Re: [Paddlewise] not a good morning

Interesting conversation. As kayaks and surf-skis get longer and the
materials used in their construction get lighter I think that the chances
for the boats to act as airfoils increases dramatically. And some vehicle
designs can probably make this even worse.

Since I can never explain anything without telling a story first, I'll not
break with tradition. Feel free to skim. Now that I'm over 70 years old I
tell stories without shame.

Over my adult lifetime I have migrated from sleeping in a down bag covered
with a plastic tarp in the snow on a ski hill cabin balcony to a diesel
powered motor home. Mostly just to give myself a comfortable place to sit
and read a book (seriously!) but also because it's easier to get up in the
middle of the night and pee in a real toilet than it was to find my way out
of a tent (and don't get me started on pee-bottles).

It turns out that most of the places I like to go for "camping" (notice the
quotes) are not overly supplied with electrical plugins (or water and sewer
for that matter) so having spent years on a cruising sailboat in the 1980s
with a wind generator and solar panels I started looking at alternative
methods of satisfying my craving for electricity. I still have the wind
generator but memories of the noises it also generated remain vivid. The
solar panels we had on the boat had an epoxy coating that yellowed from
long exposure to sun. (The manufacturer, when asked about the "lifetime"
warranty he had promised told me that it was my own fault for leaving them
out in the sun.) So I had to find new solar panels. Fortunately, they are
quite cheap-ish now.

The big surprise came when I wanted to mount my large (36"x48" or so)
panels on the roof of the motor home. I was not excited about drilling
holes despite the promises of various sealants but it turns out that there
is an alternative. Double-back tape. There is at least one solar outfit in
Oregon that installs solar panels using double-back tape; specifically 3M
VHB (Very High Bond) tape. And I was assured by several people who own
motor homes made by the same outfit mine was made by that the VHB tape
works.

Now my motor home has a fiberglass roof with gelcoat (it is a Foretravel
Grand Villa 36' if anyone is curious) and VHB tape works very well to form
an extremely strong chemical bond with this type of roof. At any rate,
against all my instincts, I mounted two panels using about 1.5 square
inches of 3M VHB tape (bought from Amazon - local suppliers just said
"huh?" when asked about VHB tape) on each of the 4 corners. About 2,000
miles later (at speeds of up to 70mph but mostly 60mph) the panels are
still up there and still tightly bonded to the roof.

I am not advocating that anyone use only VHB tape for their kayak racks.
But if you want to enhance the hold-down strength of your kayak racks you
might consider experimenting with this stuff. It does bond well to metal
(after all, the mounts I used are metal) but you'd have to be pretty
hard-core to scrape the paint on your new Prius down to bare metal; then
again, four patches of bare metal might be cheaper than a new rooftop
repair.

I don't think I'd use VHB tape as the *only* mount method but as an
enhancement to a mechanical method of some sort. This stuff is pretty
permanent once it sets and seals (I've had to cut pieces off the roof with
a razor blade and bits of it still sit there) but if the mechanical method
fails then the VHB would be a back up. And vice-versa. I let mine sit and
cure for ten days in the hot sun of central Washington's desert.

Just an idea. For What It's Worth. Etc. But the stuff does work
surprisingly well. I slathered Dicor all over the mounts to make them more
aerodynamic and I am considering fabricating an aluminum wind screen "just
in case". But there is a pretty large group of RVers driving around with
solar panels installed with this stuff now.

And we're no crazier than paddlers...

Craig :)

***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************