Exile Fender Ball
Does anyone have these inflatable fenders? I'm looking at getting 4 of them, but don't want to pull the trigger until I get some feedback on them. Not much on the internet about them. If you have them, how much work is it to inflate them before each use? Do they do a good job keeping the boats spaced apart, etc????
http://exileaudio.com/store/index.ph...ll-fender.html |
A lot of people use them and usually rave about them.
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Love the hoppity balls for this indeed!
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Great to tie up boats together and for short term dock use. Won't scuff or rub like standard marine fenders do. More spacing between boats and especially towers/racks. Takes about 6-7 breaths to inflate. I have 4 I leave inflated in my boat but I have an A24 so plenty of storage. A lot of wakeboats have the cleats positioned so you don't even need rope for the balls, you can just loop them around a cleat in a lot of cases or just a very short line.
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There was a thread on these awhile back. Maybe three years ago? I remember them getting good reviews.
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I have 4 and I usually just keep them inflated. I used my air compressor at my house to inflate them so they get pretty big and I store them on my Z5 on my tower.
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are the exiles going to be as scratch resistant as the hippy hop balls, i need a solution as well and was wondering the same thing
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I have 5-6 of them...keep 2 tied to my dock slip and they never leave a mark on my Enzo. Great for tying up, even in rougher water and help keep boats a little further apart than traditional bumpers. Can be inflated/deflated in seconds and stored easily! All my buddies have purchased as well...surprised no one else is slapping their logo on these and selling them?
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We have 4 of the Exile buoy balls, they work great. We use them for docking, tying up with other boats, buoy for anchor lines, and the kids love to play with them too. The have never left scratches or marks and the extra space is nice between boats when rollers come in. A reinforced eyelet to tie a rope to also/ instead of the hippity hop handle would be the only thing they could improve on in my opinion. Definitely a bargain.
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Love them. If you don't care that they have disney characters on them go to ToysRUs and buy regular hippity hops for $7
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Thanks for the input..It looks like I'm going to purchase some. I'll probably pay the extra not to have the Disney characters on them :)
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We have been using hippity hops since 2006 and they are a no brainer. They are cheaper than bumpers and they protect the boats way better. They keep the boats further apart and they do not scuff the colored boats. I will not allow regular bumpers up against my boat (black) cause just one time tying up they scuff. The Exile balls do not. They are a MUST!
You can leave them deflated and just blow them up by mouth when you tie up if you are looking to save on storage in the boat. You can blow them up by mouth or they make a very small handheld pump that works too. Other option is blow them up real good with an air compressor, as someone above stated, and then just store them on board. I usually have 4 blown up and have them stowed away and have a few extas that are not inflated in case we need them. We generally tie up every outing with other boats, so again, I would not use anything else.... |
I have 4. They are excellent. Pull the trigger. You will be glad you did.
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Well, I pulled the trigger, but I found these instead of the Exile brand. I got 6 of them in the family pack for 60 bucks. Can't wait for boat season.
http://www.hopballs.com/hop-ball-clear-small/ |
I've got four and they work great. I just leave them inflated and I've never had to re-inflate them. They're good for more than just protecting your boat! :)
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/87522846?color=ffffff&portrait=0" width="720" height="405" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/87522846">Exile's Balls</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/wakeworld">WakeWorld</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> |
John - The Exile balls are built at the same place as the Disney ones. We modified them a bit to work with boats a better. They are 7mill thicker, and 2" bigger. We went to a thicker sidewall a few years back when we saw people popping the disney ones.
all in all, any of these hip balls will work good and not scuff your boat. -Brian @ Exile PS: Williams--- I love that video. cracks me up. |
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I think they're talking mils (1/1000 of an inch), not millimeters.
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Just quoting there website..........
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I love mine. I usually use 3 of them on a side. I have had one time where it was a week before the 4th of july and the dock was FILLED with jackweeds that didn't know what a no wake zone was. My boat was rocking so hard that it bent one of those keychain carabiners on a dock line. If I would have had traditional fenders, I would have SMASHED my gelcoat on the dock. However, I had bouy balls and it saved my boat.
On my Supra, I stored them my going through the top of the tower and around the bimini. for trailering, I clipped them to the steering wheel and put them under the helm. This is my DeadMau5 look: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7...628_105151.jpg Then there was one day where we put 4 bouy balls on the tower and they were bundled together in pairs. when we were motoring at speed, the balls would bounce against each other and looked like BOOBS. it was freaking hilarious! https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-A...56985_high.JPG on my Moomba, I similarly go through the tower and attach the balls to the cargo bimini frame: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-d...0/GOPR1259.JPG I inflate mine with my home air compressor (and deflate them with a shop vac). I throw them in a rear locker for trailering now. |
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These things are a must, love em. Get 6
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PAGING VINCE! I still haven't seen your Hello Kitty ones you bought. Post up some pics of your kawaii buoys.
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I love my balls....but seriously. Get them, they are a boat saver at tie ups.
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Got them. You'll love them.
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i orded 6 today, looks like the easy way to go and know they will hold up
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Just ordered 4 for my RZR. How do you guys tie these up mid ship? I only have a front and rear cleat. Looking for ideas... maybe 2 in enough?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psf1fcdce1.jpg |
longer rope to the tower
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Mschmidt33 when we use them on our RZ2 I use the grab handles on the front play pen and the side handle on the side before the back bench. We park in a short dock so the normal cleats don't work well. So we use the handles. Just a simple clove hitch to hold the balls.
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