Yea, I hacked up one of my first versons. First started tapering from the bottom. After removing about two inch of material and it not making a difference I started shortening it. Both with no impact. My second version I hinged the bottom 3 inchs so it would fold up flat under the platform and stay in place with spring loaded hinges. Slight change but not to my satisfaction. I kicked around raising the platform but that would mean starting over again with new mounting plates and everything and making it weaker. I think I could raise the gates about 2 inchs before the height wouldn't make a difference. I have a lot of water flowing over the top of them now. This would probably fix the problem. My family all ride goofy. I would need the other side unless going out with friends. So removing and installing wouldn't be a big deal.