Fender Selection Help

HopCar said:

Forklift, I'm pretty sure it was the W.H. Salisbury company that made the fenderboard ends for 2 X 6's. I think they are out of the marine business.

I like the So-Pak flat fenders as well. They store flat and I keep finding other uses for them. They were made in New Zeland and imported into the USA by Imtra Corp. I don't see them on Imtra's website anymore. I may have a couple left in stock if anyone is interested.

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HopCar, I would be interested. Can you check stock and send me a pic to steve@forkliftt.com? Thanks!

psneeld said:

Fender covers are nice but require as much cleaning or more than the fenders themselves...any grit that gets on them turns them into sandpaper too...sometimes easier to just hose off the fender.

But one suggestion I heard was go to thrift stores and buy old sweat pants. The legs may fit and one end already has an elastic, finished end. At a $1.00 or so for 2 covers....hardly can argue the price.

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That sounds like a pretty good idea, I'm not sure I want to be anywhere near old sweat pants from a thrift store though
Maybe the dollar store has some, unsweated in.
Steve W

Yes, some folks use cut off sweat pants or "tights". I wouldn't expect them to wear well or hold up to the UV light for long. Even some fenders covers I bought at West Marine were a disapointment in that respect.

I bought six fender covers from these folks and I have been very pleased with the quality and how well they have held up for over a year at this point. They were not expensive either.

Procover Boat Fender Covers

Folding / flat ones here: Boat Jetski Narrowboat Fenders from Anglesey Marine Supplies


Flat ones here: PJ Bowers Pty. Ltd : Marine & Boating foam : Boat Buffers

rwidman said:

I paid a guy to compound and wax my boat shortly after I bought it and he recommended fender covers to keep the fenders from scuffing the gelcoat. I use covers and it seems to help.

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I use covers, called fender socks here downunder. They look good, and do protect the hull finish and prevent the buildup of the sticky black stuff that seems to love power cords and fenders. However, they do weather, fade, and eventually need replacement. However, as someone mentioned, small price to pay. Especially as to be at the ready, provide rafting up or anchor drag protection, and get the damn things out of the way, we leave ours raised but deployed, so the socks sort of disguise them a bit, and makes it look less like you just forgot to lift them in.

We used fender covers on some of our fenders.
But after going thru 150 locks this summer , we decided that covers are not as good as plain fenders. The covers get yucky after a few locks and they can't easily be cleaned. The dirt stays in the fabric and continues to mark the gelcoat.
The bare fenders are easy to clean.
I also wax the fenders initially, and that lets the dirt flush off easily (until the wax is gone of course).
We also had both types of fenders.
We used balls on the bow (one each side) because our boat has a really huge flare and we needed the large diameter.
The rest were cylinders. We never had one pop out.

The bigger, the better.
The only reason not to have a bigger fender is no place to store it.

jeffnick said:

The bigger, the better.
The only reason not to have a bigger fender is no place to store it.

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I agree with that. In addition to the four or five "normal" cylindrical fenders we use at the dock we carry three "Big Bertha" fenders. These are great when rafting and we use one of them as our hand-held bow fender in our technique of getting off a dock that the wind is pushing us on to. One of them lives up on the flying bridge and the other two are tied off to the aft rail when we're underway.

The two ball fenders we bought for last winter's temporary moorage assignment we've taken home as we don't need them on the boat anymore.

jeffnick said:

The bigger, the better.
The only reason not to have a bigger fender is no place to store it.

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Only to a point...there's an average range of motion for your boat and anything more can make it difficult for people to board.

For storms yes....if you don't have the fenders, you'll have to find a more peaceful spot.

Has anybody ever used those inflatable fenders that are made of hypalon fabric like inflatable boats? They are very popular on mega yachts but I don't see them on proper sized boats like ours. You could store some nice big ones in almost no space. They are expensive compared to the usual vinyl fender.

Did someone say Fenders?



At least they'd hear you coming.

Rambler said:

Flat ones here: PJ Bowers Pty. Ltd : Marine & Boating foam : Boat Buffers

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Thanks, Rambler. I am glad someone is manufacturing the flat closed foam fenders like So-Pac used to. These minimize gel coat or paint scuffing because the load is so spread out, plus the boat ends up closer to the dock which is better for boarding.

