Internal liquid seal

bowfront26 · 31 May 2018, 21:17

So after having my RIB shop inspect my boat they found a lot more porous (tiny leaks) than what I had found. I'm guessing they inflated to proper pressure and when I did it I had a much lower pressure and only found very few leaks. Anyways, they are recommending a "casting" treatment and said that this has very good results. In the scenario (very tiny, pin hole porous leaks due to age of hypalon) would this be a wise investment?

Unfortunately I have a lot of money tied up in the new engine (that will be mounted once the boat is repaired). ALso, retubing is out of the question as it is unreasonably over priced ($15k or something ridiculous).

Boat is ~1989 i believe, 5.4M Avon Searider.

Roflhat · 01 June 2018, 07:40

You could try liquid latex, I've used it before with good results. You get proper RIB stuff but it's the same liquid, just 5 times the price. Something like this - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Litre-L...oAAOSwHhRZlcnJ

Around 500ml-1 litre in each tube section, poured in through the valve and then roll the boat over a few times to get an even coating all over the inside of the tube

Bigtalljv · 02 June 2018, 20:20

I used liquid sealant from one of the boat stores in my 7m zodiac tubes. It’s sold specifically for that. It worked very well. It did gum the valves up badly. I ended up replacing all the valves due to that and they were 25 years old.

I looked around and can’t find what I bought. Perhaps the Inland brand drone defender. I thinks it all the same. I said it looked like my tubeless tire sealant back when I did the boat.

Something is wrong with you return quite. I paid less that that for 7m tubes. Maybe you takes to zodiac. Call Wing up in Northern California.

bowfront26 · 09 June 2018, 16:41

Thanks everyone. Part of their process is to remove the valves after treatment of the latex (rotating the boat with a fork lift for 5 days) and clean them. I’ll report back on how it turns out.