Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

[chrisg]

No sarcasms from ye ?Warm-Weather-Woses?!

With this being my first ?toon, I was wondering what people do to cover their ?toons. ( when left outside), being a large flat area.

I was thinking of putting 3 saw horses and my extension ladder to make a brace, then ropes to form some strength for the sides, and finally a HD tarp over the whole thing.
Its a ?24 footer.
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Since its old, I cant see paying for shrink wrap. ( 300+ cost of storage). And I'm told dryer sheets help with the animals.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

i use 2 inch pvc and make the frame, rather than glue, i put little screws in the fittings, then you can take it apart and store the frame. just make a tent frame.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

As an example....

 

[chrisg]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

how long is that toon?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

nice design!!!!!

 

[NelsonQ]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

Great looking design rick.

 

[Bigbobcat]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

Can you shrink wrap the pontoon boat without building the frame ? Will the snow crush the shrink wrap if no frame to support ?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

While this doesn't apply to your situation, others with 18 -20 foot toons may find this helpful. I ordered my pontoon (an 18 foot four corner fish) specifically so it would fit in my garage -- on the trailer. Well, as luck would have it, the toon was about 3 inches too high (or the door 3 inches too low). I solved the problem by buying eight inch wheels with no tires. I removed the wheels from the toon, added the rims, and used 2x4s as tracks and backed the rig into the garage with room to spare. The tongue and step is removed by removing two bolts. The wire harness disconnects so it was a simple task to put this rig to bed.

 

[chrisg]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

Can you shrink wrap the pontoon boat without building the frame ? Will the snow crush the shrink wrap if no frame to support ?

All the pontoons I saw have saw horses on them to hold up the shrink wrap. (I asked a guy what all the wood frames were at the back of his shop, he told me it was to put on pontoons before they are shrink wrapped.)

I plan for now to just get 4 saw horses, and put my old 24 foot ladder on them, then a tarp over that.

 

[chrisg]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

So I put my pontoon in the backyard and covered it with this green farm quality 'extra heavy duty' tarp from HF. But then I read this is only 8Mil thick with a 12X 12 weave. they had a silver one which was 11 mil thick but a 14* 14 weave, but it did not say heavy duty. Does it sound like I picked the correct one?

Since I had lots of 2*4s lying around, and one 16 footer. I made a frame similar to what rickdb1boat made, but out of wood, screwed together. I had to staple rags to the ends of the wood to make the ends not sharp. and covered all the sharp metal edges with 1/2" pipe insulation ( I read about that somewhere on a thread here) the tarp is 19 * 29 feet, and it covers the whole thing, even down over the toons. I was able to tie it up under the trailer. I put a small cover over the top of the motor but the bottom is exposed, but I figure they are meant to be left outside.( The motor is all the way down)

Of course, after I got this fastened, we had a wind storm, with gusts over 60MPH! it was hitting the front face of the toon straight on, I thought the trap was going to be shredded! But it looked intact this morning So this must be strong, I know the blue ones would have shredded. They are calling for 30MPH winds today.

The thing sits about 3 feet above my fence so the neighbors can see this thing, a kid asked me what it was, said it looks like a big green pickle. I guess that's fitting, I'm always in a pickle, and this would be a big one!

I was thinking of putting a light inside that changes intensity, so it would glow at night. This can then be my 'pod' ( anyone seen invasions of the body snatchers?)

Now to put my other boat in front of the toon. ( wonder when someone will complain. someone already called the cops on one guy who had a utility trailer sitting in his driveway. (I'm on a corner lot, so I can put my stuff in the back yard, and added a 6 foot wood fence, All other houses are too close together to get anything in the back.)

 

[VaGent]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

I used 1 1/2" PVC pipe & screwed it together to form a frame like the one presented earlier. I installed eyebolts in the bottoms of the uprights & tied them together "cross wise" under the deck to hold them in place in case the wind got really bad. I then placed heavy duty tarps (2) & took long "ratchet straps" & pulled them over the top of each frame that formed the roof & pulled the tarps down & hooked those to the trim railing on the ends of the deck. I also (being an electrician by trade) installed a thermostatically controlled 100 watt heat bulb to take care of any moisture that might accumalate. I had some R-19 insulation left over from a job which I wrapped my Johnson engines with & covered that with plastic wrap 4 mil thick. I of course winterized the engine first so I think I am going to be in pretty good shape for this winter. Now when the weather turns pretty next spring I will start my restore project & hope to have it all done in about 30 days. I've got almost everything together now that I will need to do the restore except what I might add in the way of electronics. Can't wait until warm weather gets here.

 

[chrisg]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

Why did you wrap the engine in insulation? and were did you place the 100 watt bulb? Hows that help with mosture? If I added a bulb, the thing would look like a large cucumber. that could look neat at night, with halloween comming up. (If the tarp was orange, it could be the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown.)
Sounds like I'm not the only one who will be doing some restoration in the spring. thought I would do it now, but the temprature droped like a rock, and there is snow in the air! ( Good thing I pulled the drain plugs on my I/O). I think boating season is over.

