tube repair. up or down?

[tue]

My tubes are leaking from behind the rubbing strake on my RIB. So the plan is to remove the strake, patch the holes and then replace the strake. But I do not know whether the tubes should be inflated or not when refitting it. Currently it is about 1/2 inch short where it has peeled back on the stern, but do not know if this is due to shrinkage or the fact the tube is inflated and when flat it will fit and then strech when reinflated.

Any ideas.

[Cookee]

No ideas at all - but if you give up you're not far from a man that can sort it for you - call Paul Tilley on 01803 833309 - he's very good!

[Bilge Rat]

Hi Tue

I made some routine repairs to my tubes at the weekend and was supprised how good the glue was, they were only small repairs to tube seam tapes and the corners of two rubbing strakes at the stern, i glue them down following the instructions with the tubes almost fully inflated and held the glued bits down with masking tape until they had adhered fully, this seems to have worked well, not sure if this is the correct way to do it and when i did the seam tapes i did deflate the sections and put direct pressure on top of the re glued seams. Thinking the strakes would not take i didn't pay much attention to them as my primary objective was the lose seam tapes and the strakes were a kind of afterthought to use up the remaining glue mix, but they have taken very well.

may be worth talking to Ed at Olmec tubing as he's more of an expert in this field.

Richard

[jwalker]

Apply the strake after the tube is inflated to normal pressure. If you need to peel back a glued area, use a hot air gun carefully.

[Cookee]

May be worth asking Ed who he used to work for then!