repairing dinghy

[WALSHIE]

My dingy came apart at the seams from the floor to the tubes. I'm pretty sure its PVC.

Looking online, many say don't bother to try and fix yourself...hmm...what do you say at boatered?

I haardly use it, maybe one two week trip a year and that's it. Perhaps I should replace it? It's a Mercury 270, can't recall the age but it's at least 10 years old, maybe 15.

 

[Cam]

If it were me I would chuck it. Would not want it to fail at an inopportune time. Besides, those things are glued and heat sealed. Pretty hard to do without the right tool.

 

[vic33004]

quote:

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Originally posted by WALSHIE

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depends if it is PVC or Hypalon. PVC is not expensive and unlikely worth any real effort to repair. Hypalon is fairly expensive and can generally be effectively repaired. check the model/serial # to be sure.

 

[HOGAN]

It's most likely PVC and not worth repairing. If you only need one a couple of times a year, you can have my old Achilles which is Hypalon.

 

[PascalG]

I had the same thing happen to a small west marine by zodiac... Tried a number of things to glue it back together, none worked. It started near th transom after just 5 years and eventually most of the floor seams failed.

 

[smitty477]

"It started near th transom after just 5 years and eventually most of the floor seams failed."

I have never seen this type of failure so early but FWIW West Marine as well as Defender and a few others have a 5 year warranty on any tube related failures. On the inflatable forums I have heard that they also will 'honor' those warranties past the 5 years in many specific circumstances -

Hope this helps

 

[bkair]

I had the floor separate from the tubes on a 10 year old west marine zodiac that looked like new. Called both zodiac and west marine. West marine offered me $400.00 towards replacement boat and zodiac offered me $600.00. In the end with the credits it cost me 400.00 for a brand new boat.
P.s. They don't glue the floor in with the same process as they did 10 years ago

 

[WALSHIE]

Thanks folks, in the trash it goes...the wooden floor is also in need of repair.

Thanks for the offer HOGAN, I'll keep that in mind.