We know the best way to protect your car from weather elements is by taking them to the garage. Garages are often essential for protecting your car, especially if you have come off the road and want your car engine to relax- it could be overnight, preferably. However, think of a situation where you are far from the garage and may have a car or truck that needs to be parked safely. What will you do? You would probably call out for truck tarps or car covers to help you out, as they are one of the perfect ways to protect your vehicle.
Besides custom tarps, many other types can be used for vehicle protection. Many of us often park our vehicles out of a building, not knowing the adverse effects of doing so. With time, this practice turns out to be a very disastrous one. Leaving your car outside uncovered allows for both ultraviolet rays from the sun and moisture to get into the vehicle. The rays often have severe impacts on the exterior of the vehicle.
Uncovering your car also means exposing it to bird droppings, pollen grains, and tree sap. All these can interfere with or damage your vehicle’s finish, thus destroying its attractive appearance.
Moreover, sun rays destroy the exterior of the car and have detrimental effects on the materials used in building most parts of the vehicle with time. Having said all these negative impacts of leaving your vehicle unprotected, it is time to choose a tarp that will help you limit your car’s exposure to adverse weather elements.
Table of Contents
Types of Tarps You Will Love Using for Cover Protect Your Vehicle
1. Mesh Tarps
These tarps are developed by using a selection of breathable materials. These materials are vital to ensuring that the tarps provide adequate airflow and passage of moisture and sunlight. They are one of the most commonly used tarps for cover-protecting vehicles because of their ability to be tied down through the grommets along their edges.
Mesh tarps are distinguishable because of the presence of the double-stitched hems. As a result, they have extra strengths along the hems. The feature allows the tarps to be firmly held on the ground once erected over the vehicle for protection.
The tarps operate by blocking most of the UV rays from the sun. However, tarps made of Vinyl- Coats find it challenging to insulate sun rays of more than 55% from the sun. You could go for an alternative, polyethylene mesh tarps, that can block up to 90% of rays from the sun.
To get the most insulation of your vehicle from the sun, however, you can use mesh tarps made from polypropylene, as these can block as many rays as 95% from the sun. The small holes between the fabric threads of the mesh tarps ensure lower resistance to the wind, so the wind can quickly go through them compared to other tarp types.
2. Poly Tarps
These are taps made from polyethylene materials. In other words, they are plastic. Both high-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene materials can be used to make poly tarps. Some poly tarps have light duties, while others can be used for heavy duties. To determine this, one needs to consider the weight of the poly tarp before using it for cover protection for vehicles. For instance, a heavier poly tarp can be used for heavy duties, while lighter tarps are suitable for low duty.
The low-duty poly tarps are made of lower poly coatings alongside having a lower mesh count. In contrast, heavy-duty poly tarps have more poly coatings alongside a higher mesh count. Moreover, when the cover protection operation needs to be done for a shorter time, it would be advisable to use light-duty poly tarps. For cases where the vehicle needs to be covered for a longer time, heavy-duty poly tarps are preferred to light-duty ones.
The heavy-duty- varieties are also used for other domestic purposes, such as household applications. This is because heavy-duty poly tarps are made from high-grade materials. This is why heavy-duty tarps cover trucks within the industrial and agricultural sectors.
Moreover, the poly tarps are established from durable fiber materials that are perfect at withstanding tough and harsh weather and physical conditions.
3. Canvas Tarps
These tarps are made majorly of canvas. This robust and heavy material has a wax rubber butyl coating at the back. The use of wax in establishing these tarps is majorly for developing water-resistant layers to ensure that no moisture penetrates through and ends up in the vehicle.
However, canvas tarps require periodic and regular maintenance, especially for the rubber backing (coating), to ensure that the tarps maintain their water-resistant character always. Like the Mesh traps, canvas tarps are also made of breathable materials to ensure free flow and passage of air within the individual fiber threads. You can treat or not treat your canvas tarps for as long as you like.
Nevertheless, you should still consider working with treated tarps, as these are more resistant to water and other elements than untreated tarps. They are also more resistant to UV rays and mildew, which untreated tarps cannot offer.
Canvas tarps are the most commonly used type of tarp for covering items that are often left outdoors. For instance, they can best be used to provide cover protection to trucks, trailers, and cars that are preferably parked outdoors for the entire day and night. The water-repellent nature of the canvas tarps is attributed to the dye generally applied during manufacturing to provide them with the desired color.
Nevertheless, the color may stick to any material placed underneath or over the tarps for an extended period. Of course, they are prone to melting, especially if they stay for long in direct sunlight. Therefore, you should use the tarps for only those items you can afford to stain. Think about your vehicle and whether or not it deserves to be stained.
Final Thoughts
Tarps have popularly grown to be one of the most commonly used materials for vehicle cover protection. Most tarps are made of plastic and polymer materials with good insulation abilities. Tarps, such as mesh tarps, poly tarps, and canvas tarps, have remarkable properties that ensure that vehicles are adequately covered and protected from adverse elements. Therefore, they help reduce the damages that may occur In vehicles due to such detrimental exposures.
