Tires/Piers & Your Boat

BobL · Newbie Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 33

Building a new pier at our camp and want to bumper on 2 sides for my boat, guests boats and jet skis. Used tires are given away around here and while it is better than nothing, I get a little excited when I see any marks on the side of my boat. The pier will have 44' of parking and at that length, the price of buying the white pier bumpers from Overton's/West Marine is astronomical. For now, I will probably opt for the tire solution so am wondering what you guys do when the side of your boat gets black rubber marks all over it OR you may suggest some other reasonable alternatives or solutions.

Thanks....

P.S. Many of the expensive "dock bumpers" are also made out of black rubber so you still get back marks.

gmarkham1 · Addict Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 505 City: janesville

byob....

bring your own bumpers! it is pretty inexpensive to just have bumpers for your own toys, let your friends do the same!

Chad H · Posted: Jun 14, 2006 10:45 am Post subject:

BobL,
I dunno, but don't the tires stop marking after they sit out for a while?

Kewlboarder27r · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 497 City: Mound

Just buy some fenders to attach to you boat

Iman · Outlaw Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 116

44' of good bumpers would get expensive, I'm sure I'd use tires also. Try to find small, flimsy tires. I used some of my fat, low profile tires and they worked horribly, although they did look a little cooler..lol. I think then I'd probably buy some inexpensive, tough, water resistant fabric to cover the tires. Covering each tires individually would probably work best. I'd probably cover the tires like spare tires are covered but just staple the material to the rear of the tire saving some material. White material might look best initially but later a gray or brown would be smarter but I'd probably just go with what I got cheap. You can find lotsa cheap sunbrella type material on Ebay. I guess in a few years it will look pretty crappy and eventually have to be replaced but at least no black marks. Oh yeah, and get mooring whips for your boat, even good bumpers scratch up a boat.

kmagnuss · Posted: Jun 14, 2006 6:56 pm Post subject:

My friend has tires on his dock and it's never marked my boat up once, or his, or my other buddies'.

Mr. Mike · Newbie Joined: 16 May 2005 Posts: 37 City: Kelowna

Depending on the shape and height of the dock, you could use some old carpet. I've seen it done with some deep pile light carpet. Even with bumpers you wouldn'nt need to worry about the occasional rub. You could wrap 1 1/2 inch and use a roofing nail on the top / bottom edges. It might be a bit ghetto but cheap.

acurtis_ttu · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 499 City: Houston

unless your yard has tires in it too, don't put them on your dock...looks like something out of sanford and son. you can find dock edging for pretty cheap on ebay. Any boat that comes up to your dock w/o their own bumpers probably doesn't need them anyway. I always keep one extra set of bumpers near my dock just in case.

acurtis_ttu · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 499 City: Houston

unless your yard has tires in it too, don't put them on your dock...looks like something out of sanford and son. you can find dock edging for pretty cheap on ebay. Any boat that comes up to your dock w/o their own bumpers probably doesn't need them anyway. I always keep one extra set of bumpers near my dock just in case.

Jeff206 · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 27 May 2004 Posts: 1002

old fire fighting hoses work well too, just tack them on with kinks inbetween the tacks if that makes sense.

Kewlboarder27r · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 497 City: Mound

BobL · Newbie Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 33

Thanks for the replies folks. Our lake is very large with lots of camps that have bulkheads. As you can imagine, on the weekend it gets very rough during the middle of the day so the wave action reminds you of small rollers in the ocean. I am installing 4 widely spaced posts where I will tie off to that will prevent my boat from hitting anything (will work like the mooring whips). On the other hand, I am anal about my guests boats and jet-skis and figured the tires would work. Yes, they should carry their own bumpers but am getting tired of relaxing on the dock and someone is jumping up every few minutes to adjust their bumpers/ropes.

I have a few weeks to look around for some other options so not to offend the neighbors with the looks but I have seen some professionally installed tires that do not look bad at all.

Kewlboarder...have you used this stuff? I purchased some cheap stuff like that from West Marine and it cracked and did not provide any real cushion.

Kewlboarder27r · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 497 City: Mound