Boat cover support frame

Finally got off my butt today and made the cover support frame I've been meaning to do for quite awhile now. Not the elaborate one I originally had in mind, but I think it'll be workable. Went to Lowe's this morning to get the pvc, fittings, and pvc glue. Went with 1 1/2" schedule 40 and of course they didn't have the floor flanges I wanted reduced down to accept 1 1/2" pipe. Got everything but the flanges and then went to True Value because the salesman at Lowe's said they woould probaly have them. Not! Ended-up buying extra fittings to reduce down. The coverings I have on the end elbows and the center tee is the non-slip stuff you can put on shelving. I used it on my other flimsy upright support I bought from Walmart awhile back. The flimsy support poles will not hold-up to a snow-load or a strong wind, but the non-slip material will keep the cover/tarp from slipping around on the support. The extra stuff you see in the boat are the seats (in plastic bags), plus my two tm's, and the side bunk guide-ons, which I remove when the boat is stored outside in the winter. Also removed the batteries, the spare tire, and pfd's out of the boat. All I have left to do (tomorrow hopefully) is roll the boat outside, tarp it, and put it in the yard behind the garage.



Front support leg w/flange:


Center support t-section w/non-slip mat'l:


Overall view:

looks like it should work great. You might want to run a guide line from the center piece to each side of the boat. That would help keep it from tipping over as you try to throw the tarp on it. That no-skid will grab onto the tarp and take the whole assembly sideways with it.

Good point, and if I do have to provide some side-to-side support lines I'd have to wrap it over the gunwales and tie-off to the trailer, or go around the bottom of the boat. I'm gonna try pulling the cover on going from front to rear and see how that works first, then do the support line if needed. The non-skid mat'l will probably grab at the cover, but am thinking I'll get my wife to help walk the cover over the boat, then set it place and tie it down securely. Was gonna get it done today afetr work, but it decided to rain. I'll post pics of the cover installed once I get it done. Suposed to rain quite a bit this week :roll:

Nice work. I built something similar out of pvc for my cover, but instead of the floor flanges, I used a couple of T's and added short lengths on each side on the bottom to make a stand front and rear. I made the front upright a bit higher to angle the tarp so that the rain will run towards the stern. I did have some sagging that collected the rain water and after over tightening the straps on the cover it started to tear the fabric. This was last year. I bought a new cover for this year (Cabela's $45) and I think I am going to use the tie downs as mentioned above, but more for support on the tarp to keep it from sagging. I think I'll use it in 3 or 4 places to keep the cover from sagging and collecting the water.

Cheers,
yak_n_fish

Whew, just spent the last two hours doing last minute preps and getting the boat covered. I went ahead and drilled a hole through the center support tee and ran an 1/8" line through it then down each side, tying it off under the boat to the trailer frame. No swaying of the support now . Got that done, and then rolled the boat outside and started getting it covered. Had the wife help put the tarp on (after putting the worn-out Walmart boat cover on first.

Got the tarp pulled as tight as possible and it should be ready for rain and snow now. I ended-up with a lot of extra tarp to wrap and tie-off under the boat this time. In the past I used the pedastal seats and a flimsy center support pole from Walmart, which due to the height of the seats and pole took up a lot of slack. The new support frame sits a bit lower, but I wanted it that way to eliminate some height which caused the tarp to catch a lot of wind. Also covered the tires with large plastic trash bags, and covered the trailer tongue, to include the safety chains and trailer wiring harness plug. I'll take a pic tomorrow when I have some daylight.

This will probably be the last season for the tarp I use, as it seems to be getting a bit soft/flimsy from the weather. It's the same tarp I also used on my Tracker when I had it, so I've certainly gotten my money's worth out of it. I used to alternate between the blue and gray sides of the tarp to try and even-out the amount of sun/rain/snow it received. Seems to have worked fairly well doing that, as I've had it since late 2004.

Now my wife can put her car in the garage this winter. My boat got to spend last winter there, and she said it wasn't happening this year, lol.

