Patching Polyurethane Raft Bladders

[Zach Matthews]

So I always knew it was possible for a raft to over-expand in the heat, and it finally happened to me. Luckily my raft must have had a void on the inside, because only the internal bladder blew out – the exterior heavy-dernier sleeve is still just fine.

My pontoon is a JW Outfitters Renegade and there are no more bladders available for it. SA threw away what little bit of JW Outfitters stuff they had left when Orvis took over. They probably didn’t have a bladder still anyway.

So I am looking at two options: (1) repair via a patch and (2) possibly locating a bladder that would fit (which I think unlikely given that these bladders are locked to their valves somehow).

Tim Pommer was nice enough to send me a section of the original bladder material to serve as a patch. I basically have a 3 inch by 3 inch blister with a rip down the middle. My idea is to get everything laid out on a nice flat floor, then roll up a piece of patch material and work it inside the tear. I’ll then unroll and position it, and inject glue in a circle around the inside of the tear so as to make an interior patch.

Question one: anyone ever done this before?

Question two: recommendations on polyurethane glues? Cost isn’t that big a factor since this is basically worth a whole boat to me.

Question three: any better ideas? I could patch on the outside but I feel an internal patch has a better chance. I’ve also thought about a double-patch, inside and outside in the same configuration for redundancy.

Question four: since the blister expanded the polyurethane, would you cut it away, thus making a larger but flatter hole, or would you leave the blistered material in place?

Thanks for any and all suggestions. I’ll try to document this so if it works we can add it to the How to Repair a Pontoon Boat article (which hilariously was the first or second hit when I went to try to figure out how to fix this via Google search).

Zach

[john lea]

If I understand correctly, I think I would cut off the ripples so that you have a flat edge to deal with. If you have enough material I would do inside and out. I would be concerned that glue did not ooze out and cement the top of the bladder to the bottom on the inner patch.

I am looking forward to the write up although I have no idea what the bladder material on mine is.

[Zach Matthews]

Thanks John, I appreciate the thoughts.

Zach

[Stuart Weniger]

Zach
Keep us posted on your progress. I have the same boat and have been babying it for the last several years fearing it is going to wear out. This has been the best pontoon that I have fished from even after trying several others over the years. I wish that I had purchased two of them at the time just for a spare.

Good luck.
Stuart

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