mmiller wrote:
Thank you! We love to use the product too and always try to build it as best as possible.
Fyi... since 2009'ish some of what we have done:
Changed plastic suppliers
Come up with industry-unique testing on plastic fatigue. We test all of the materials and some after production to document (we require our suppliers to test cook batches of new materials).
Changed cooking methods
Added molded in brass reinforcements to the drive ledge
Changed the way the drives lock into the well (Now click and go)
Building these kinds of products is part science and part art.
By the way, @mmiller I saw this on one of the posts around here, and as an engineer in the rotomolding industry, I CANNOT stress your last line enough to anyone that sees this. Rotomolding tolerances for our parts are in the tenths of inches. We work with a couple machinists, and one guy asked if it was okay that a diameter on a tooling part was 10 thousandths outside of their tolerance, he apologized and offered to remake it, and I just laughed and said they would be fine (it was fine, it was a bolt insert ring, and the part fit fine when bolted on). The cook recipes have HUGE ranges in which the result is basically indistinguishable without destructive testing.
As recommended by a kayak repair guy at a local dealership, I ended up using g-flex epoxy instead of plastic welding it. I figured if the epoxy fails I'll weld it and do it "right".
I followed the guy's instructions and cleaned the surface well, and "flamed" it a bit with a small butane torch before I applied the epoxy, and I ended up doing two applications, since as it set it was drawn into the crack and I couldn't tell if it still sealed. I also gave it a thin coat on the front and back keel sections, to see if it protects it from abrasions and so on.