Hey WW,
I see that your boat is 16ft. What size tarp do you use to cover it? I am looking at your design and coming up with a few ideas of my own to support my cover, and I am wanting to put a tarp over it but was not sure what size to get. My boat is 14ft. Good looking setup by the way.

Actually, the tarp is too large for this boat, as I originally bought it for the Tracker PT175 (17'3") rig I used to own, and I could wrap the entire boat, including the 50hp Merc hanging on the back. I have a lot of excess material and I end up wrapping it around the winch post (but it keeps the web strap out of the elements) and tying it off under the bow. There's also enough material that I can wrap it under the stern of the boat, plus the width covers the sides of the boat, extending under the boat bottom about 6" on each side. I can get it pretty tight all the way around the boat, and I like it because it keeps pesky critters (field mice and our outdoor cats) from getting into the interior of the boat. Of course I know if they (mice) want in there they'll chew their way through the tarp. be ready to spend some time laying under your rig to tie everything off, which is one of the reasons I wanted to get it done today while it was warm, because that concrete driveway gets real cold when the temps drop (happening this coming week with rain ). I'll snap some pics tomorrow and post them. Thanks for the compliments

Don't forget to remove your tm, as I found out the hard way when my previous attempt at a cover support system failed under a snow load, and the tm prop tore the cover. Both of my tm's are disconected and laying in the bottom of the boat, along with both pedastal seats (which I covered with large plastic trash bags). I also aired-up the trailer tires to 40psi (they take 35psi) before covering them.

Here is what I made for my 14' and used bungie cords atached to the trailer to hold the 20' tarp down from the winch strap back to cover the motor.
The vertical members fit over the pedestals. So far it has lasted two years.




I also trimmed a 2 x 2 and fit it inside the horizontal member to keep it from sagging.

If our Lowe's here carried the 4-way connectors like you used in your frame I would've gone the way you did and had the side legs. The True Value store in town didn't have any either; one of the drawbacks of living in a small town with limited resources.

BassNBob, you're support looks very similar to mine. I just used the 3 way vs 4 way and let the legs rest on the inside of the boat, then tarped it and used bungie cords and it works like a charm (covers the 1548 from winch post to the 30hp Johnson on the back). I do not have a garage for storage of the boat so it sits outside year around.

Here's some pics I snapped a few moments ago. You can see all of the excess tarp mat'l in the front, and some in the rear, but it's good and tight around the gunwales and isn't going anywhere [-o< .

Overall view with winch post and trailer tongue covered also:


Right rear also showing tire covered:


Bottom left, looking fwd:

Nice work on the support frames and tarps...keep posting pictures, I am getting ideals. I am getting ready to start my build and do not have the garage space to keep the boat inside so I will have to build a support also.

Flintcreek

Real good ideas on here, fellers. I started to write a post asking about cover supports, but I searched first and found this. I think I will build something like this soon.

Oh, and if you are thinking about buying the boat cover support setup that Walmart says, go ahead- as long as you live somewhere that doesn't rain, or you don't mind your pants getting wet all the time from going out and picking the cover up in different areas to get the gallons of water off, or if you have a lot of extra furniture you can put all over the deck of your boat for the low spots when you have this contraption set up #-o

Concur 100% on the walmart support pole setup. I've had two of those, and never again! They're flimsy, will split at the joints where the sections go together (it's thin-walled plastic stuff), and they like to collapse at the first sign of having to do it's designed job. I've spent a bit of time under the cover (usually in bad weather) putting the support pole back into the vertical position.

I just set our bikes upside down in the boat with the wheels sticking up in the air and a couple bungees around them to hold them in place. Nobody is going to be riding them in the winter anyway, and it freed up some space (momentarily, at least) in the garage. After 2 feet of snow and an inch of freezing rain this week, it looks to be working fine.

WW... you have gotten 5 years out of a tarp? :shock:

I couldn't get a full year out of one of those things the last few years but the boat sat outside all year. One thing that I noticed after purchasing tarps for years and years for the old boat that I sold.. they don't make those like they used to. All of the manufacturers seemed to cheapen them up right about 4 or 5 years ago and went ahead and raised the price to boot. I was always able to get at least 2 years, sometimes 3 out of them before that.