Hypalon repair

[lhowemt]

Before everyone tells me to search the archives, please hear me out.

My hypalon boat has a wear spot on the underside of the floor, right opposite the floor valve. The boat is blue, and it seems to have worn down to a gray fabric. No problems holding air last year.

I'm reluctant to put a patch on it, and I was wondering if there is something else I can do to beef this up. I'm not sure why I'm reluctant, but I just think that perhaps a patch will increase the chance that the patch could get caught or pulled and tear open the floor.

Any ideas?

[DanRauer]

Originally Posted by lhowemt

Before everyone tells me to search the archives, please hear me out.

My hypalon boat has a wear spot on the underside of the floor, right opposite the floor valve. The boat is blue, and it seems to have worn down to a gray fabric. No problems holding air last year.

I'm reluctant to put a patch on it, and I was wondering if there is something else I can do to beef this up. I'm not sure why I'm reluctant, but I just think that perhaps a patch will increase the chance that the patch could get caught or pulled and tear open the floor.

Any ideas?

If it is an older boat, you could slap some flextuff on the bottom of the floor and the lower sides of the boat. I did it to my older cataraft and it came out sweet and much tougher than I expected. I think I paid $150 to do the whole bottoms of both the tubes. Best investment I ever made in that boat.

[lhowemt]

I wouldn't call it old, and it is in really good shape except for that one spot.

[rafterman2007]

Go to
www. manofrubber.com/brushon.php
The man will take care of you with his liquid rubber concotion for $50 plus $20 for the primer.

The one issue with these guys is you have to mix the entire batch at once. If you try and mix parts it wont work due to the specific amount necessary of the parts. It is mixed by weight and not volume. If you have a good abalance and the requisite knowledge and materials--pehaps you can pull it off. So if you dont have a lot of work to do on your boat, maybe call a buddy or two so you can do several rafts at a time.

In addition Inland Marine here has a product that can be built up to 6mil---pretty thick--may be cheaper. AND you might be able to get away with just using a bit at a time.

http://www.inlandmarine.us/products/show/?id=liquidrubber