Brians Kayak Maintenance

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vicyak
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Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by vicyak »

I want to do a few things on my kayak in September and want some advice;

1 - I have 3 tyres. 1 has a decent hole and one minor. I'm thinking about filling both tyres (Sand tyres for PA 14) with Foam Filler. As long as I get an even fill I don't see an issue.
I saw a tip on youtube to use soldering iron to melt the rubber and seal instead of doing this however that didn't work. The hole was just to large.

2 - Connection for the power going into the lowrance fish finder has got rusty and now will not connect to the fish finder. Solutions? I know I should have prevented in the first place.

3 - I'm going to make some rod holders and a storage box. I bought joiners and PVC pipe at 50mm. I haven''t used them yet however I'm starting to think 50mm is too large?

4 - Anyone make a clip or something to tie down vertical rods so they don't come out of the yak if the yak does turn?
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shane
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Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by shane »

1. I've done this before. Hard to get the foam to fill all the way around and breaks down over time. But OK for a quick fix.
2. Search online for vinegar and salt corrosion removal techniques. A combination of this and mechanical scrubbing with steel wool should get the male plugs working again. In future give a spray with inox after each use or go with carbon grease.
3. Rod holders should be in 40mm PVC, you should return the 50mm.
4. There's a couple of methods. Cut an inverted 'L' shape slot in the holder top so the reel stem slides down the long part of the L then rotates around with gravity to lock into the short pat of the L. The other method is to flare the ends of the holders, cut a vertical slot for the reel stem, then cut short rings of the PVC tube, cut so they can open up, flare the ends then insert these as locking rings that can be rotated to lock the reel stem into the slot against the flared end. Maverick has a post on here about making them.
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vicyak
Lord of the fish
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Joined: 17 Mar 2015, 16:24
kayak: Hobie PA 14
Real Name: Brian
Location: Coburg

Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by vicyak »

thanks. Shane. I now have the inox. I will scrub the terminals and hope this fixes it.
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4liters
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Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by 4liters »

I cleaned out a corroded female terminal with a pipe cleaner from a craft shop recently, seemed to work well. Now I just need to keep up the dielectric grease so it doesn't happen again.

Would it be OK to spray inox/lanox on it as well or could that affect the conductivity?
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shane
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Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by shane »

4liters wrote:I cleaned out a corroded female terminal with a pipe cleaner from a craft shop recently, seemed to work well. Now I just need to keep up the dielectric grease so it doesn't happen again.

Would it be OK to spray inox/lanox on it as well or could that affect the conductivity?
I'd be doing one or the other and monitoring over time. Be careful with the grease as it can build up in the female sockets over time and I've heard of them failing because of this.

The other key point is to never store your power cable with the battery connected. The charge across the terminals will set off a redox reaction that greatly accelerates corrosion. With my setup I keep the power plug connected to the sounder at all times and remove it from the yak with the sounder after disconnecting the batteries. Even with a battery and wiring in the hull you can still put a waterproof connector in the power line to enable it to be removed. Never undoing the power terminal at the sounder (after first using dialectric or carbon grease) is the best way I know to keep corrosion at bay.
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4liters
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Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by 4liters »

thanks! I take the battery out of the yak when I'm not using it. Unfortunately I have to remove the sounder as well though which probably gives an opportunity for the connections to corrode a little
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vicyak
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Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by vicyak »

thanks Shane. My battery is mounted in waterproof container in the hull with a switch. Problem I think is I went out a few times with the power still on without the fish finder. This is when the corrosion hit the terminals. Makes sense.

Lesson learned.
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shane
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Re: Brians Kayak Maintenance

Post by shane »

That's why I prefer to cut the power cable when new and installed a waterproof connector between the sounder and battery. You need to protect that power cable as it can often be cheaper buying a new sounder than a replacement cable (I've done that before with a Garmin 300/150C).

Also give the terminals a go first with the acid mix then a basic to stabilise. The method in this link works OK:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... n-minutes/
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