Recommended upholstery cleaning products

3fletch

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Occasionally, we will leave our boat uncovered on the boat lift... and each time we do, we regret it.  We are on a creek in Maryland that leads to the Patuxent River and our shoreline is heavily treed.  So when the boat is uncovered overnight or for any several hour period, the upholstery will be soiled with, what I can only characterize as, tree droppings of a light brown color in the 1/4 - 1/2 inch diameter size... once these spots are dried by the sun, they take significant elbow grease to remove.  Is there a product out there, that can remove such stains without the need for serious scrubbing and... that will not harm the upholstery??
 
1st - cover the boat...always.  For the 10 min it takes to throw the mooring cover on, you will spend hour/s later cleaning it up later if you don't.


2nd - a good upholstery protectant, like 303, will go a long way to ease the occasional cleanup and provide UV protection as well.


3rd - There are multiple cleaning solutions.  There was just one about White Vinegar and water spot.  White Vinegar is a good basis for all thing in my opinion,  Dilute and let it work it's magic.  Try a spot first of course.  I use a diluted simple green mixture as well but some say don't.  Hasn't harmed my upholstery at all. With all of that being said, my opinion is; If a white vinegar solution doesn't get it out, it probably ain't coming out.


Others will chime in as well but having a good coat of protectant is the 1st thing I would be sure to do if you haven't already.
 
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MH663... Thanks.... Great info!


I am curious about how fast you can put your boat cover on... Doing it solo... I have yet to get it on in less than 20 minutes... What is your secret?
 
For me its how I take it off. 


I start on the port side to remove.  Fold it in so the port side of the cover sits on the starboard side seats.  I then fold it over it's self one more time so all of the mooring cover from the port side is sitting on the starboard side seats.  I then unclip the starboard side clips and fold cover in, placing it on top of the cover that is laying on the seats in front of you.  I now have the entire cover laying on the starboard side of the boat seat about 2.5 feet wide in width.  Now I start at the bow and roll the cover in until I get to the captains chair.  I then go back to the stern and roll the cover in until I get to the captains chair.  Pick the cover up and store.


Putting the cover on is just in the reverse.


Lay the cover on the captains chair.  Unroll to the stern, making sure it's in the right orientation. Clip in a couple of spots. Go back to chair and roll out towards the bow and clip in multiple spots.  I then start at the stern and unfold and clip the cover to the starboard side as I move towards the bow.  I put about every third or so clip in at this point.  I then go back to the stern and start to roll cover out towards the port.  I place the pole in as I go and also clip about every third clip on the port side as I go.  I do not put poles in if I am going to go out in the am and there is no rain.  You DO NOT want it to rain and not have those poles in place!  You will have the mooring cover laying on itself as you go along placing poles and securing cover to the port side, stern to bow.


That's how I do it...this works for me and I have no help.  The wife always wants to help but it kind of messes up my rhythm if you know what I mean.  She now just follows behind me and clips the cover in the spots I skip clipping on the starboard side.  Usually when I'm about 2/3rds of the way done she starts clipping. 


10 minutes and I'm done whether she helps or not!
 
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Ours is on a covered lift. I unroll it bow to stern and snap along the way section by section, no poles. It takes me 5-10 minutes by myself standing inside the boat, walking out the aft gate at the end and doing the back snaps. In our case, it's pollen, birds, and spiders that leave messes if we don't do it.
 
Folks... Thanks for the step-by-step... I have been doing it almost the same way as MH663... But, I have only had the boat a couple months... So, my time should improve!!!


thanks  agin for the great help!!
 
3Fletch where are you located? In PG, Calvert, or St. Mary's county?!?  Used to live in Upper Marlboro and boat the Patuxent river. Used to put in at the Benedict bridge and go towards Point Lookout all the time. We still have friends all over that area.
 
Big Kahuna... we are in Huntingtown, Calvert County, on Hunting Creek which joins the Patuxent River just a little bit north of the Benedict Bridge boat launch, which, by the way, is where I get my pontoon in/out of the water too.  We have a home, with a dock and boat lift on Hunting Creek (no cover over the boat lift).


Just curious... if you would go to Point Lookout, why didn't you put in at a launch site down in Solomons Island... and... did you go to Point Lookout to meet friends or is there some "attraction" there for pontoons/boaters?


