Expecting water to freeze solid in NH. I'm thinking farm tractor tire inner tubes but haven't checked the price.
What say you folks?
What say you folks?
Best, most cost effective floating cover support?
- Thread starter NHfloater
- Start date
I'd look around,might get that tractor inner tube for free. Any inner tube is better than those pillows.
You are SPOT ON! I've tried every "pool pillow" out there, and they are don't last a winter. I went to old farm tire inner tubes, and they just keep going and going and going. I tie 4 of them together in sort of a "4 square" pattern to create one large float for the center of the pool.
Any idea how much they go for? I'm thinking about tying 2 together but stacked on top of each other, then tied off to the pool rails.
We used to do it that way (my brother and I) now we use plastic 55 gallon drums. I was able to get one from work (knew what was in it). A local hardware store also sells reconditioned drums around here.NHfloater said:
I couldn' agree with you more. Those large inflatable pool pillows are complete junk. I never got more than a month or two out of them before they deflated leaving my mesh winter cover submerged under 6" of water. I switched over to three Intex River Run II Rafts six years ago for equilizer pillows for my 24' above ground pool. All three rafts are still currently in use and function perfectly. What's great about the rafts is they have high-back pillows which do a fantastic job keeping the cover suspended high off the water surface. Also, the threaded quick inflate/deflate valve is invaluable. I can completely deflate each raft in less than a minute without having to wrestle and twist the raft to get ALL the air out.
I go to an implement dealership to get used inner tubes that they done want and then put a patch on it and use them. I need to do it again and plan to go to a couple larger tires, tied together and then let it buck. Probably next weekend I plan to close and then run around to find what I want. Inner tubes work the best as you can take out the core and the air is easy for quick storage then.
Thanks for the replies, guys. There aren't any tractor service places locally to find used ones but there's a TSC in the next town over.
