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An unbiased source of information and experience with take-part, sectional hard shell sea kayaks. CLICK "OLDER POSTS" AT BOTTOM TO SEE PAST POSTS!!!! CLICK "OLDER POSTS" AT BOTTOM TO SEE PAST POSTS!!!!
I have had a three piece EasyRider Kayak for around 15 years and have had few problems with it. Except for a lot of scratches on the gelcoat from use its still in pretty good condition even though I use it fairly often.
ReplyDeleteI usually don’t keep it put together but assemble it each time I use it and only rarely does it leak. And the leaking is because of my not assembling it properly. The system used is 8 through bolts holding the front section and 10 bolts at the rear with each one having its own gasket.
The usual problems are
1. Me not noticing that a gasket has worn out or has fallen off. This causes a fairly big leak if its one of the bottom gaskets but the top ones only if you are in really bad weather. The obvious fix is double checking the gaskets
2. Me not noticing sand or other debris getting between the section. This usually just causes an annoying leak. The fix for me is cleaning off the section faces and also propping up the end of the center section that I am assembling to keep it off the ground where debris can get caught between the sections. I usually stick my spare two piece paddle underneath the end I am working on just to keep it off the ground.
3 Me not tightening up all the bolts properly, EasyRider uses wing nuts which just need to be strong hand tight but if you miss one you will usually get a leak. One problem is uneven ground at the assembly site since it can sometime fool you into thinking the wing nuts are tight when in fact the ground it pushing up the end and making the nuts only feel tight. Once again putting something under the center section end to lift it up removes the pressure from uneven ground and allows me to get all the bolts tight.
The only real hassle with the EasyRider system that I use is the 18 bolts that need to be done each time it is assembled. However I am used to it by now ,though looking at the photos of the other boats which just have 4 bolts per end looks like a big improvement. My boat is old so I don’t know if EasyRider has changed their system
DJF