Also... we are rookies to boats (and pontoons) and have not ventured into Chesapeake Bay.  This spring we bought a 2016 22' SSX w/Yamaha 115 VMax... it has the 2 fishing stations on the stern and I am chomping at the bit to go after some rockfish, bluefish, croakers... whatever... I just want to go fishing out on the Bay... but... have no idea where to go on the bay to catch some fish.  If you fished the Bay... can you give me any locations where you had good luck "catching"?


I have been fishing the Pawtuxent River, but have had intermittent success... small croaker and perch, and one 6" rockfish... :)
 
Big Kahuna... we are in Huntingtown, Calvert County, on Hunting Creek which joins the Patuxent River just a little bit north of the Benedict Bridge boat launch, which, by the way, is where I get my pontoon in/out of the water too.  We have a home, with a dock and boat lift on Hunting Creek (no cover over the boat lift).


Just curious... if you would go to Point Lookout, why didn't you put in at a launch site down in Solomons Island... and... did you go to Point Lookout to meet friends or is there some "attraction" there for pontoons/boaters?


Also... we are rookies to boats (and pontoons) and have not ventured into Chesapeake Bay.  This spring we bought a 2016 22' SSX w/Yamaha 115 VMax... it has the 2 fishing stations on the stern and I am chomping at the bit to go after some rockfish, bluefish, croakers... whatever... I just want to go fishing out on the Bay... but... have no idea where to go on the bay to catch some fish.  If you fished the Bay... can you give me any locations where you had good luck "catching"?


I have been fishing the Pawtuxent River, but have had intermittent success... small croaker and perch, and one 6" rockfish... :)

          When I lived in Upper Marlboro the Benedict bridge was so much closer to trailer a boat than Solomons. I also forgot to mention that we had a 19 ft. Maxum bowrider when we lived there. We didn't get our Benny until 2008 when we moved to Virginia and boated on Lake Anna. The bowrider was perfect for the Patuxent and we have gone out on the bay on a good calm day. But you have to be careful the wind can whip up really fast and it can get rough fast! We never ventured far into the bay. We used to also trailer to the South River south of Annapolis and one day we got the bright idea to go out on the bay go under the Bay bridge and go up the Patapsco River into the Inner harbor. Big mistake! It got windy and rough and we had to put the cover over the open bow part and close the windshield to get back without getting soaked from the waves! 


Used to always go fishing for trophy rockfish on a charter boat out of Deale. A girl from my dept. retired and had a charter business w/ her husband. We used to always go out on the bay by Calvert Cliffs and by the Bay bridge. Good eating fish! We used to also catch Blues, Spanish mackerel, and Spot. I also have another friend that lives in Calvert who has a Grady White and he catches rock by Calvert cliffs all the time!


We still have friends up there in Huntingtown (off of 231) and also Golden Beach on the other side of the bridge. Another officer that retired with me lives in a waterfront neighborhood just south of the bridge. Can't remember the name of it.  Is Stoney's still there?!? That's about the only restaurant we used to go to by boat. They used to have a good prime rib sandwich........
 
MH663... Thanks.... Great info!


I am curious about how fast you can put your boat cover on... Doing it solo... I have yet to get it on in less than 20 minutes... What is your secret?


I know this is an old thread, but, I unsnap about three feet at a time and roll the cover up bow to stern. I leave the stern and one foot on each side snapped and then secure the rolled up cover with the strap and buckles. This means we can't use the stern ladder but we don't anyway. Hope this helps. And, it's way fast.

upload_2019-7-27_9-8-17.png
 
Occasionally, we will leave our boat uncovered on the boat lift... and each time we do, we regret it. We are on a creek in Maryland that leads to the Patuxent River and our shoreline is heavily treed. So when the boat is uncovered overnight or for any several hour period, the upholstery will be soiled with, what I can only characterize as, tree droppings of a light brown color in the 1/4 - 1/2 inch diameter size... once these spots are dried by the sun, they take significant elbow grease to remove. Is there a product out there, that can remove such stains without the need for serious scrubbing and... that will not harm the upholstery??



http://www.malcoautomotive.com/Leather_and_Plastic_Cleaner-details.aspx

This is what our dealer recommended and it works really well. We have white interior and it continually amazes me what it will get out.
 
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