Any one put scrape gaurds on a roylex boat?
I have heard you can just use felt, wetted out with epoxy.
I want to put it on my new White Water canoe, any input is welcome.
John
congrats
I know you’ve been talking about an open boat for a while. What did you pick up?
wait until they’re needed
If you bought your boat new, paddle it without the skid plates until you wear off the vinyl at the stem and stern, then put them on. Depending on your paddling style, it could be years before this happens.
boat
Thanks, its still in the store, but I am picking it up this saturday. “It” is a esquif detonator with a electric bilge pump. Its a 2004 (new) so I am getting it 60% off! Mountain Man Outdoors (NY) has another with out the pump for $800.
Check out…
Check out wildernesswebb’s post on this forum, requesting information regarding Royalex repair material.
BOB
It is a sin to put skid plates
on a boat that doesn’t need them.
cheers,
jackL
wenonah sells them
seperately in their catalog. I think $65 for a set, kevlar. Don’t know where these other posters paddle, but every canoe on a cl.2 or up river around here has them. Every now and then I hear a loud bang, which is the kevlar bouncing off a rock. Personally I’d also put them on right away as royalex disappears real quick in the proverbial “rock gardens”. Esquif makes a beautiful canoe, enjoy it.
because she’ll only be a virgin once
Why not take the opportunity to know her that way?
My kevlar plates
were a golden brown before hitting a few new rivers. Now they’re kind of white. Guess the golden brown must have been a virginal color. And actually, my older canoe( the dagger) doesn’t have plates, and I can’t remember if the ends were worn down. Now I can’t tell due to the multiple layers of old town paint, later to be followed by polyurethane, over the bottom half of the canoe.
I just put the Wenonah Plates
– Last Updated: Jun-13-06 9:55 PM EST –
on my Dagger Legend. I have seen a lot of brand new royalex boats with the outer skin worn off in a matter of months. At $65 they are currently the least expensive out there and definitely cheap insurance. Mad River is now selling their kit with epoxy that also works on poly boats for $105. I picked mine up on-line from Oak Creek Canoes. They carry them for Fiberglass, Royalex, and Poly boats. They claim the Poly kit even works on Colemans. Of course at $100 bucks it would cost more than the coleman was worth
I have a 9 year old MR Synergy that
STILL doesn’t need skid plates. Has been paddled on whitewater all over the US. What is it you guys are doing to your ABS boats? Part of water reading is knowing where the rocks are, and how to avoid them.
And when I do need skid plates, I am going to make them out of S-glass cloth, not crappy Kevlar felt. A little more time and effort, for a far better result.
g2d
– Last Updated: Jun-14-06 8:34 PM EST –
sometimes the rivers are real shallow around here and everything is rocks rocks rocks, When the rivers flooded I don't even see a rock, when it's low you sometimes have to get out and walk. Also the Shepaug(one of my local rivers) is an indian word for "rock", so that kind of sums it up. It's not reading the river incorrectly, it's not having any water or on occasion missing something or being forced to take the lesser of 2 evils. No scratches after 9 years"you ain't from around here are yeeew?"
Hey Drummer
ANOTHER BOAT??? Hehehehe…
Congrads!
I agree with some of the others who have suggested that you might want to wait until after you wear through the outer vinyl layer before you put scuff pads your new boat. I’d also agree with g2d that if & when you need scuff pads making them out of layers of fiberglass would make a nicer job – that would allow you to “feather” the edges which would in turn have the potential to run more quietly. The thick Kevlar felt pads are a quick and easy approach that many canoe liveries take for their beat up rental boats, but they make a nasty gurgling sound as you paddle along. At least I’ve never been around Kevlar scuff pads that ran silently. Though I’ve noticed they’re fairly quiet when at rest… ;^)
Just my 2 cents… Randall
feathering edges on kevlar skid pads
I put kevlar felt pads on my dagger legend about 10 years ago. One of guys at the Jersey Paddler advised me on a way to smooth out the edges. You use a “L” shaped tool that looks like a mini paint roller except the roller portion is about 3 inches long, round as a fat ball point pen and slotted on the outside like the threads on a large bolt. I got one at a paint supply store. I soaked the pads in the resin, layed them in place and using the tool, started working the excess resin from the middle to the sides and ends of the pad. I was able to get a lot of resin out of the pad and the edges smoothed out nicely. At first, I was concerned because most of the skid plates I’d seen looked as if they were just soaked and layed in place; still maintaining much of their original thickness. I feared mine, which had thinned out a lot, would not be as strong. Well, 10 years and hundreds of rocky whitewater rivers later, they’re still intact…and I’ve rammed some rocks head-on with considerable speed. Some of my friends who didn’t use this process have had to replace/repair theirs. My fears over the thinned out pads seems to have been misplaced.
Also, I waited until I’d scraped up the ends a bit to install the pads…was told it helps the pad bond to the hull better?
Well…
– Last Updated: Jun-14-06 2:45 PM EST –
Randall, you know, I had to get a boat to match that paddle I made. Really what hapened was I relised I could only get one boat on my car to bring home so I am in the proses of selling my 2 white water Kayaks (did I tell you I bought a play boat?) too made room for the canoe. I thought it was a great chance to get into a OC-1. I will send you some pictures of it when I can.
John
We should go paddling in Augest I will be back then.
Do you think that in Georgia we never
have a dry season?? We are having one now. I have been paddling, from time to time, in low water, scrapey, stern ledge busting conditions since 1974. I do not think you achieve much with Kevlar felt skid plate kits. They are better than nothing, but they are way over-rated. I find that I can go many seasons, including many dry seasons, without having to bother with repairs to the ends. And when I do need repairs, I do not use the mediocre Kevlar felt skid plate kits.
Thinning the felt is better, but have
you noticed that no one makes a high quality boat from felt, or chopper-gun laminate? Whether Kevlar, glass, or beaver fur, felt is an inferior material for composite reinforcement. Everything you achieved through intelligent thinning of felt can be achieved more effectively by using S-glass cloth. Kevlar cloth is also better than felt, but Kevlar fibers do not have the compression strength of S-glass, or even E-glass.
Kevlar felt skid plates are a convenience product, but they are quite inferior to skid plates made from properly selected and applied woven cloth layers.
John,
Looking forward to seeing you in August. The family and I will be trippin’ in Algonquin the end of July/first week of August. Sure, let’s get together and paddle some of our creeks when we all rendezvous back in SEO. You can show me some new maneuvers I’ll bet! ;^)
BTW, Rader is up in Wabakimi Provincial Park (beyond Thunder Bay) for the next week or so – fishin’ ‘n grinnin’ in his new Bell Northwind.
How’s come everybody’s getting new boats but me??? Whaaaaaaaaa…… :^(
Randall
g2d
Sounds like good advice. I’ll be asking you for some pointers for applying s-glass skid plates on my synergy and rendezvous…but so far I haven’t torn them up much…might be awhile. By the way, the measurements you gave me for installing the seat on my synergy worked out well. What a great boat for running loaded in whitewater and beating my tandem partners to the next drop. Thanks again for the help and advice.
Where do you get the S cloth?
Is it the cloth you can buy for auto repair? Do you just use regular epoxy? I’ll be needing to put something on my Explorer.