Bow ladder bent - any tips?

[Madcityami]

As long as I’ve owned the boat (all of 2 months), the anchor locker was always difficult to open and close. I finally took a closer look and noticed it would close much easier if the ladder retracted a little more. Then I noticed the dents in exactly the same place on both sides and lined up exactly with the rubrail

Does anybody have any tips to get the dents out so it closes all the way? And if I have to replace it, is it just going to dent again if someone forgets to pull it up? It seems unlikely that I would pull up the anchor and somehow forget the ladder or use the ladder without the anchor...but apparently it happens.

 

[sunbyrned]

Not speaking from experience so not sure this will work, but wondering if you can remove the caps and find a metal pipe about a foot long at Lowe’s that will fit in the tubes and hammer the pipe down to smooth out the dents. Maybe even use a few different diameter pipes and increase the size as you progress so the pipes don’t get stuck too.(?)

 

[Madcityami]

Just to close the loop on this one. I tried the pipe suggestion. It did improve it a little, but it was still tough to close. I tossed it in a box and put it on my “next season purchases” list.

Turns out every place that lists it on their site can’t actually get it, so I was back to trying to repair. Googled hard and saw some tailpipe dent magic with a welding torch. Took to a welder friend and it apparently took him all of 5 minutes.