Pulling boat/trailer with the bow and cockpit snap covers

[Amhochb]

Anyone on here have any thoughts on trailering with the snap on cover? Good idea? Bad idea? If good, you leave the support poles on or off? I’m thinking off so they don’t stab through. Going quite the distance, about 2500 miles and would like to keep the inside as protected as possible.

Thoughts welcome…

[Snowman8]

I put a lot of miles on our R5 with my snap covers before I purchased a mooring cover. I would usually have a snap or two come loose depending on wind. We tow about 75 miles one way to go to the river we normally boat on so we get quite a few miles on in our short MN summers. A few years back I towed from northern Mn to LOTO. I put black gorilla tape on the leading edges of the bow cover and a few of the snaps on the stern of the boat that would usually come unsnapped when towing around home. On the way down we had a heck of a side wind and a few of the snaps on the side kept coming unsnapped so I put a few feet of tape in that area and was fine the rest of the way down. When we left LOTO to head home I taped the same areas and didn’t have any trouble. The tape on the leading edges also keeps rain water from getting pushed under the snaps by wind.
I wouldn’t think you would want to tow without the poles, too much slack in the cover may cause whipping and that is usually harder on covers than being tight. Weather or not it tears is kinda dependent on the covers condition..
On a different note make sure your wheel bearings on the trailer are ready for the trip! That will ruin your day if a bearing goes out!! Good luck and Safe travels

[Amhochb]

Appreciate the response. It looks like the seller has found the trailer able cover he was sure he had.

As far as bearings, the trailers only a year old but I definitely stocked up on grease for the trip.

[sailor55330]

Snow has some good advice. You definitely want the poles. Remember, when towing a good tight cover is your friend. I'm not saying make it trampoline tight, but you definitely don't want the cover flapping from lack of poles. I personally prefer the mooring cover, but have trailered with the snap covers as well. I think the idea of taping the looser fitting snaps makes a lot of sense.

[AsLan7]

Snow has some good advice. You definitely want the poles. Remember, when towing a good tight cover is your friend. I'm not saying make it trampoline tight, but you definitely don't want the cover flapping from lack of poles. I personally prefer the mooring cover, but have trailered with the snap covers as well. I think the idea of taping the looser fitting snaps makes a lot of sense.

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+1

[Amhochb]

Thanks everyone for the responses. We made it safely from Geoa to North Idaho. The snap covers worked well until about the middle of Illinois where I couldn’t get the snaps at the center of the windshield where the bow section velcros to the rest of it to hold due to wind. Tried the duct tape and it flew off somewhere. We ditched the covers at that point.

Only trailer hiccup we had was we lost the bow roller at some point early on but found a nice shop about 10 miles out of St. Louis that had what we needed to get back on the road