Been awhile since I bought skid plates, but need to do a bit of royalex repair. The last time I bought from Mad River, but that was a loooong time ago, when MRC was in Vermont, and not part of a big conglomerate. I know Piragis sells them, but wondered if there was any other good, and possibly cheaper source out there that you’all have bought from? Thanks. WW
skid strips
I bought my last ones from Piragis, and their resin smells a LOT nicer than the odiferous stuff from Old Town, it’s a better color too, white instead of ugly brown. I’ve also ordered (through my local dealer) from voyageur-gear.com which is part of the Confluence conglomerate. You can also make your own from materials purchased at Sweetcomposites.com. Not sure if you’ll save a whole lot of money doing it that way for just one canoe, but it’s worth an email to find out. For more information on this board, try doing a search of the archives for skid plates. I know that Mike McCrea has posted here several times about his methods of installing to cut down on resin which cuts down on weight. I recently did a canoe with just 6 oz fiberglass strips and vinylester resin, and had good results, just not as heavy duty as the kevlar mat.
sweet composites
If you want to roll your own, you can get felt and expoy from Sweet:
http://sweetcomposites.com/Tips.html#skid
Thanks
Appreciate the imfo and the tips! WW