How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

[saaber1]

I just bought a used achilles 10 foot inflatable (LS5). It has a soft bottom with an inflatable bladder down the middle. It has plywood boards that sit on top of that.

I got some water in the bottom on first time using it and it must be from the floor. What is the best way to seal the floor? Should I just put a bit of silicone on every little nick and scratch on the underside? Seems cheapest way to do it.? Material is Hypalon.

Thanks for any help. Just starting to learn about these boats.

P.S. a complicating factor is the bottom flexed a lot when running with an outboard. The floor should have side stringers to help hold the plywood panels firm (I realized that after researching it and I ordered them). So the bottom may have had more pressure than designed for which may have pushed more water through marginally leaky nicks in the bottom.

 

[Sea Rider]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

Bottom fabric is one of the first parts to get unglued after some years, usually 5, if you want a perfect seal, take sib to a sib repair facility and have all floor reglued by people that knows their bussiness and uses 2 part glues, silicone is just a momentum fix.

Happy Boating

 

[saaber1]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

hmm... I wonder what something like that would cost? $100, $400?

 

[Sea Rider]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

hmm... I wonder what something like that would cost? $100, $400?

Before buying blindly any pvc or hypalon inflatable you should inspect very meticously every major part, that is transom, seams, bottom fabric, dring patches to see if need regluing, if so, could ask the seller for a extra discount on the intended used boat price, unless you bought it as it is, where it is and full of unwanted surprises.

That hypalon sib should cost new around $ 1700, it would be worth to repair professionally the bottom fabric, it's a part that holds the most sea and passenger stress, regluing with any other one part glue will only last shortly, Ask for a quote and see.

Happy Boating

 

[saaber1]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

Update - I inspected the glued edges all the way around and they look like new. So I put dabs of silicone on any tiny nick and it seems to have worked judging by about a 1 hour test. There were a couple rubber patches on the bottom (kind of like bicycle tire patches rather than hypalon material) and I'm pretty sure those were the problem because they came off so easily.

Also I saw some "liguid latex" coating in the boat store (not the stuff you squirt into the tubes, it's more like paint). It looks like that stuff would work pretty well for pinhole leaks and nicks. But it was like $50 or so and the <$5 black silicone seems to do fine.

 

[CIVPAC6]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

Good to hear the silicone "seems to have worked" However BEWARE, use of silicone comes with a risk: The silicone will fail in time, when it does, there will be silicone residue which will be (nearly) impossible to remove and may ... (will) prevent any glue, even more silicone, from holding. (I destroyed a boat this way)

 

[saaber1]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

Good to hear the silicone "seems to have worked" However BEWARE, use of silicone comes with a risk: The silicone will fail in time, when it does, there will be silicone residue which will be (nearly) impossible to remove and may ... (will) prevent any glue, even more silicone, from holding. (I destroyed a boat this way)

That's a good point. Even silicone won't stick to itself! I had a beater jon boat that I sealed all the rivets on with silicone. It lasted for about 3 years of pretty serious abuse, then you had to remove the old silicone and reapply.

 

[saaber1]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

Update:

I bought some liquid rubber and treated the bottom. This stuff is pretty amazing. It leaves a thick layer of rubber wherever you put it. They say it almost doubles the thickness of the floor. That is probably pretty accurate based on my treatment. I also painted some onto the bottom of the tubes for rub protection.

I used 1 quart on a 10 foot boat bottom and probably put it on much thicker than recommended because I want rock protection. I thinned it with zxlol. I used a palm sander with 100 grit to rough things up and remove much of the previously applied silicone. I could see applying this every 3 years and builing up the bottom thicker and thicker over time. 1 quart cost $60 at west marine (relabelded inland marine product apparently).

http://www.inlandmarine.us/products/show/?id=liquidrubber

 

[costakyle]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

I've wondered about that. Has anyone else tried liquid rubber to build up the bottom hypalon?

 

[cpubud]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

I used that stuff on my last achilles inflatable worked great.

 

[LT Jones]

Re: How do I seal floor on 10 inflatable?

I'm thinking of coating the bottom of my older Achilles SD124 as further protection, it is getting on in age, like it's owner.

I'm planning on keep my boat so how does it wear with age? Is it durable especially, when you back pack the boat? Does it start to peel at the edges and then start to delaminate? When applying, do you mask the edges?

My first rule is "If it ain't broke don't fix it" However my second life rule is "Look after your gear and it will look after you"

Any further insight would be greatly appreciated.