Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

thanks in advance for your thoughts

I don't have any experience with Surlast, but I just had a custom mooring cover done in Sunbrella and I love it.

Sunbrella is great, and you're paying for the name. Most of the OEMs in our area have gone to Surelast. I've had 2 custom mooring covers done in it, and they are going strong with no signs of wear. IMO don't waste your money on Sunbrella.

Surlast is lighter.

I made my enclosure with top gun from Miami corp. I wished sunbrella was available cause it's not gonna go as long as sunbrella may have. I'm gonna call cause looks like they have it now ?

Sunbrella is very good, but so is Surlast. And Surlast is so much cheaper. It's just a far east version of Sunbrella, and it's not sold by very many distributorships.

I made seat covers out of Surlast for my Bennington, and it took some hand sewing. I used a huge needle and it took a pair of wire pliers to get it thru the Surlast.

I used a heavy non commercial sewing machine, and it was some tough sewing. Sewing either really takes an upholstery sewing machine.

Just need to know that Surlast is urethane coated so it won't breathe. That may or may not be an issue. It's also half the weight of Sunbrella.

Bamaman wrote:Sunbrella is very good, but so is Surlast. And Surlast is so much cheaper. It's just a far east version of Sunbrella, and it's not sold by very many distributorships.

It is made by the same manufacturer as Sunbrella which is Glen raven. I would not use it!

Bottom line, 60 to 70 percent of the price of a cover is the labor. Get the best material which I believe is Sunbrella and is all I use.

I don't like TopGun. Main reason besides breath-ability is that it is tough to work with. Takes more skill to make a cover that doesn't have wrinkles and seam pucker.

I have a commercial walking foot sewing machine. I have made many covers. This is the one I just made for my Suntracker.

OK thanks for the input was interesting.

Leaning towards Sunbrella. The surlast is only 30% cheaper.

babock wrote:Just need to know that Surlast is urethane coated so it won't breathe. That may or may not be an issue. It's also half the weight of Sunbrella.

Bamaman wrote:Sunbrella is very good, but so is Surlast. And Surlast is so much cheaper. It's just a far east version of Sunbrella, and it's not sold by very many distributorships.

It is made by the same manufacturer as Sunbrella which is Glen raven. I would not use it!

Bottom line, 60 to 70 percent of the price of a cover is the labor. Get the best material which I believe is Sunbrella and is all I use.

I don't like TopGun. Main reason besides breath-ability is that it is tough to work with. Takes more skill to make a cover that doesn't have wrinkles and seam pucker.

I have a commercial walking foot sewing machine. I have made many covers. This is the one I just made for my Suntracker.

May I ask where u get your sunbrella materials & hardware ?

FAT BOTTOM GIRL wrote:May I ask where u get your sunbrella materials & hardware ?

I have an account at TriVantage which you are likely not going to be able to get into. You need to be in the upholstery/canvas business or other types of businesses to buy from them.

You can buy hardware at Rochford Supply. You can also buy Sunbrella there but its over $25/yd for 60" material. I pay less than $15 at TriVantage.

[quote="babock"]Just need to know that Surlast is urethane coated so it won't breathe. That may or may not be an issue. It's also half the weight of Sunbrella.

Nice, but what I want to know is what thread did you use? I'm ALWAYS looking for better thread since that's what ALWAYS goes first here in the west.

RonKMiller wrote: Nice, but what I want to know is what thread did you use? I'm ALWAYS looking for better thread since that's what ALWAYS goes first here in the west.

On this particular cover I used polyester V92 but the next one I do is going to be SolarFix PTFE thread. I just bought a 1lb spool. Not cheap...$200. Basically same thread as Tenara but supposedly way easier to use. I want to experiment with it before I use it on a complete project. That type of thread can be trickier to use.

I have a Sunbrella cover that I made for my 24' Wellcraft. Cover is 12 years old and the thread is just starting to go. I will likely use the SolarFix to resew it