A while back I heard about/saw some ski 'socks'. These are stretchy fabric tubes that you slide over your skis to protect them from road salt and the like. Lately we have found that the road crews are getting really diligent in their salting and we often have salt spray marks on our ski rack. We have just antied up for new top-o-line Volkls and would like to limit damage to self inflicted [yard sales etc.] rather than salt scars from roof rack riding.

Has anyone else seen these ski socks? .. and knows where I might be able to find them?

Thanks a bunch for any help you can give.

Snowcone....I bagged the ski racks several years back due to just that...the crud that gets into the bindings, on the ski bottoms, etc... Tried ski bags but they were bulky and you had to deal with the crud on them as well. I finally broke down and bought a "coffin" or a roof box specially made for skiis. It locks, is weatherproof, and I don't have to take the skiis out until I'm ready to ski. It's more expensive than regular ski racks, but for $300/$400 you have something which can be used year round and you can even fit the spouse in it if needed!

Yea we have one of those 'coffins', a nice Thule. Only problem is that it is too big to fit in the garage where we park during the week and too much of a hassle to put on/off each time we go skiing. We use it for long trips but for weekends at Whitetail and the like, all we need is the rack.

So the question still is .. anyone know where I can find the ski tube socks or whatever the silly things are called? I guess if I knew the name or brand of the items I could find it on the net. Googling 'ski sock' is useless.

I agree; If you can't fit them in the car, spend the $$ for a Yakima or Thule roof box. We've had a Thule Frontier for years, and the skis stay well protected. Plus, you can put boots, poles and lots of other stuff up there, and it stays protected and locked(!!) when you go into resturants, etc... It may seem like the boxes are expensive, but subjecting your bindings and gear to road crud will cost you much more in the long run.

We pick up ski bags dirt cheap at the swaps use for 1 season and throw 'em away.

easy cheap and does the job

Well, you could always get a nice small van. That's what we've always had, and when the box is too much, the skis/board just slide in under the seats. No muss, no fuss!

For a sock, you could probably make some yourself quite easily. Just buy some coated fabric, sew it into a tube, and but velcro on one end. That would certainly keep the worst of the debris off, though taking them off the roof after several hours of driving in the snow would probably be pretty unpleasant. Plus, you'd have some really nasty bags/socks to deal with....

Snowcone, quite correct, last time we ordered them from Alpine Accessories but they don't seem to stock them anymore.

If you go to a dry cleaner, use the plastic bag used to cover your garments... they work fairly well and you can discard them after 3 or 4 uses.

If you go to Lowes or Home Depot, you can buy a fabric cover that's used to slip over 4" corrugated drainage pipe and keep silt from clogging the pipe. It won't be perfect, as its made to let water (and I suspect dissolved salt) through the pores, but it's the perfect diameter, soft, able to keep the bigger chunks of crud from your gear at a minimum, and cheap as dirt. It comes in like 300 foot rolls for maybe $30.

In fact, it occurs to me I'm going to start using that stuff inside my ski bag to better isolate my skis from the other stuff I throw in there.

Let us know how it works for salt.

By the way, for those of you going on about Thules and stuff, the issue is highly relevant to rental trucks and rental roof racks: ski bags do not compress or fold apart enough.

So, when there's 6 people in the truck and you're forced to use the rack like so:
Code:

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snowboard ski  snowboard ski

ski  ski  ski  ski ski   ski 

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There's really not much else that'll do the job. No way one can compress 4 regular non-stretch ski bags into one side of the flat-fold rack. One binding cover per ski, maybe.

Grit Gardz on Ebay HERE.

Quote:

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This bag solves that problem by holding each ski separately in form-fitting individual protectors. Each ski slides in it's own protector tip first and zipper closes the bag near the tail. The two skis can then carried with nylon carrying handle by snapping them together with snap buckles . Skis can be transported completely protected on ski racks by either laying them flat separately or together. Much better than wrestling a bulky large bag into a roof rack (been there/done that). Made in the USA by Gear Reichert, Ltd, Torrington, Wyoming of heavy duty DuPont Cordura nylon, not a cheap Asian lightweight import.

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Also on closeout at Buckman's.

The ones we used to get from Alpine Accessories:
http://www.skibuddy.com/