Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Do you cover your pontoon when not in use, or just leave it uncovered until winter, I tried a nylon tarp but the humidity is so bad it was like a swamp under that thing, bought a breathable cover from Academy today, the wife and I wrestled with it for about an hour before I got so aggravated that I wanted to burn it. Still don't have it on, will try again tomorrow.

Didn't you pontoon come with a cover when you bought it ?

I covers ours when not in use and it's also got it's own shed to protect from the UV rays.

I cover it. Keeps it cleaner. Between the ducks and the damn spiders, if I leave it exposed for more than a day or two I have to spend 2 hours cleaning it.

I've got the same boat. When not in use it's parked in the garage..... see siggy picturej

Hey Rocky... I see you're another Louisianian..... as to your question I guess it's always best to cover... having said that I keep my boat in an indoor storage facility, so we don't normally cover... at the end of the boating season we will give the boat a good scrubbing and then put the cover on that came with the boat... If you store your boat outdoors, no question, cover it up. Remember the sun can do a lot of damage as well...

Very few boats down here in my neck of the woods are covered when left outdoors. It gets too humid, and it never really dries out under that cover. I have individual covers for my fishing seats, and I keep the bimini up to shade my couch and helm unless a windy storm is coming. I also use some 303 aerospace protectant on the vinyl. It's like sunscreen for your boat. So far so good. With that being said I don't expect my vinyl seats to last forever.

Mine didn't come with a cover, I guess I will have to decide how much to invest, either a good cover or build a roof over it. Thanks for the input.

This is all I do, and it works for me. If you wanted to get a custom couch cover you could do that. I don't have carpet so I'm not worried about the deck. I usually keep the bimini up which shades more of the boat during the heat of the day.

I park it in my driveway which is below a couple of big oaks, so not too worried about sun damage, mainly want to keep it clean.

If you can I would take that cover you bought and return it. On my first toon when I replaced the fitted one I purchase one of those generic one size fits all and it was a bear to put on. So much so that I would leave the toon uncovered for long periods. It didn't take long for the vinyl started cracking and by the time, I sold it all the vinyl needed replacing. I had to deduct the cost of replacing all the furniture about 2k from the selling price. So bottom line, I did save 3 or 4 hundred by buying the generic cover, but it resulted in loosing 2k or better when I sold. The generic covers never fit like the appear in the catalogs. I can put, my current cover on the boat in about 10min cause it is much lighter and more manageable.
doc

Where I live a cover is a necessity. Otherwise the sun would destroy the upholstery in a very short time. Humidity and moisture under the cover isn't a factor.

I bought a Seabreeze boat cover by Walk-winn. Found on Ebay for $150.00, compared to over $300 from the dealer. It fits surprisingly well for a generic cover and is lightweight enough for me to put on and take off easily. It has elastic all around the bottom and wraps around the entire deck, fore and aft over the fence, including the bimini dropped all the way down.

http://www.walkwinn.com/index_files/Page519.htm

The tie-down system was kind of funky (see below), so I put in some grommets instead of the clips they sent. I won't be trailering with it on.

So far it's withstood some pretty good monsoon winds, rains and storms. I'm gonna build a PVC frame under it, so it won't collect water on the rare (although substantial) rain we get here, but it drained the pooled water pretty easy.

My cover fits up and over the top rail and down about a foot. Snaps on rail about every 12". Has 5 push up poles to raise it up in the middle so the rain water can roll off. Where the poles attach are hard plastic vent disks for the heat to vent out. Guess we will see how well it works this year, it's new.

I cover every time. The custom cover goes on in about 10minutes. I figure I save that cleaning it since I clean (protectant) every time I go out. I think the time saved cleaning, and replacing carpet/upholstery easily justifies the hassle covering it. That and there seems to be a lot of spiders everywhere.

Capt Sully wrote:My cover fits up and over the top rail and down about a foot. Snaps on rail about every 12". Has 5 push up poles to raise it up in the middle so the rain water can roll off. Where the poles attach are hard plastic vent disks for the heat to vent out. Guess we will see how well it works this year, it's new.

should do fine. just keep an eye out for any pooling once it holds water in an area it pretty much creates a divet and just gets larger. keeping the canvas tight and trailer on level ground usually helps. mine held some water on the sundeck mainly because the rail was higher than the sundeck. two five gallon plastic gas cans laid on their side was just right to lift the cover in that area............doc

I just put the camper on.