Winter cover solutions

[REPETE]

Hey Pete, how ya doin?

FA reeeeezin my arsh off! You?

[Beamer]

Oh ya, was -10C last night and our lake has ice on it already.
Give it another week and some idiot will go roaring down the lake on his snowmobile and fall thru.

[bug73]

Howdy WaltF. I have one of the full covers that snap onto the rails and has 5 adjustable poles to lift it up along the centerline. It is kept outside on the driveway. We get lots of snow. My only recourse is to sweep off the snow. Every day if that is what it takes. Sorry, I have no pics of me on a ladder, freezing my butt off, trying to stay ahead of the snowfall. It's a small price to pay for all the enjoyment we get out of the toon. Take care,Craig

I have a new better cover this year and plan to do the same thing...only I have one of those cool snow rakes that has little rollers on it and keeps the blade off the cover so I will see how that works.

[wish2fish]

Looks good, don't see why it wouldn't stand up to a snow load.

big snow here is 6-12 inches. I don't think the slope is steep enough to let it come off easily. Camp is 35 miles away so I wouldn't be able to get down there and keep any snow off anyway.

[partybarge21]

Hey everyone, these are great suggestions.
I was wondering how I should cover the boat for the winter season.
I really liked the PVC post and beam system.
I will be removing the mooring cover and building the pvc system with a 30X20 tarp.

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas.

[WaltF]

Well, i made up my "rope running between 2 trees" idea and put a 20x30 tarp over it....
It worked great!
Real steep slop that the snow fell right off of!

Notice im talking in the past...

A major wind kicked in the other day and shreaded my tarp right down the middle..

Back to the drawing board...

[mikeherb]

If you have the space this works very well. I built this myself as a pole barn and then added the OSB and siding. I have less than $6500 in materials. For a little more money you can do the whole thing in metal and the construction is much cheaper.

A much smaller version, say a single wide with a 10' opening would be much cheaper yet. This one is 24 by 32 so I could use stock trusses from Lowes and keep everything on eight foot sections. The doors are acutally just a frame with siding attached. I have 4' high sections of OSB on the inside bottom of the doors to put a little ass in 'em when the weather gets bad. The framing keeps them light and the cost down. This opening is 12' 9" high to accomodate the sundeck on my toon (12' 4" on the trailer) but you would not need to build it that high.

Before the doors went on the building.



After the doors and most of the siding. Metal is easier but it we more expensive as I got a smokin' hot deal on the siding and OSB at the time I was building, so I went that route even though it is much more work to complete.

[Ngataki]

Some years ago I bought a set of these KOVER KLAMPS with regular 3/4" EMT tubing...It becomes a very sturdy framework for the winter storage tarp..You can order all brackets as a kit from them.(except the tubing ... available at Lowes, Home Depot, Menards etc..) )
It is very sturdy and easy to set up (the second time of course) The initial set up takes a while as you have to do measurements, cutting tubes etc.. After all is marked, it becomes a breeze..even for me..

[bug73]

Howdy WaltF. I have one of the full covers that snap onto the rails and has 5 adjustable poles to lift it up along the centerline. It is kept outside on the driveway. We get lots of snow. My only recourse is to sweep off the snow. Every day if that is what it takes. Sorry, I have no pics of me on a ladder, freezing my butt off, trying to stay ahead of the snowfall. It's a small price to pay for all the enjoyment we get out of the toon. Take care,Craig

Yep, thats what I do. I have a snow rake I use that is supposed to be used for the roof of the house, It has little plastic wheels on it and rolls over the cover real nice without catching anything. Leaves about 1/2 inch of snow on the cover becasue of the clearance of the wheels but that doesnt seem to hurt anything.