HopCar said:

Has anybody ever used those inflatable fenders that are made of hypalon fabric like inflatable boats?

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We have several and use them regularly. The ones in the pic were cast-offs from a large yacht several years ago and are being used in this picture to fend off one of the chief mate's projects in preparation for a recent blow. The things are really tough and take a beating but I have seen them blow out under a severe load.

The admiral put out an order to get fender covers a while back. It seems that the fenders squeeking against the hull at nite keeps her awake. Covers stop the squeek.

Hey I have one of those big flat fenders! I thought it was something to kneel on when working on the deck. I learn something new every time I am on this site.

Marin said:

the best tip I ever got from TF is from Keith who suggested using GoJo to clean groundpower cords and fenders. We tried it and it works a treat.

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For those of us not from your part of the world, what is GoJo?

GOJO is the brand name of a waterless hand cleaner often use by mechanics to clean grease from their hands.
Steve W.

There are two varieties- with fine pumice and without. The one to use on fenders and groundpower cords is the one with pumice.

Marin said:

the best tip I ever got from TF is from Keith who suggested using GoJo to clean groundpower cords and fenders. We tried it and it works a treat.

For those of us not from your part of the world, what is GoJo?

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Andy, I suspect in our part of the world it is what mechanics use and called Swarfega..?
https://www.blackwoods.com.au/search/swarfega-hand-cleaner/307680722

Swarfega - Rapid Hand Cleanser

look up Protecta hand cleaner made by Septone in Qld.
They do one with grit, very popular in the industrial world (Australia)these days.

One thing to check is the active ingredient...I forget what regular GOJO is but many hand cleaners are now citrus based. The original gojo formula was great for even stains in fabrics...but I'm not sure how the citrus stuff works on fenders/power cords, etc...

I just bought some GoJo yesterday cause I used all mine last winter on my fenders after I read about it here. It is citrus based with pumice, petroleum distillates, a bunch of other stuff.
As stated previously, this is by far the best stuff I have had for cleaning fenders.

We keep a can of spray silicone handy to silence squeeky fenders.

My buddy has snap on covers for his boat carpet. He sometimes covers them with plastic. We cover our britework, our fenders and even our shore power cords. I had a sunbrella cover for my runabout...it got dirty and someone suggested a tyvek cover for the sunbrella. There seems to be no way to escape covers and their required maintenance.

jeffnick said:

We keep a can of spray silicone handy to silence squeeky fenders.

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I wonder if a spray-on PAM or Crisco would work for this?

I have seen people use very cheap sweatpants for fender covers. Not waterproof fabric, but very economical.

Lena made fender covers using Boat-Blanket from Sailrite. They protect the fenders from UV and are easy on the hull. They wouldn't stand up for going through locks, but for the dock, they're fine.

Boat Blanket Fabric Navy Blue 72"

At least no body here has called them "bumpers". Or "buoys".

rwidman said:

At least no body here has called them "bumpers". Or "buoys".

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Course not! That would imply a landlubber!

I just bought some GoJo yesterday cause I used all mine last winter on my fenders after I read about it here. It is citrus based with pumice, petroleum distillates, a bunch of other stuff.

"Other stuff" the last Go Jo I purchased in NYC seemed to be scented with GARLIC!

If you are locking much you'll need two sets - one large set that will take the abuse of locks and one "yachtier" set for the inside side. You will be asked to raft up with other boats in the Canadian locks.

BTW - in areas with many locks ie the Erie, Rideau ect, you never take the fenders in. So storage is not the problem you would think so go up a size or two.

Although I had fender boards I never used them.

FF said:

I just bought some GoJo yesterday cause I used all mine last winter on my fenders after I read about it here. It is citrus based with pumice, petroleum distillates, a bunch of other stuff.

"Other stuff" the last Go Jo I purchased in NYC seemed to be scented with GARLIC!

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At least that will keep the vampire fish at bay.

I read about gojo here, then saw it at the store for about three bucks for a large container. All I can say is wow. We were ready to replace our crappy looking fenders and after cleaning them with gojo last night, they look just fine. Not brand new by any means, they're still old fenders. But now they're clean old fenders. Thanks for saving me a bunch of money on new fenders. My husband did the cleaning and said it didn't take much elbow grease.