So here’s the scoop on Wilderness Systems new kayak material “duralite,” a new kind of plastic.
According to their catalog, lighter and cheaper than kevlar, as durable as plastic. Take your plastic boat, make it out of duralite, and its going to be 20% lighter and only a few hundred dollars more.
Wow, that’s amazing, if this stuff really does live up to the promise. Does anyone have experience with Duralite kayaks? It would stink to buy a duralite boat, only to find out later on that it doesn’t live up to the hype. Thanks!
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Do a search. Duralite is a well discussed topic, and most that know anything about it, know its overly flexy garbage, i think some boats came out more f*cked than others with poor thickness control at the factory resulting in paper thin spots. bad, stay away. better off spend the money on a thermoformed ABS boat(airalite/carbonlite)
duralite is bad, then?
thanks for the insite. one reason its lighter is cause its thinner? didin’t think to check that.
I have two Eddyline
carbonlite boats, and don’t have any of the problems of complaints that people seem to have about duralite.
duralite
everything i’ve read on here about duralite has been someone told me, or i heard they weren’t any good, so i bought 2 of them last week, 140, 145, that way i can find out first hand, they paddle much easier than the poly one, we have had a lot of wilderness-systems kayaks the last 5 yrs. and i don’t feel like they would continue making them if they were as bad as people claim.
those were tsunamis, rufus?
just don’t store them in the sun
you might find them relaxing against any point pressure and deforming the plastic. No free lunch, if you make polyethelene thinner it’s more easily deformed under heat,no matter what kind of name it goes under.
Unfortunate name they picked, Duralite.
Duralite layup has been used by three Canadian canoe companies for years. It is a very good layup and quite resilient!
The three Canadian canoe company’s Duralite is a composite layup of epoxy resin and cloth. Does not sound like the Duralite you are talking about at all. Yours sounds more like the European plastics that have been making inroads into the U.S. market the last few years.
I have the Canadian Duralite and would gladly have more. I do not want anything to do with the plastic duralite! I have had some discussions with dealers, manufacturer’s reps, and a chemist in the business … think I’ll pass, at lease for now.
It is very unfortunate they used the same name, very, very confusing!!!
:^)
Mick
Reasons for lightness…
– Last Updated: May-31-06 9:45 PM EST –
One reason is that it's thinner, sure.
I, for one, am convinced that they also removed some UV inhibitors from the plastic to make them lighter. I can't say it's a fact, but they had to remove something to reduce weight, and the duralite boats we sell come with a boat cover (and extra emphasis on sun protection in the owners manual).
Makes sense to me, but I don't know whether anybody else has heard about that.
Either way, I'd say that unless weight is a huge issue, forego both the duralite and the thermoformed ABS stuff and spend the money saved on better equipment.
(Also, comparing duralite to kevlar is just plain wrong.)
neither
it’s marketing.
seems like you shouldnt
paddle the stuff in the sun! forget the gimmick and get a composite boat and a quart of 303.