Protecting the hull of my kayak

Dragging a plastic kayak around takes a toll on the hull. The wear is especially bad if you drag it on concrete or asphalt. With the height of my truck rack I'm forced to rest the kayak on the stern when I take it down. While I try to put a mat down on which to rest the stern, there is always some amount of dragging. This has started to wear down my stern. There was actually enough wear that it had really started to concern me. At this rate I would have a hole in the stern before my yak was 6 months old. I started looking for solutions almost as soon as I noticed the wear. I had looked into some likely options, but all had some drawbacks; not durable, too much effort to fabricate, etc. When I was at the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach I discussed the problem with Mark Olsen, a sales manager for Ocean Kayak. He told me that some people were making skid pads from JB Weld. Having just reinforced my new kayak cart with JB Weld, I could see how this might work. Mark assured me that the JB Weld would bond well to the hull if the plastic was roughed up with sandpaper. Sounded good to me.

I went out and bought 4 packs of JB Weld. I used some 100 grit sandpaper to rough the hull along the keel and then masked it off with electrical tape. I mixed up three packs of the JB Weld and got to work with a putty knife. The epoxy went on easily enough, but soon started dripping. I had to quickly flip the kayak over to keep it from dripping all over my tailgate. I think I should have applied it a little bit thinner. There was just too much epoxy to set quickly. I had to flip the kayak twice to try and control the running. In the end, I had to remove the tape and smooth it out with a putty knife. That's when it went from looking kind of professionally done to looking like a typical Gax job. Oh well. It isn't there for looks; it is there to protect the kayak.

From The Overloaded Kayak Images

In addition to the JB Weld, I also stuck a piece of aluminum strip into the JB Weld at the very tip of the stern. I coated the strip in JB Weld as well. If it works as envisioned, the aluminum strip will take the majority of the wear as I load and unload my kayak.

From The Overloaded Kayak Images

This detail view shows the aluminum strip embedded in the JB Weld. It needs another coat of the JB Weld to fill the gaps.

From The Overloaded Kayak Images

We'll see how this works. I think it should be effective.