>> I purchased a Henderson foot pump not long ago and am going to be installing it in my Current Designs GTS as soon as I muster courage to bore through the hull. Any tips on installing the pump for the inexperienced. Also, anyone have an idea whether the pumps effectiveness would be compromised if it is mounted at a slight angle? I have a knee tube that I use for emergency supplies that runs the length of the hull (cockpit to bulkhead), I don't think the pump will fit if it is mounted straight up-and-down. -Patrick >> Patrick, take a look at the pumps in Linda's and my kayaks Wednesday. The footplate should be mounted approximately between your footbraces or 1/2" to 1" aft of the line between them. The Chimp pump has about a four-inch depth. The ideal place to mount it is on the forward bulkhead, providing it is in the right location. If the bulkhead is more than four inches forward of your normal footbrace position, you could use spacers or you could mount a wooden closet rod across the interior of the cockpit and clamp the pump to it. (The clamps are provided in the kit.) My kayak has the former arrangement; Linda's has the latter. I much prefer the former. If you mount it on a rod, you can angle the pump up or down, but the push plate ideally should be under the ball of your foot at whatever angle you mount the pump. On both our kayaks the discharge port is located on the side, right on the deck-hull seam (where it is flattest), in line with the pump's discharge port, though Linda and I have ours on opposite sides. I have also seen the discharge port mounted on the centerline of the foredeck, which is not an option in your case. Each of our pumps has a strum box on the intake hose wedged under the seat. Though a foot pump is an option for most, if not all, British kayaks, I have never heard of a North American kayak for which it is an option. Considering how useful a footpump can be, I find this very strange. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Addendum on Henderson Chimp footpumps: They can fail. If the plastic nut on the inside of the diaphragm isn't tight enough, it can screw itself off, causing the push plate to fall off and the suction to fail. This happened to me once on a week-long trip and to Linda once while playing around at the pool. In my kayak the loose pieces merely fell into the cockpit, but in Linda's the pieces fell to the bottom of the pool when she made a wet exit, and took a while to recover. The pump is field repairable if you have a screwdriver and a plier (or a couple of multi-pliers) with you, but it involves removing the pump and taking it apart. However, it is almost impossible to make a permanent repair without putting the assembly in a vise and tightening it with a large wrench. Finger-tight won't do it, though it will probably last till you are home. The way to test if the nut is likely to unscrew is to try to turn the push plate with one hand while it is mounted to the pump. If you can turn it, it will eventually work loose; if you can't, it is safe for now. Also note that though the pump kit includes a rectangular push plate, you can cut it down to a square if you like. It might have been pushing off-center on the rectangular plate that caused the nut to loosen in the first place. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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