Our family has a Wilderness Systems Freedom. Is there any way to make the hatches more watertight or to replace them with Valley hatches? If not, I’m thinking about using air bags in the storage compartments on long trips. Thanks for any help.
Yes. WS says to press down in the
middle to get a better fit. Mine still leaked.I got some thin marine weather stripping at Home Depot and put it around the edge of the hatch. That solved the problem.If you don’t need to use it, glue the cover on with some Marine Goop.
It was definately a poorly designed hatch.
same problem with WS Tempest Pro
that a friend of mine has.
The hatches leak bad and nothing he can do to fix the problem.
I was considering getting a Tempest Pro 180 myself but after his experience I got instead Impex kayaks that use Valley hatches (the most waterproof in the biz)
Apparently the new hatches on Wilderness System are better.
Gnarlydog