Bullet-Proof Canoe Underbelly Coating

[Alaskacanoe]

one more time

This spray on two part bed liner coating like the name brand ( Rhino Hide ) will adhere and stay put on canoes, not only on fiberglass material, but on Royalex, and Polyethyene.
My rental boats probably get way more use than any personel canoe, and I have yet to have any problems.
We made sure that we prep the canoe bottom area that is getting coated by sanding and also wiping down with MEK. This has worked on all surfaces,, no matter the flexing or difference in temperature, this stuff so far does not come off..
I will again this spring be having about 12 canoes done with the keel protection, A few of you have asked if they could have there boats done at the same time, as the fellow that sprays it needs to make it worth his time to set up the machine and the price goes down the more boats sprayed due to the time it takes to set up, clean up and take down..
let me know if you want in,,
will be doing it in early to mid May..

cost last year was about $140 per boat,,

Max

[mainer_in_ak]

When I coated the floor pieces of my ice house I didnt heat up nothing and It's adhered well. There is a place that sells the Duraback stuff on the old seward. I cant remember the name of the place but you can get it in AK. I have a cheap compressor and gun, heck you could even roll the stuff on if your prep work was clean. Polyethlene is a flexible material and has alot of give.

[jklingel]

Dig deep, pls

Maine: Pls dig deep into your memory banks, as I would like to try this Durabak. Two big reasons I like it over the spray-on are: I can touch it up as needed, and it will cost way less than the spray-on. Dura is haz mat, so if someone in AK has it, that beats the crap out of Seattle. I have no idea if it will be as good as the spray-on, however, and neither does Durabak. They just have no experience putting it on the outside of a canoe. I've got some sample chips coming from Dura, and will contact them for their AK dealer. If you think of the place in Anch, let us know if you will. I can get to Anch easy enough. Thanks. j

[jklingel]

current info

Auto Trim, Frb, can spray my canoe, but the guy I talked w/ said, when I asked how to get it off if it fails, that if I could get an edge up I could peel the whole sheet off. Hmm. Interesting. I guess, then, that it does not adhere real well, at least on a truck. He also said that the water-based stuff CAN NOT be removed (they use petrol based), and when people who have water-based in their trucks come in and want to replace it w/ their petrol product, he can't help them because the water-based won't come off. Now I am really confused. I got a couple of chips of the Durabak, sprayed onto a thin aluminum sheet. I can't scrape it much w/ a knife, and I have wrinkled the heck out of the alum sheet and can't get the Dura to pop. Not a great test, but it does not appear to be junk, at least. Their smooth stuff is like paint; thin, and can't be coated too many times. The textured stuff is about 1/32" thick, and can be layered to any thickness. Buy special rollers from them to apply it, or spray. I have not heard back from Rhino Hide, but one gent there advised me to look at two of their products on their web site, and said one has been used on canoes successfully, but w/ minimal abuse. I emailed back and will try to get chips of their stuff, and more details. In the meantime, I am going to put a Kevlar keel guard on my keel, because they apparently have a good track record (they work). Any experience w/ them? I figured that is any gunk I put on goes belly up, at least the most abused part will be protected. Wish I knew more. j

[Lowrider]

Hi Folks,

1st post here. We lived in Homer back in the late '80's but had to move outside because of work...moving to ID when wife retires in 18 months. Anyway, I have a 17' Grumman square butt and I'm doing a rehab on it this winter. I found this old post about Durabak and wanted to know how things have worked out for you folks who used the product on the bottom of your freighter. Did you use the smooth or the textured finish and how well did it hold up for those of you who used it? It looks like a good way to go, but I would like to hear from some of you who put it to the test.

Thanks and this is a very informative site!!

Joe

[jklingel]

not herc

joe; there is another post on here somewhere that discusses using various materials on the bottom of fiberglass canoes; perhaps one of the scott freighter threads. i tried herculiner on a fiberglass freighter, and it is worthless. way too much drag, and it is just not tough enough. never tried durabak and never put anything on an alum canoe. rhino makes a product called "hardline", used on machinery. it looks like your best bet, but a boat shop here tried something like it and it "stuck to rocks like glue".... going 40 mph. if you ever try durabak, let us know how it goes. john

[Sid]

what I did was put Alum. channel on the bottom of my 19 FT sq. end it helped a lot at least it made me feel better trying to post a photo here

[Rick]

Sid ...
You posted pics of your 19'er with your alum. channel mod on this forum several years ago. Bet we can find them in the archives.
Rick.

[Sid]

For got will stop getting old

[Lowrider]

I'll give this a little more time and see if anyone responds that has used Durabak or the Rhino Liner Hardline.

I took a look at the Rhino Liner web site and that seems to be a great product too....if you can believe their site. I would bet since that has been around for a number of years and the company has matured, their products are well tested before they go into the field. I have friend who is former Seal and he said they used Rhino Liner on some of their aluminum boats to help kill the sound and he can't remember it ever pealing off. I guess I can trust his comment, but then after a few beers he will say most anything.

[needcoffee]

Alaskacanoe runs a canoe rental business and so sees a lot of wear on his boats. He mentioned in a previous thread that he has used the 2 part spray on bed liner as keel protection and that it works well. My experience with bed liner on trucks has shown me that to be the case as well. The DIY kits that you spray or roll on that are a 1 part system last a year or two and then start to wear through and flake off with sustained use. Loading firewood, gravel, etc... The 2 part system that is applied hot by the fellows at a body shop (where the dealerships get theirs done) lasts. I am just about finished redoing the gel coat on my kevlar boat and am going to see what it will take to get my keel done that way.

[LuJon]

Sid ...
You posted pics of your 19'er with your alum. channel mod on this forum several years ago. Bet we can find them in the archives.
Rick.

[tboehm]

Sid, would you please reshare the who, what's how's etc of your project?

[Sid]

#1 what ever yoy put on the bottom of a canoe will slow you down compaired to what it did befor the mod.
they spend a lot of time trying to make it cut the water with as little drag as possible,

#2 as I was running shallow water streams an the rocks were the same color as the water an the skin of the canoe was thin, I desided to put runners on the bottom of my Grummen canoe [SQ BACK] what I did was get channel Al. an bolt it on, if you are real carfull you can line the channel so it is stright an true with the keel , also make sure that when you drill the bolt holes in the canoe you don,t drill out the rivets [no 2 canoes have the rivets in the same place ] some times you use the leading edge of the ribe an some times the trailing edge , an as you can see the back end of the canoe don't have any channel because of the seat an no ribs there tried to glue with RTV did not stay,

#3 all bolts where sealed with RTV sealent an all channel was sealed to the canoe so dirt / sand / small rocks can't get there
,
#4 the bolts used were short fine thread with conter sink head with a self loching nut tried to use washers but would not fit on all the bolts,
ribs in the way

sorry about the spelling not one of my strong points

[Sid]

PS
as when I was running my 19 FT with a 15 HP 2 cycle I never held the HP in the rivers / streams. the bends in the stream came up fast , I needed all the help I could get that is why I did it ,
there is /was, about 12 canoes in or around Alaska that I have put the runners on,

the coating that is sprayed on is good but it realy slowes the canoes down a lot [with motor who cares]

what ever you put on will reach out a grab the rocks an try an hold you there I hope this helps

lets face it nothing slips on the rocks but us, when we are wadeing a stream

PM me if you need more info

SID