Has anyone ever tried to make a home-mad version.  I am not paying $80 from BPS.  

Unless you've got the steel lying around, making an exact copy would cost you just as much as buying the ones from BPS.

I got mine from Overtons.com ,  paid 59.99 for them

By Brother-in-Law has a 30ft camper he pulls behind his truck. He swears by those magnetic sticks that you put on your hitch and toung. You line them up as you are backing up and when one of them falls over, the toung is dead on the hitch. He says they work 100% of the time.

They are called Hitchin' Rods and the cost around 20 bucks.

By Brother-in-Law has a 30ft camper he pulls behind his truck. He swears by those magnetic sticks that you put on your hitch and toung. You line them up as you are backing up and when one of them falls over, the toung is dead on the hitch. He says they work 100% of the time.

They are called Hitchin' Rods and the cost around 20 bucks.

 i think hes talking about  guideons to drive his boat up the trailer

I've tried to make my own, tried to have someone make them for me, same result...they broke.

Trust me when I tell you, the money you will spend for professionally made guide-ons will be well worth it.

I have a 14' jonboat and made them out of 1 1/4" electrical PVC conduit. They have pre-formed 90 degree elbows available and one side of each pipe is enlarged to fit around the smaller end. With 5/16" through-bolts it seems to be holding up, though I can't vouch for a larger boat. The whole thing cost me around $25.

I made some out of leftover 2" square steel tubing and 1/4" thick angle iron.  This stuff was laying around from another project so the cost was nil.  Only had to buy a few feet of 2" PVC and end caps.  Real happy with the results but if you don't already have a welder it's probably better to just buy the ready-mades.

Thanks for the replies.  Yes I do have access to steel and a tubing bender, and I own a mig welder.  

OK here's the way I did it (hope this isn't too long).  Took a 6" piece of angle (3 * 2 *1/4), welded about 4" of 2" square tubing across the 2" side so it sticks out one side about 4" and is even with the other edge.  Cut another piece of 2" tubing about 6" long, cut one end at an angle to match the angle of the hull, and welded it on the top of the 1st piece of 2" angle (wish I had a digital cam...).  So now I have a piece of angle iron with a piece of square tubing sticking out at right angles, and a 2nd piece of tubing sticking up from it at an angle to match the hull.  Now bolt the 3" side of angle to the side of the trailer frame and the square tubing assembly now sticks out to the side of the trailer.  That's the trailer portion, phase two is simpler to explain.  Take an appropriate length of 1-1/2" square tubing and nest it inside the angled 2" tubing.  Cut a piece of 2" PVC to a length that just clears the 2" angled tubing and put a PVC cap on top to keep the PVC from dropping too far down.  The uprights are stored in the boat or truck until you need them, then just slip them into the 2" angled upright (I use a clip to hold them in place).  Now all you have is a relatively small assembly permanently attached to the trailer and you can drop the uprights with the PVC rollers into the 2" socket when you retrieve.  Hope the instructions are clear enough, if not and you'd like to try it let me know and I'll send you a quick drawing.  

WOW,  very detailed.  I will give that a try.