Boat cover repair cost vs replace

[jd1585]

Hi All,

As I am doing some general house keeping I need to do something with my boat cover. The current cover is about 14 years old came with the boat and is a thick canvas. The problem is it sat under a tree and is heavily stained and also unfortunately has a rip. I have seen some replacement covers that aren't fairly expensive, however, they are not canvas. My question is do you think it is worth the time or money to try to patch/clean the current cover or just bite the bullet and buy a new cover. I have seen some pretty expensive options out there.

Appreciate it!

[Lee Smith]

My experience with older covers is when you start "cleaning" the canvas you will find more weak spots and soon have another patch needed, then another and so on.

I tried to refurb 2 and both where failures, maybe someone else has had better success, but for me, I replace.

[jd1585]

I am real close to tossing it and just buying a nice one from Bass Pro, but I thought I would ask first.

[Princeton_Man]

I've struggled over the very same decision on more than one occasion.  Most recently for my Stratos and my BassTracker before the Stratos. Both boats came with heavy canvas trailerable covers which aged from time and elements. I kept them treated with 303 Fabric Guard but a lot of the deterioration occurred before I owned them.

A new custom cover cost between $600 and $1500. That's the price of a new electronics, a new trolling motor, or power poll! If my boat was newer and likely to be my forever boat, I'd go the price for the best cover but a tin car port only costs $500.

Both times I ended up spending a little less than $200 for a WeatherSafe Travel Tite heavy duty trailerable cover. The fit is far from perfect. You may want to make a couple of phones calls to check with Ron at Valley Sports and Monster Tackle to see what they have to offer.

I kept my BassTracker for three years after I replaced the cover and that cover was still like new when I sold the boat. I've only had the new cover on my Stratos maybe a year or so and still like new. I bought mine at BPS simply because of the RMA label they include. The customer reviews weren't great. The cover has a six year warranty.

I figure for $200 I have to accept the far from perfect fit. I only trailer with the cover when there's bad weather and as long as the cover is tight and secure it trailers fine and my boat stays clean and dry inside. I use PVC pipe to make a support frame for snow and heavy rain when it's setting in the yard at home and that actually helps prevent damage to the cover while preventing water from pooling on it.

Don't know if this helps or just gives you more to think about. -Jim

[Creel Limit Zero]

Princeton Man.  Would you be willing to take a little time and take some pics of your PVC Pipe support frame.  I had the same issue, my custom boat cover died on me and I bought one that was not the "perfect" fit.  I've been using a variation of different items to prop up the new boat cover to prevent the pooling you are describing, but I'm just not satisfied with any of my redneck concoctions at this point.  I'd love to see what you have going on and maybe even duplicate.   

[Princeton_Man]

CLZ;
http://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?topic=119693.0 I posted in tips a while back. Used "T" fittings and pipe. Haven't even glued it so I can pull apart and take along if I want. Past years I had 3 foot long 2x4s with 1'x3' 1/4 plywood that stood up in the boat like giant letter "T". Plywood wood flex with the cover drawn down tight. Worked well, just a hassle to store and set up. -Jim

[Creel Limit Zero]

Sweet, thanks.  I'm going to have to try that, looks like it would be quite effective and cheap.   

[Steve81]

I think that you would have to ask yourself what you would want out of a cover. Do you just want something that keeps the sun off of the boat? Does it need to have a tight fits so the rain water doesn't pool on it? Does it need to be trailerable?

Answering yes to any of these questions will make the price go up. In my case, I go down a lot of gravel roads so my cover needs to be trailerable. However, my boat is kept in a garage so I don't really need to be a tight enough fit that the water rolls off of it. Although that would be nice.

[Wizard]

I have had great sucess saving boat covers with this simple fix. Buy some iron-on patches used to fix tears and holes in jeans. The kind your mom used to put on the knees of your torn jeans as a kid. You put them under the tear in the cover and just iron them onto the cover. They are extremely durable and last forever. The cost---about $1.50 for 3 patches. If the tear is large, you can overlap the patches, Often the cover will wear out where the rope is enclosed along the edge of the cover. The patches will fix that also. My last repair lasted 7 years and was still good when I sold the boat and cover. The patches work so well because they not only fix the tear or wear but strenghten the area around it.

[Lee Smith]

 

I have had great sucess saving boat covers with this simple fix. Buy some iron-on patches used to fix tears and holes in jeans. The kind your mom used to put on the knees of your torn jeans as a kid. You put them under the tear in the cover and just iron them onto the cover. They are extremely durable and last forever. The cost---about $1.50 for 3 patches. If the tear is large, you can overlap the patches, Often the cover will wear out where the rope is enclosed along the edge of the cover. The patches will fix that also. My last repair lasted 7 years and was still good when I sold the boat and cover. The patches work so well because they not only fix the tear or wear but strenghten the area around it.

  Dang, wish I would have thought of those    Thanks Wizard, I know what I'll do next time