Trailer slide guides and traction mats

[Bronze Backs]

I'd like to put some guides and mats on my 2 place Floe. Anyone have recommended brands and/or places to purchase? I've seen a few online places - the cheapest was $68 for a pair of slide guides and $25 for a mat. Thanks.

[knoppers]

try shade tree in big lake, thats where I got my slides from, and I can tell you, worth every pennie. I got my mats from honda house in st cloud when I bought my trailor, and I think they were 50 bucks with all the hardware.

[mamohr686]

I like powermadd products for the trailer. I have their standard 6" multi-glides slides for the trailer and trailer grips for driving on the tilt bed trailer. I wouldn't spend the extra money on a mat unless your sled is studded. The block style grips do fine for loading. There are also 8" versions that you may want to look into if you put a perfomance ski with dual carbides on your snowmobile, or use multiple snowmobiles with different ski stances on your trailer. I like the powermadd line because they don't seem to warp or crack like an off brand I bought off of hsolist. They are available at denniskirk on the web and other retailers.

[hanson]

Good advice guys!

My personal experience is unless you want loading a sled on a trailer to be an 'experience', put some kind of traction on the trailer. I've mastered the art of getting a good run on the trailer and hitting the brakes at the appropriate time and then setting the parking brake. Even on a good day, I'll come sliding off the back and have to take another run at it again.

Another thing you can do for traction to save yourself a buck is to cut up your old hyfax and screw it down to the trailer. Just cut it up into 1' long pieces and put 5-6 in a row and screw it down to the trailer to create a 'ladder' for you track.

[wally-eye]

I used an old plastic bedliner from a pickup for slides. Works great.

[Steve Bakken]

Another thing that works really well for traction is a section from an old snowmobile track. I like to leave about three feet extra on the back of the trailer. When I load up, I unroll the track onto the snow and drive up. That way, if you don't have a good enough run to get the track up onto the trailer, you still have traction. After I'm on, I just roll up the end of the track and tie it down behind the sled.

[FISHER ED]

I do like Chris mentioned, but use the same high density plastic strips that I do for making Otter runner kits for guys, instead of hyfax. Just screw them to the bed of your trailer like ladder rungs and have easy loading.

[minnesota mac]

My boss took a piece of pvc electrical pipe and riped it on his table saw in 1/2. Measured the ski stance then took some flat head screws and screwed it to the bed of the trailer. I believe he used 1 1/4" pipe. You will need 4 stickes of pipe for this. It was a heck of a lot cheaper than the other stuff you buy. The only probem I saw with this is if you hall differant sleds, the ski stance maybe wrong.

[Guest]

go to some dirt race tracks with sprint cars and get some warn out tires for next to nothing. Then cut the side walls out and lay flat to the trailer bed. Lasts forever and about tha width of the track.