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Keeping frames outside during winter

1.9K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  okieboater  
#1 ·
I live in Summit County. So pretty long cold winter. I have 2 aluminum frames for my 13’ and 16’. Would welcome your insights on keeping them outside for the winter. I could try to squeeze them into my garage. But it’s only a little warmer in there. Thinking about hanging them in the side of my house under an eve. They’d still get hit by snow that comes in sideways.
 
#3 ·
Other than this, I can't think of any reason the aluminum needs to be inside, even up in Summit. Strip off any straps or other things that shouldn't be in high UV or cold.
 
#5 ·
I'm in Park, CO at 9K Ft. and mine stays outside under my 2nd story deck all winter w/o issue. I've been lazy and haven't pulled my deck boards the last couple of seasons, so they will need a new coat of paint (gonna change the color up anyways) and straps next year though... I do take the drop bags, chair and frame straps off though so they don't get to beat up when not in season.
 
#6 ·
as has been mentioned above, I take off all straps, bags, plywood etc and store them inside the boat shed. The frame goes outside on a couple saw horses. No issues except if you have non stainless steel nuts or bolts they may rust. I check my frames and replace with stain less steel. On a iron metal conduit frame I have, the welds did rust, I painted with silver rust oleum spray cans and no issues. the pipes tho only developed a patina.

Would be nice to suspend the entire rig inside, I do not have the space.

One tip is to be sure any fabric tubes are washed clean before storage. Due to space limits, I roll my rafts for storage inside the boat shed. I had one IK get a hole via I guess a mouse chew through the fabric. I put mouse repellent inside the boat shed but guess that is not 100 percent to our local mouse population.