[RiverWebb]

Hey all,
Apparently I had some residual water in my NRS frame foot bar over the winter and just found it ruptured the pipe. Any input on repairs? Weld? Need to either get it fixed or replaced soon for some upcoming trips. Gash is approximately 2” long and right where the frame could contact floor of raft. Thanks!

 

[Pine]

Get a new piece of pipe.

 

[jsheglund]

if its just your legs pushing on it, I'd just grind or file it to where it wont cut something. if you want you can use something like this and map gas to fill it and then grind it smooth.

OR you could cut out the bad piece and reconnect with this and have a narrower foot bar like me 😅

edit: i'm making a lot of assumptions based on your photo. if you show at least one sides connections it could help, because I might be way off. Like in my mind, i don't even think it's attached to the rest of the frame right now.

 

[RiverWebb]

if its just your legs pushing on it, I'd just grind or file it to where it wont cut something. if you want you can use something like this and map gas to fill it and then grind it smooth.

OR you could cut out the bad piece and reconnect with this and have a narrower foot bar like me

edit: i'm making a lot of assumptions based on your photo. if you show at least one sides connections it could help, because I might be way off. Like in my mind, i don't even think it's attached to the rest of the frame right now.

Thanks for the input. The crack is right in the middle, red arrow on stock pic for reference. I like the coupler idea. Worth a try anyway. Appreciate the links!

 

[Wallrat]

Damn. That’s too bad. Guess I’ll go drill a couple of drain holes in mine…just in case.

 

[PDX Duck]

I am curious how this would have happened? Even if the water froze it would displace sideways, wouldn’t it?

 

[N8Dawg]

For this to happen it must have been completely full of water. Otherwise, it would have just spread up the tubes. Kind of like a plastic bottle in the freezer. As long as there is a gap the ice can spread, but if the bottle is full it will break the plastic. Just like jsheglund implied, I don't think there is enough force from your legs for a small crack like this to effect the tubing, and Wallrat's idea to drill holes in the bottom are good suggestions.

 

[jbLaramie]

You can buy the bar only from nrs. Prob cost you about $50. Keep your lopros and drill holes yourself, not hard at all. If there’s anything you don’t like about the delux foot bar specs for your setup, now you have a chance to customize how you really want it.

 

[RiverWebb]

My guess is it was full of water. I have noticed other parts of my frame with water in it, but most of the frame is at a horizontal level, so it eventually finds it way out of the tubing. With the foot bar being a continuous piece of pipe, and also a vertical low spot on the frame, there is no way for water to escape. Que negative temperatures in storage, and no room to expand, it has to go somewhere. I definitely will be adding weep holes to low points in the frame in the future.

 

[MT4Runner]

if its just your legs pushing on it, I'd just grind or file it to where it wont cut something. if you want you can use something like this and map gas to fill it and then grind it smooth.

that's what I'd do. Bang the split back together, use some aluminum solder so it's not rough on your floor. give it a quick file/sanding so it's smooth, and drill a tiny weep hole to prevent it happening again

 

[RiverWebb]

You can buy the bar only from nrs. Prob cost you about $50. Keep your lopros and drill holes yourself, not hard at all. If there’s anything you don’t like about the delux foot bar specs for your setup, now you have a chance to customize how you really want it.

Can you expand a bit on this? are you thinking bending the foot bar with a pipe bender, DIY, or are you saying NRS sells just the u-bend portion of the bar? Would go this route if I could buy the u-bend for $50, any links appreciated.

 

[Priceless]

My bet is that if you call NRS they will send you a new one for free.

 

[jspoon14]

It not actaully the ice that busts the pipe, it is the unfrozen water that get presurised and then busts the pipe so it does not have to be fully frozen. I would not recomend the map gas idea with brazing rods. This will not bond with the pipe like a weld woudl and will crack and leak in the future causeing more issue. You can get this pipe anywhere that sells aluminum pipe, it does not need to be from NRS, it is 1.25" schedule 40 6063 t6 pipe, the only thing diffent about it is that it is anadozied which is hard to find. Just replace the pipe, being that it is on a NRS frame it is just bolted in and can be replaced with out an issue. The hardest thing is to drill the holes int he correct palce for the NRS fitting. And yes if you leave your frame ouside over the winter make sure you have weap holes in it. Every frame can get water in it, no matter if it is welded or not.

 

[MT4Runner]

I would not recomend the map gas idea with brazing rods. This will not bond with the pipe like a weld woudl and will crack and leak in the future causing more issue.

I respectfully disagree. I've used that stuff, and I was surprised how strong it actually is. Was surprised to see it flow and surprised how well it bonded. And then it was quite hard when it cooled and filed/sanded just like virgin aluminum. It's really a low melting point aluminum alloy, not much lower melting point than regular aluminum.
I cut down a cast aluminum skillet to fit in a 20mm box and it's held up through a surprising number of heat/cooling cycles on my lpg stove.

@RiverWebb if you want to try fixing it, I'll mail you a stick. You probably don't need a full $18 pack.

IMHO people need to try fixing stuff, we have such a throwaway society. Why spend money on a new part when you can potentially learn something while keeping a mostly-good item in use?

 

[FatmanZ]

Oh no, now I need to check my raft frames because I was too lazy to hang them in the garage this winter.....

 

[Dangerfield]

If you go the route of brazing/soldering I would recommend drilling a small hole (about 1/16") at the end points of the crack. This can aleviate any further cracking by releiving that stress point. It might not be as important as with TIG or spool gun welding to try not to use any steel brushes to clean it up before welding. Microscopic steel particles can really screw up the process. My 2c's.

 

[Jake D]

The same thing happened to my NRS foot bar years ago. I’ve done nothing and it has not been a problem. I’ve thought about getting a hose clamp to see if that would compress the gap back together.

 

[Big_B]

Beater flush and wrap some duct tape around it, it'll be fine.

 

[MT4Runner]

The same thing happened to my NRS foot bar years ago. I’ve done nothing and it has not been a problem. I’ve thought about getting a hose clamp to see if that would compress the gap back together.

I don't think a hose clamp would have enough strength before the threads rip.
Probably need a deadblow or hard faced hammer to tap it back.

 

[Benjamin W.]

Red would just tell you to hit it with some ol' reliable.