How can I prevent a hole from wearing through the stern of my kayak?

I looked into the stern of my Revolution when the sun was shining on it, and saw a bright spot on the stern end of the keel where the plastic has been worn thin because I rest the kayak on its stern while getting the kayak on top of my car.  How can I protect this spot on the stern from further abrasion?  I don’t want to wear a hole all of the way through the hull of my kayak.





I posted a description of the way I lift my Revolution onto my car at https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=19202.msg204958#msg204958.  Because I can't clean and jerk my Revolution, I need to keep using this technique to get the kayak on my car.

I used some of the hull material left over from when I cut the rectangular hatch hole from the round hatch hole and a plastic soldering iron (from Harbor Freight) and added some extra material in that spot, seems to be working fine and I can always add more.

Kevin

I looked into the stern of my Revolution when the sun was shining on it, and saw a bright spot on the stern end of the keel where the plastic has been worn thin because I rest the kayak on its stern while getting the kayak on top of my car.  How can I protect this spot on the stern from further abrasion?  I don’t want to wear a hole all of the way through the hull of my kayak.

I also had to repair my Perception Pilot after Amazon delivered it to me pretty banged up. You can get HDP buckets at home depot. I bought the welding kit from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RG8K18D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got this little gizmo so I could power the welder with my car's cigarette lighter and it worked perfectly:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KT26D68/ref=dp_cerb_3

As far as preventing future damage, there are keel guard kits you can buy. I've never had to install one so I can't make any specific recommendations (the Pilot came with one already installed). The 2019 Hobie Outbacks have a really cool solution to the problem that not only prevents damage to the rudder/keel, it also keeps the kayak balanced while you're loading it onto your car. Maybe after they get some positive feedback, they'll start making kits for their other models.

Also this: https://yakgear.com/product/yakgear-yakguard-keel-and-hull-protection/

Put a rubber floor mat down where the kayak will contact the ground in that spot.  The rubber floor mat will double as a place to stand when putting on or taking off a dry suit to avoid damaging the material that the socks are made with.

Put a rubber floor mat down where the kayak will contact the ground in that spot.  The rubber floor mat will double as a place to stand when putting on or taking off a dry suit to avoid damaging the material that the socks are made with.

This.

I used JB Weld in that spot on a kayak and it lasted forever.  Pity it did because it's close to impossible to apply it smoothly.

If you decide to weld to reinforce that area, you can get a hunk of HDPE of the proper color from Hobie if you call and ask for it.  Tell them what you'll do with it so they send a scrap large enough to do the job.

I load the Trident about the same way you're loading the Revo (except I load it stern first).  I bought a cheap, rubber camping pad and use it because it's larger than floor mat and it rolls up nicely, but I think I might add a rubber mat at that point where all the weight has shifted to the bow (or, in your case, stern) just to get a bit more padding.

Good luck.

Here's how I addressed the worn spot on the stern of my Revolution:

1. I bought a heavy doormat with rubber backing at the Dollar Store, for (of course) a dollar, and used part of it to make a stern protector which attaches to the kayak with bungie cords, as shown in the first picture below.  I leave this protector on the stern of my kayak when I'm on the road, as there's no reason to take it off.  If I had been using such a protector since I bought the kayak, there wouldn't be any wear on the stern, but I didn't know that wear was going to be a problem. This protector has prevented any further wear on the stern.

2. I bought a Hobie "Welder Pro" plastic welder and some rods of yellow kayak plastic.  This plastic welder is more expensive than many other "soldering iron" style plastic welders, but I bought it because it has a hole in its tip which you feed plastic rods into, so you can melt the rod in the hole while you're melting the hull with the tip of the welder.  This worked very well to build up a blob of plastic on the worn spot on the stern.  The second picture below shows the worn spot before I repaired it.  The third picture shows the area with plastic built up on the worn spot. It isn't a work of art, but it's solidly welded to the stern, and has added quite a bit of plastic to the worn spot. I may add more plastic.  It's easy to do, so why not?

I'll continue to use the stern protector.

I am going to try this during the winter. This guy used plastis guttering but there are others that use sch 20 pvc pipe to make keel guards which are stuck on with exterior grade 3m double sided tape.

This can be used to make a front and rear skid plate.