Im 5ft 10" and about 170lbs and the fit was pretty darn good,not too tight and not too loose.I liked the seat and there was even lower back support that my Mystic back band fails to do.One thing I noticed was the ridiculous way you have to put on the comp hatch covers.You have to adjust the buckle for a length that will have tension if you can get the snapbuckle closed. By pulling and struggling with just your fingers to get those snap closures closed is too hard.Why didnt they utilize a free end( like your pants belt) so you can snug down tension after you close the snap buckles.You know like the roof rack cam lock straps.Anyone care to enlighten me on this?
I don’t like the new hatch straps either
I prefer their older velcro version that you pull snug after fastening.
QCC told me that the current version of the hatches don’t need to be cranked down too tight because of the gasket design.
If they are the same that are on our
three QCC’s, I like them.
Once the strap is adjusted correctly it is just a matter of pushing the two parts of the buckle together.
I don’t believe I have ever had to change the tension on mine since the day I got it about five years ago.
cheers,
JackL
but what about my idea of snugging it
up after you close the snapbuckle by pulling on a free end? WQhy the heck didnt they set it up like that.It would be soooo much easier .Im going to call them and find out .
Regardless of their answer, …
…if you want it tighter, how about keeping something tied to the strap like a short section of wood dowel or pvc pipe? Just slip that under the strap after clicking the buckles together and it will be a lot tighter. I seriously doubt it’s necessary though.
The ones you looked at must be different
then ours.
There is no reason to snug them tighter when they are as tight as necessary to start with.
Their main purpose is to keep the hatch down.
Cheers,
JackL
I have had no problems
with mine either using the factory setting…you might have them too tight. those hatches seal up real nice without being forced down.
But its like a pants belt buckle that
– Last Updated: Dec-14-08 9:56 AM EST –
cant be adjusted to your waist! Doesnt anyone see my point! If there is seepage shouldnt you be able to snug it up a little bit more by just pulling on the free end of the webstrap rather than shorten the strap and struggle even harder to get both ends of that buckle to clip together?Our PFD straps work the right way,you clip it and then pull to snug it up. Oh well. Im not going to be putting sticks and things under them to snug it up,thats for sure.
As the others posted
Once you get the right tension for the buckles to snap together but are snug you won’t get water in the hatches. I have not had a problem with water coming in through the hatches of my 400x even after a day of rescue and rolling practice.
Like JackL mentioned, after you adjust it once you won’t be fidgeting with the straps much afterwards.
Glad the boat was a good fit for you. It’s a great little boat I enjoyed mine.
I just noticed that Swifts Comp Hatches
has that free end part of the strap so you could clip first and snug after! I will trust your judgement of the 400x hatch systems water tightness .It was in the 20s when I was trying to fidget closing the snapbuckles and it was hurting my fingers.When they wewre closed I could see that the hatch covers were still not flush with the deck but a bit higher .I pushed down a little on the cover and it compressed down even more so I was concerned.
There is actually a problem with
trying to snug up the straps by pulling on the free end. With most of the strap buckles you need to pull slighly down to tighten. Since the buckle is against the hatch it is hard to get the right angle. You end up lifting the buckle up as you try to tighten and end up with some slack when you let go.
I had an Sea Otter many years ago with just the system you are wanting. I tried the pull on end snugging for a while, but found that pre-setting the length and then pressing the buckles together actually yeilded a tighter fit.
Mark
You said it IS adjustable, but that…
…you can’t do it after the buckle is snapped. A friend of mine has adjustable buckles on her kayak hatch, and there IS a free end to pull and snug it up with. But you know what? You really can’t pull it any tighter than the setting that “just” allows you to snap the buckles together. Not all strap-buckle combinations allow that kind of one-way slippage once reasonably tight, and the ones on her kayak certainly don’t. I still recommend sticking something under the strap if a really tight strap makes you feel better. From a physics standpoint, that method makes more sence anyway. Trying to create a force at a right angle to the tension in a nearly-straight rope or strap is simply going about it the wrong way, and I bet if a strong downward-holding force were actually necessary, the maker would have addressed this.
OK, I guess I wont dwell on this anymore
I had to find something wrong-right! Actually I also saw non flush mounted fittings of the screws where the loops hold the bungy cords where as the perimeter lines had those nice Swedish recessed round deck fittings. My Mystic has all flush mounted fittings.
It is an interesting topic worth
discussing. The guys who build their own kit boats have come up with all kinds of different closure systems to pull the hatch covers down tighter.
I had a friend who started with a simple set of 2 nylon straps with buckles. It was not quite tight enough so he glued a ridge (half dowel) onto the center of the hatch cover so the straps pressed down on that. It was not a lot better. Finally he put 2 ridges on the hatch with about equal spacing between the 2 and from the hatch edge to either ridge. That worked very well. I guess it got the pressure better applied near the edge where the cover really needed to be sealed. I think lifting the buckle up off the hatch cover also allowed him to tighten the straps better by pulling the free end than when the strap was flat on the hatch. Most of the time he just clipped the buckles, but sometimes if things got out of adjustment he would buckle first and then pull on the free end.
Mark
Don’t buy the 400. It sucks, it is poor
quality, it will tip over, etc, etc.
Buy a better boat, like the 600, the 700, the 500 or the 10x.
And when the hatches leak as they will, it has nothing to do with the snap buckles.
cheers,
jackL
I get your point - but after 7 years…
… I’ve finally realized that, as QCC says, they really don’t need to be that tight. The straps aren’t controlling the seal so much as just keeping the cover in place.
I used to shorten them as much as I could and then fight hard to get them closed as you describe. Now I have them so they open and lose pretty easily and get no more water in than when I was fighting to close them.
May seem counterintuitive, but more tension won’t really get you a better seal with this setup. Being able to pull really snug may only serve to deform the deck and hatch opening and actually allow more leaks.
People also tend to way over crank the cam straps holding their kayaks on the rack (making it a good analogy for something other than you intended)…