with a roller and never looked back.
Old     (joesell)      Join Date: Apr 2001       08-08-2012, 5:07 PM Reply   
I loved my BB on my Mobius so much, I didn't hesitate to put one on my trailer when I got my Epic. I did modify this one with some bunk carpet glued to it, and I'll admit that you do have to set your trailer to the right depth at the launch. But I've never had any problems like other people describe.

If the pin is stuck while launching, it's because the boat slid back the last time you took it out of the water. Probably because the trailer was too deep.

It also helps if you back your trailer in deep to get the bunks wet, then pull it out to the right depth for loading.
Old     (jonyb)      Join Date: Nov 2008       08-08-2012, 6:25 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifetimewarranty View Post
LOL....Boat buddy is perfect for my '04 X2. I'm with Cooper. Click and go and watch people fiddling with winches as you are pulled away in a flash
People were watching me fiddle with the boat buddy on mine when I was trying to launch because the last time the boat had been loaded, it pulled against the pin and everything jammed. Damn near had to get a sawzall out to cut it apart. When the truck takes off, and a 24' 4000# boat pulls against it, the pin loses. And don't try to say the boat wasn't loaded right, it wasn't floating - it was resting on the bunks before the truck was even moved.

After I installed the roller on my trailer, the driver still didn't have to get out of the truck. I could pull the boat up, leave it idling in gear, hook the snap, turn 3 turns on the winch, shut the boat off, and the truck was heading up the ramp.
Old     (lifetimewarranty)      Join Date: Oct 2008       08-09-2012, 6:30 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonyb View Post
the driver still didn't have to get out of the truck. .
I've never needed the driver to get out of the truck.....even on my last boat (Sanger DLX with no boat buddy or roller)

Sounds like there are some boats that the boat buddy is no buddy of...

MC 205's (my X2 and previously mentioned Xstar) seem to be awesome for them. My boat has been on and off this trailer 2 maybe 3 hundred times (well over 900 hours on boat) with the buddy on it.

If it works it is brilliant. That is all I have to say. I thought about adding one on my Sanger but also read some horror stories so I didn't.
Old     (nelson)      Join Date: Jan 2009       08-09-2012, 7:40 AM Reply   
Had several on my older MC 190's they worked great. Had an extra one laying around tried it on the Malibu took it off the next trip out and put my roller back on. Boat slides back just enough coming out of the ramp and jams the pin.
Old     (dougr)      Join Date: Dec 2009       08-09-2012, 7:41 AM Reply   
i never had good luck either. my problem has been the launches are really short at the river and you can never get the trailer in far enough to use it. we have launches that are uber steep and real short, so your trailer will fall off the ramp and detroy your fenders, plus sit the trailer on its frame, i will never get one again.
Old     (acurtis_ttu)      Join Date: May 2004       08-09-2012, 8:10 AM Reply   
Boat buddy is nice when it works right, but like others say, it doens't alwasy work right. The biggest issue is if/when the pin gets bent, evne slightly, it never wants to work right.
Old     (jperkinsttu)      Join Date: Mar 2008       08-09-2012, 8:35 AM Reply   
Roller for sure and get some straps for the transom for extra safety.
Old     (ers906)      Join Date: Feb 2010       08-09-2012, 9:16 AM Reply   
I just had a custom trailer made for my SAN 210 and discussed w the trailer manufacturer about putting a boat buddy on. His thoughts were that they are not designed to work with Nautiques, you would have to place a different bow ring/hook on to lengthen it. This may be true for other boat brands as well. He did say that mastercraft seemed to work ok with.
Old     (93rx7)      Join Date: Jan 2010       08-09-2012, 11:10 AM Reply   
I need to come up with something for my trailer.. it doesn't have a spot for a winch so it requires 2 people and some skillful driving to get the boat hooked up to the turnbuckle. ;/
Old     (kskonn)      Join Date: Mar 2011       08-09-2012, 11:42 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by ers906 View Post
I just had a custom trailer made for my SAN 210 and discussed w the trailer manufacturer about putting a boat buddy on. His thoughts were that they are not designed to work with Nautiques, you would have to place a different bow ring/hook on to lengthen it. This may be true for other boat brands as well. He did say that mastercraft seemed to work ok with.
Always scuffed both my MC's, I have been with a roller for a long time with no issues.

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