Re: [Paddlewise] not a good morning

A friend once told me a story about skis flying off the roof of their
car after a day of skiing. It impressed me enough that I try to be
very careful hauling anything on the top of any car. I've done a
mattress and a sofa, and this was accomplished at slow speed
on quiet streets.

Brad

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 :)
>
>
>


-- 
Bradford R. Crain
Fariborz Maseeh Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Portland State University
724 SW Harrison St. / 334 Neuberger Hall
Portland, Or. 97201

E-mail:  crainb_at_pdx.edu
Phone:  503-725-3127
Fax:      503-725-3661
Dept. Phone:  503-725-3621

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