# Drybag repair?



## upshitscreek (Oct 21, 2007)

it's pvc so get pvc material and glue.


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## TakemetotheRiver (Oct 4, 2007)

Thanks!


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## COUNT (Jul 5, 2005)

Curious, to what extent will this work? Just minor repairs or big jobs too? I've got a dry bag the airline <United, coughcough> put 26 holes in. It's one of those XXXL size bags, so I didn't want to get rid of yet.... Lost cause?


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## Dave Frank (Oct 14, 2003)

Patch away count: 26 patches, ah ah ah!

Seriously though, as long as they're not going to interfere with the closure it will work fine. Surely most of them are bunched so a patch will cover many holes right?


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## raft3plus (Apr 24, 2004)

*Yes there is, it's MEK.*

For pvc use MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) as surface prep. Go to your local hardware store and they should have some. It costs a lot for a small amount, but if you have a pvc raft, paco pad, then buy a half gallon or so.

Go to the local 'fabric' store.. you see mostly women in there (bonus!!) but there are some rolls of 500 denier pvc fabric available, which costs about 10 bucks per square yard. Get a foot or two of the color that matches your shit. They usually have a couple colors available.

Clean your surface with MEK, maybe three inches radius around the hole; On your drybag do it on the inside, so turn that fucker inside out. Cut your patch, set it on the cleaned surface. Take pencil, mark a key (one inch mark half on the patch half on the other material to orient the friggin round thingy-dingy), AND while you still hold it down as if it were final set run the pencil around the patch. Put glue on patch and inside circle, wait 15 minutes for glue to bond to fabric, stick together, heat the thingy with your heatgun for a minute and voila!

Good as new drybag, tada!

.. just a thought or two.


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## COUNT (Jul 5, 2005)

Thanks a lot III+.

Dave, you're nothing but trouble, as usual .

COUNT


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## bshock (Jun 15, 2007)

*Link to JPW*

Here is a link to Jack's web page with a very detailed description of making PVC repairs.

Using Our Adheasive for Inflatable Boat Repair_Jack's Plastic Welding inc

I have several bags with homemade patches and they are keeping everything dry. I used a hair dryer as a heat source for my patches.

bs


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## teleboater5.13 (Sep 29, 2005)

Count

That sucks to hear about your drybag. Has anyone else had this happen to them while they are flying. I am heading down to CR this winter and was planning on just packing my NRS Bill Bag as my gear bag but I dont really want to get a bunch of holes punched in it. Anyone know if this is common and if it is better to simply pack a backpack and put the drybag inside it???

If you dont want to fix your smaller drybags you can always leave the hole and make it a beer bag. The hole will let in river water and act like a personal softshelled cooler.


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

Use a duffle/backpack, put the drybag inside. Especially if you are in a time-critical travel situation, it would be a major drag to show up to a beat up or damaged drybag, and need to get on the water ASAP.


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## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

easiest solution is to use Seam Grip, small hole apply directly, large tear (back with tape). I have used seam grip to repair just about any fabric, all types of dry bags, jackets, dry suits, tents, even boats.

I just touched up holes in about 10 dry bags last month, and it took me about 1 hour total for all bags, some of which were pretty hammered


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## upshitscreek (Oct 21, 2007)

teleboater5.13 said:


> . Has anyone else had this happen to them while they are flying.


Yeah, it's very common. Putting hard objects against the pvc seems to cause the most damage/holes and dry bags with soft shit like clothes stuffed inside fair better. They will get beat to hell, no matter and often get spots worn to the base fabric but less holes with softer stuff. Even knowing this, I recently stuffed a fly rod case in the bag coming back from AK a few weeks ago and it gashed a wear hole about 2 inches by 1/2. So unless you are trimming every ounce like me on this past trip then use a duffle like previously suggested and save your dry bags the abuse/holes.


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## COUNT (Jul 5, 2005)

Yeah, my bag was even packed intelligently. All clothes with the only hard good being my breakdown. It really sucked because I was only going for 4 days and they lost my bag and didn't get it to me til day 3=paddling on loaners for 3 days. I would not fly with my drybag as luggage again. I'll just roll it up and toss it in the duffle from here on out.


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## Chip (Apr 7, 2007)

*Tear-Aid Tape*

Jack's directions for gluing patches are a bit confusing— oriented towards patching a raft or cat tube on the river where you need to let the adhesive dry and then reactivate it with heat. 

For dry bags I've been using Tear-Aid tape, which is a lot easier to apply and still quite effective. I rough up a bit around the punctures and clean with MEK, let dry for 15-20 minutes, apply the Tear-Aid patch, then repeat for the other side. 

Two kinds: type A for nearly everything. Type B for vinyl (which I assume includes PVC fabric). Here's a link for Tear-Aid tape:

30 Foot Rolls


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