Seeping Zodiac

[Jack Long]

I also have a bit of seepage. With the motor on the rear sits a bit low- in 24 hours I get about 2.5 inches of water or so in the back- everything forward of about halfway is still dry... I imagine this is something I can fix with some sealant or something- but how do you find the seep point? I was thinking of trying to suspend the dinghy between a couple sawhorses or something and then pouring water in to see where it comes out...

Any other ideas?

[theonecalledtom]

I've spent the last few weekends patching up Patches, our cheap and nasty but improving used zodiac. Each weekend I've dropped her in the water and then jumped in to get some pressure on and the next most obvious leak has presented itself fairly readily. Using this approach we've gone from 2.5 inches in about um, five minutes to overnight and this weekend I'm hoping that last weekend's work gets us to the 24 hour mark.

Sliding a butter knife along the seams was a pretty instructive experience.

Not yet sure though if the tube of glue is going to run out before we have a dry boat

[Minggat]

First you need to understand that the glue joints in all inflatables will go bad with time (Read, turns grainy).Secondly, running them underinflated is bad bad (that's not a typo). So if you have been doing that, I'd expect the lamination of the transom to the pontoons is the leaky spot.
The weight and hp of the motor is fine. Don't beef up the transom. it's the transom to chamber glue point that is weak. The transom or floor is probably coming loose and letting water in. If the glue is letting go, there isn't much life left in the boat. Seal it up and enjoy it. But pump it up. You'll be much happier.

And any real glue work you want to do must be done with the proper glue. If your boat is PVC, use PVC glue. If it's hypalon, Perpare to $pend more on the glue to do it right.

One of the many inflatable boats I have bought and sold was an Achilles that was in brand new condition, except that it had been stored for years uninflated. Glued seams letting go. Wasn't worth fixing.

[Jack Long]

Total underinflated run-time (under my ownership) is only an hour or so and its not soft- just not basketball hard. So I don't think I've torched any glue. However, you can never tell what the old owners did.

Mingat do you have an opinion on the rolling?

Tom, I might try that butter knife trick. Although it may be a week or so before I gnaw off enough other priorities that "seeping dinghy" warrants time!

How much more expensive is the glue for hyphalon?

[Minggat]

If by "rolling" you mean the waves of the floor that you mentioned before, The only other time I've seen anything like that was with a friends airfloor dink. It was enough to tell me I didn't want an airfloor.

These boats should be good and stiff. They get up on plane all the time, with divers and their heavy gear. Do you have the stiffener/connector pieces that fit under the tubes and slide over the wood panels? These (2) would each be long enough to slip onto all 3 floor panels at their outside edge.

An inflatable wood floor boat is not my favorite thing to put up and down. That's one reason why airfloors are so popular. I can imagne a PO getting mad and "thinking, who needs these things?"

Ask me what I have.

[Minggat]

Sorry I didn't answer your question about hypalon glue price.

If I remember correctly, it's about double. Again, go to a liferaft repacking shop, or a local inflatable dealer. Pick their brains and they'll give you a better package deal. You'll learn a lot (if they're good people willing to help). If your boat is hypalon (Zodiac used both PVC and hypalon back in the 90's I think), and you have used PVC glue, ya gotta take it off and redo. Hypalon glue is 2 part and takes more practice to make it pretty. You will need some tolulene* (spelling not gaurenteed) to clean the needed repair spots with.

I'll stop there and ask, where are you? If you're in my old haunt, (LA Harbor area) I can recommend good folks that wil help you keep the price down. I'm in Saudi Arabia, until I die or next month, whichever come first.

* Toluene is also known as methylbenzene or phenylmethane

[Minggat]

One more thought. I have heard some people use "Shoe Goo" or the other Goo products out there to keep a dying inflatable going. Cheap and easy and maybe justifiable, depending on the boat and owner. But not for a boat you expect to get some more life out of.

[svHyLyte]

THis may help http://www.allinflatables.com/shoppi...ler/index.html

Good Luck!

s/v HyLyte

[Minggat]

It won't do much for water seeping in. And I would class this along with the Shoe Goo "Band Aid". Might get more life out of an inflatable on it's way out.