OEM Trampoline Repairs

So I've got a tear near a grommet at the aft end of my trampoline, and I'm curious what others have done to either repair or abate the problem. I know Hobie has more or less given up on colored vinyl tramps, offering only the ugly white tramps or the awful (for an 18) mesh tramps, so I'd like to try and salvage my existing trampoline if possible.



My local dealer mentioned that the only repair he could do would be expensive, ugly, and probably wouldn't last very long - removing the grommets, patching the entire aft end of the tramp and re-installing grommets. The only alternative I can think of is to re-lace the tramp to skip the grommet next to the tear and potentially "drill stop" the tear. Unfortunately, I think trailer launching and repeated mast stepping is what lead to the tear, so it's likely to happen again.

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Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238

Only fixes I see is like the guy said. Remove the grommet, put some sort of patch material over the area, see it in and put the gromett back.

Or install a gromet a few inches to the side of that one so the lacing pulls on the good material. The side as in to the right in the photo

Reinforce the tear using 1" wide nylon webbing and a couple bar tacks or zig zag stitches. It can be hand sewn in a couple minutes with the tramp in place. You will want to relax the tramp lacing so you can put some pre-load on the webbing. I've done his numerous times with good results.



sm

a sail loft or leather shop could fix this. reinforce the area from underneath. do an area big enough to cover neighboring grommets. problem with these is, the old tramps get "brittle". so, you need the reinforcement material to be very sturdy. something that will not "move and flow" in the stitch. if material is not as sturdy as tramp, it will just "flow" and allow stress back onto tramp material. stitching in a patch 10" long by 6" deep into tramp should work with some cross stitching. new grommets.

If this happened while you were sailing it then the tramp has probably seen the near end of it's life. I have done repairs on these with 1" webbing and replaced multiple grommets only to see it fail somewhere else. Putting on and off tramps is one of my least favorite things to do. Repair at you own peril. it will fail again....and sooner than you want.

If you ripped it while you were putting it on and you just pulled it out with your brute strength, then I would try and repair.

Just a humble opinion.

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H18 '85
H18 '89 "Knotty Passion"
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision"
Fleet 259 Central Coast California

Thanks srm, that's exactly the kind of solution I was looking for! I have to pull out my "backup tramp" and look it over, I may put that one on if it's in decent shape, but I certainly don't want to scrap this one over a 2" tear near the grommet if I can salvage it!



There was just a very slight start of a tear at this grommet last year, and sailed all season without getting noticeably worse. Admittedly I should've done something about it sooner, but I didn't really know what I could do. I think stepping the mast is the real killer, and I hate "point loading" my trampoline with my feet when stepping it, but it's the easiest & quickest way to get the mast up. The tear may even have started from an uneven/over tightened tramp lace, I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I just want to prolong the life of my trampoline as much as I can, as I've heard that Hobie trampolines are irreplaceable in terms of build quality/longevity, but I'm really not enthused by the idea of a white tramp or a mesh tramp on a white H18.