Ribs

Hi Guys,
I have a rib I am looking to see if I can repair. It was kept outside for about 5 years and now when inflated only stays inflated for about 2.5 hours. There are no apparent leaks. I was wondering if the rubber had become porus due to being kept outside...is there any treatment for this?

Cheers!

Get an empty washing up liquid bottle or similar and put a washing up liquid and water soloution into it. Blow up your rib and gently squirt the soap soloution all over the rib. Holes will appear as a mass of small bubbles. This will tell you if its individual holes of a porus rubber covering. It is possible to buy sheets of rubber from a rib manufacturer and reinforce your old covering but its a tricky job. You could also send the boat down to be professionally re-tubed, which is expensive, or get the rib makers to re-inforce the tubes for you by glueing on the sheet rubber mentioned above.

Hope this helps

Caz

Make sure when you check for holes in the tube chamber that you find all the holes the first time and mark them, as you can end up with a load of small patches.

Super post Caz......

Kev

Cheers Caz!