 

[VaGent]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

After talking to several people who are way more experienced then myself, I will not be wrapping the engine in insulation. Instead I will be letting it hang in the verticle position after I drain the lower unit & refill it & spray some WD-40 into the cylinders & turn the engine by hand 3-4 times. I've learned a lot in the past few days & a local mechanic here who has worked on them for over 50 yrs told me this is all I needed to do based on the climate in this area.

As for placement of the light bulb, it will be mounted on a weather proof electrical PVC junction box that will be placed at the center of the boat. It's purpose is to reduce moisture that may accumalate under the plastic covering. I rigged up a timing circuit that only allows it to burn for an hour at a time once it comes on & then it resets to not turn on again until 2 hrs has eplapsed. Not sure if it will do much good but I like to play with things & I had everything in my shop so I said: go for it. It won't bother the neighbors as it is behind my garage & I live out in the country. The only thing it might bother is the deer or the critters roaming around at night. I also installed a "trip alarm" so if any of them decided to "move in" at night, a fan with aluminum foil attached to the blades will start up & it makes a heck of a racket. Can't wait until warm weather hits here again so the restoration of the boat can get finished. Then it's off to the lake for some sun & fun.

 

[VaGent]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

I forgot to mention the heat of the bulb should act like a de-humidifier. At least in theory it should. I'll let you know how it works out. It's supposed to get down to 29 here tonight & then warm up in the low to mid 70s for the weekend. Either way it's nearly winter time around here & all I can do is sit back & wish I was out on the lake FISHING. At my age I just can't handle the COLD like I used to be able to do.

 

[chrisg]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

VaGent: I like the "trip alarm" idea. The reason I brought mine home is that if I leave it at my cabin, I was told raccoons will get in and shred the furniture!. All I will have now is a big dead patch of grass in the back yard. I think the dogs like it though, Come winter with all the snow, they can go under the trailer and do their 'jobs' out of the weather and snow! I'll just have to clean it up before crawling under in the spring. I think allowing ventilation of the deck will be VERY important!

Did you raise your trailer off its wheels?

 

[rogerwa]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

I have a 25 footer with a fenced area of ~23 feet. I picked up 8 2x4's and a 30X20 tarp, some stakes and some tarp clamps.

I created a main beam using three of them and then cut 1 foot off of threee of them and created 7 foot supports with a foot.

The other two I used for diagonal supports. I just assembled with deck screws.

I then used extra carpet to take the edge off the ends and the joints in the main beam.

I put the tarp on the main beam and use the stakes and tarp clamps to pull the top tight using about 5 on each side staked into the ground.

It looks like a huge titanic back there but I am optimistic the steep angle will keep snow from collecting. I can still get in and out and could even work in there is needed due to the 7ft height.

All told this cost me about $60 with most of it the tarp. In my experience, using rope to support the tarp may work for rain but will not work for snow. Especially that late march stuff.

 

[chrisg]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

It looks like a huge titanic back there but I am optimistic the steep angle will keep snow from collecting. I can still get in and out and could even work in there is needed due to the 7ft height.

All told this cost me about $60 with most of it the tarp. In my experience, using rope to support the tarp may work for rain but will not work for snow. Especially that late march stuff.

That's a good idea, you can work on it with the cover on.

 

[VaGent]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

The trip alaram is nothing more then a $17.00 (Home Deport) motion detector that is used on outside flood lights you use around your home. It hooks up the very same way only physically different. It works like a charm. I've seen it go one 3 times so far & when the light comes on I can hear fast movement of whatever was in there. I think it as my big tomcat once as I saw him come running towards the houe with his tail all "bushed' up as if he was either mad or scared. LOL "MAMA" ddin't think it was too funny but I did. At least I know my trip alarm is working.

 

[Utik]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

I had a 24 footer that I made a 2x4 frame and tarp cover for. On two different occasions the wind actually moved the boat off the blocks I had it resting on. The first time it really buried my lower unit in the dirt. Lucky I had just winterized it there and had been running it on the hose. The water from this made mud and probably saved my motor from damage.

I suspect there may have been 50 mph gusts on those occasions but I am sure it was not much more than that.

 

[The_Kid]

Re: Winterizing- How do you cover your toon?

Finally got around to pulling the pontoon out of the water and getting it covered for the winter. Here's what I've been doing for the past 10 plus years.

Pic# 1. Here's where the pontoon spends most of the year. The big rusty barge isn't mine. I was having the old foam on the dock replaced with encapsulated foam.

Pic# 2. Pontoon is set on 4 pieces of foam in the front yard, and the mooring cover is snapped on.

Pic# 3. A center ridge is placed on the top of the mooring cover supports to level everything out, and is tied off to the sides of the pontoon. The ridge is make of 3/4 copper pipe covered with foam pipe insulation.

Pic# 4. A heavy duty tarp gets tied on by going under the pontoons.