Vinyl inflatable boat reapir

[kenimes]

Tore a 11" gash in the bottom of the inflatable couple nights ago. She still floats, but 6-8" of water in the bottom of the boat sucks.

Looking for someone with a large enough vinyl scrap, and possibly the glue to repair?

Seems a bit costly at the Ballard inflatable store.

Thanks!

[kenimes]

Disregard- got her patched up and back on the water.

Cheers!

[rockjiggr]

Go to a foam and fabric supply store, one that sells upholstery supplies. Get a can of HH66 vinyl cement. You can likely buy a scrap piece of vinyl fabric in the same store. The cement works great when you follow the instructions, especially if you heat up the vinyl before applying and use a rolling pin to roll it out flat where the patch overlaps the fabric that needs repair. Let it dry over night and good as new.

There is also a very handy product call Tear-Aid that comes in strips of about 3"-12" long that has adhesive on it and a peel off backing. This works great in an emergency to do a field repair. If you cant find this at the fabric store, look it up online.

I used to be the Operations Manager for Party Outfitters, the interactive game company that provides inflatable slides, bounce houses, and other inflatable vinyl games and rides. For us, being able to do field repairs was a must and the Tear-Aid was provided to our staff on every event. The HH66 is the stuff we used for permanent repairs in the shop.

Hope that helps.

[natetreat]

That's great to know! I've been using duct tape and the patch kits that came with my boat. Which is lame when you need a bigger patch or you run out. I'm going to have to get some of that stuff.

[yooper_fisher]

That's great to know! I've been using duct tape and the patch kits that came with my boat. Which is lame when you need a bigger patch or you run out. I'm going to have to get some of that stuff.

Agreed with Nate!!! Duct tape just doesn't cut it for me and I'm worried I'm going to run out of patch material soon.

[kenimes]

Cool, and thank you for the advise!

Ended up going to Home Depot, and got a pond liner vinyl repair kit that can be cut to size, and it worked great. Also got a roll of waterproof duct tape like stuff. So, on the bottom went the patch, and a strip of the tape on top. Worked like a champ.

Once on the water, found a small hole in one of the pontoons. Time to patch it. Grrr

[TskSeattle]

I recently tore a inch and a half tear in my Sevylor FH-360, which was right next to the left motor mount (ouch)

My repair procedure was to get the Sevylor Vinyl Sealant (a small bottle from their website for $5) and a piece of the hull fabric that came with the boat. I first used the cement to just seal the edges back together, which the instructions say that with several coats is enough for a small tear, but being as how part of the tear was tangent to the embossment of the motor mount I wanted to make sure I had enough strength to carry the load of a trolling motor, so I added a 2.5x3/4 inch piece of fabric glued over with several coats of cement built up around the edge to bond it down.

I documented my patch job on my facebook page:
http://tinyurl.com/82hol44