Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I have a good quality Pontoon Boat Cover, is it necessary to have it shrink wrapped for the winter?

No, just make sure your cover is tight enough to shed water and not pool

Depends on the cover and where your winter is? If you have a heavy snow load your mooring type cover will not support the accumulated snow.

No, I don't think Shrink wrap is "necessary".... but I guess a lot of that depends on where you live, what kind of winters you have etc... if you already have a good pontoon cover, just make sure it's "tented" at several points so so and rain will run off and not "pool" on the cover..

teecro wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 02, 2019 7:50 pm

Depends on the cover and where your winter is? If you have a heavy snow load your mooring type cover will not support the accumulated snow.

This, your mooring cover is not designed for a snow load and will most likely tear with the weight of a wet snow.. If you do not get snow, your mooring cover will be fine.

Something to consider is moisture and mildew. A shrink wrap would trap any moisture and aid in mildew/mold growing. Unfortunately that can also happen with a mooring cover so it it's possible to have a small fan circulate air that will help. We don't have brutal winters, just brief interruptions through the year but when we travel on the motorhome for an extended trip, 2-3 months, I take the boat home to Alabama under a pole barn. It was summer the first time and covered and the seats got quite a bit of spotting. The next time I put a fan in the bow gate and left the fan go on low the whole time. Made a huge difference. I realize not everyone has a "dry dock" pole barn with power to secure a boat for extended periods but that's my comments.

I had heard somewhere (maybe here?) that leaving the gates ajar would allow air to move through and out. I have done that on the few occasions when I cover mine. I prop all three gates about half open. Worked fine - though it was not for months at a time.



-Paul