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No Mo' Carpet
from Personal Watercraft Illustrated, March 2004

Trailers just don't get the attention they should. After all, you're not looking forward to a weekend of trailering, you're looking forward to a weekend of riding. So it's no wonder you're up the night before gassing up the watercraft, making sure they're set for a weekend of fun. Yet there sits the trailer — ignored, unnoticed and totally taken for granted given its actual importance to the whole watercraft-weekened equation.

Until a bunk snaps while going 65 down the highway, that is. Then you get to pull over and view the carnage of what just the night before was a gleaming PWC ready for a weekend of action.

This is just the kind of situation the makers of the patented Bunkaps have decided to address with their handy vinyl rails made to fit over a trailer's wooden bunks. The goal is to get the carpet that comes standard on most trailers away from the wood. Carpet is nice and soft and friendly to gel coats (at least for awhile anyway), but it does tend to absorb and retain moisture from the water. The water will then soak into the wooden bunks and speed up the deterioration process. After a long enough time, the wooden bunks simply won't be able to handle the load.

The Bunkaps are made of vinyl, so there's no problem with water absorption — there isn't any. And because the underside of the wooden bunks is exposed, the water that does soak in while launching and retrieving is quickly allowed to be pulled to the surface by gravity and evaporate.

The other thing we liked about the Bunkaps was their thick cushy profile, which ensured there would be no surface wear or scratching like there can be when the carpet on standard bunks wears away in spots to reveal wood and sometimes metal fasteners.

We did notice during testing that the Bunkaps are not best suited for someone who often transfers his boat from a cart to the trailer while on land. The underside surface of a watercraft does not easily slide on the Bunkaps while they are dry, which makes trying to scoot a boat up on the trailer while on land a rather difficult chore. But it also means the boat won't slide around at all while on the trailer and in transit, which is what the pieces are designed to do. Since many owners store their craft on their trailers, this really isn't an issue.

Give yourself a few hours to remove the bunks and carpet from your two-place trailer and install the Bunkaps. All you'll need is a powered screwdriver and some simple tools. The Bunkaps offer great bunk protection for the people who always have their boats either in the water or on the trailer.

Bunkaps
$79.95/pair
812/476-9440
bunkaps.com

YEA
- Protects wood bunks
- Cushy ride
- Installation ease
- Hard to budge when dry

NAY
- Hard to budge when dry