Towing with Tarp on or Off?

[Kidder522]

Good morning all. Just wondering what the common trend was when you are towing your boat distances. Do you leave the tarp on or tow with the tarp off. I can see the reasons for both, but wanted to see what the general rule is from the long time owners of Moomba's.

Thanks
Richard

[rdlangston13]

Never tow with the cover on unless you have one of them fancy 1000 dollar aftermarket covers.

[moombahighrider]

I am not a long time owner by any means, but I do tow a lot and long distances often, I have the factory snap on covers and I always keep them on when I tow. The boat would get filthy if I did not.
My dealer told me that the the snap on covers that I have are for towing and the other factory full cover I have is for storage. I put the full cover on over the snap ons to fully protect from rain, dust, etc when the boat is sitting between trips. It works really well for me so far. Stays fully dry and clean this way.

[viking]

Mine came with the OEM snap on bow and cockpit cover (the one with poles supports). It says right on it "not for towing".

Had a local shop custom make me another cover that utilized most of the factory snaps and only had to add rear snaps along the rubrail. The factory cover had 3 tie down straps for the back. It's tight and no support poles and I tow with it all the time.

The only issue I have is when it rains extremely hard I get some water under the snaps and into the bow. I think I'll invest in an Evolution Cover in the near future to double up when towing long distances and/or sitting out of the garage.

[moombadaze]

I tow long distant covered up with a Evolution's tow rated cover. No issues with any thing at this time that im aware of

[Sabe]

I tow 130 miles one way to the lake everyweekend. Always have the cover on, just the factory snap covers and have never had a problem.

[skiyaker]

what kind of cover do you have- mooring or snap on?

main issue that you run into is parts of the cover that will vibrate/flap and burn up your gelcoat. I used to tow with the moomba logo mooring cover- main thing that I had to do was wrap the straps that connect the sides of the cover to the trailer in pool noodles to prevent them from damaging the boat. It was a PITA but never had any issues with it in terms of damage. I really like towing with the cover on if I'm going long distances so last year I upgraded to an evolution cover- made a trip 400 miles to lake barkley and it worked great.

PS here's some other threads on the issue

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?t=13944&highlight=cover+towing

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?t=12733&highlight=cover+towing

[Kidder522]

Thank you for all of your insight. I just have the mooring cover, and I need to transport it about 1.5 hrs for servicing. I think I will go without, since I don't want to do damage to the gel coat.

Richard