Punctured BC

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Being overweighted to the point that you can't swim your rig up from whatever depth you're at is a different issue altogether. I can think of no circumstance where a recreational diver should need to drop weight to ascend.
Me neither, but thats the situation I answered to. If youre so weighed down youre unable to get up without the lift of your BC, thats how badly overweighed youd have to be, isnt it?
 
Just a procedural issue . . . To get adhesives to stick well when you're patching, you may need to clean the surface with a solvent like MEK, and you may also need to roughen the surface a little bit with an emery board.

I've patched a couple of holes in wings, and the patches have held well. We've then subsequently replaced the bladders (which is easy to do with most wings, something I like about them).
 
Wow, so much caca?! :11: And some good posts.
Well, staying on track with the original post, I certainly might not drive on a tire that I patched myself!
I've driven many tires I'd plugged myself. Farming several places miles apart during irrigation season always saw me running in circles 100 hours a week, driving fast on dirt roads, airing and plugging my tire at the site of the flat.

I've never patched a BC or a waterbed, altho I have replaced a few of the latter. I once ripped a lady's BC in a Rescue class and assured her and the dive shop I wanted to do whatever it took to make it right. The manufacturer repaired it like new for free; I was only out the shipping, but it had been my negligence so I was prepared to buy her a new one if needed.

Do you know if the manufacturer was consulted...?
 
Sorry, I left out that the discussion drew out that the BC had an inner bladder. IMO, it's just a matter of cutting a slit in the outer covering, patching the hole in the inner bladder then sewing up the small slit.
Don't cut a slit in the cover. If it has an inner bladder, then it has a zipper or other seam intended for bladder replacement.

With an inner bladder, his fully-inflated scenario is not an issue. Patch the inner bladder with poly patch material, glued with AquaSeal. When reassembled, the outer cover will help hold the patch in place when fully inflated.

I did just that sort of patch on my first trip to Roatan in '95. It worked fine.
 
When reassembled, the outer cover will help hold the patch in place when fully inflated.
It would, wouldn't it? Well from the story, it doesn't sound like the third party is going do anything. Maybe someone can get a good buy, fix it and enjoy it...? :p
 
Well, staying on track with the original post, I certainly might not drive on a tire that I patched myself!.

You bet. Only a trained expert should be allowed to patch a tire. I don't even know why they would sell those tire patch kits to the public. I always look for the diploma on the wall of the tire shop from the Massachusetts Institute of Tires.
 
You bet. Only a trained expert should be allowed to patch a tire. I don't even know why they would sell those tire patch kits to the public. I always look for the diploma on the wall of the tire shop from the Massachusetts Institute of Tires.

I grew up in the construction business, trucks, tractors, equipment trailers, demolition jobs, and lots of flat tires. Plugged a bunch of them myself. Drove thousands of miles with heavy loads etc. I have a lot of faith in my own repairs, and in my ability to tell the difference between a tire that can be safely repaired and one that cannot.

OTOH, if a tire shop or service station made the repair and it subsequently failed and that failure resulted in an injury or property loss the repair station could be liable.

It's not "MIT" that decides if the repair station is capable, it's their liability insurance carrier.

Now back to the BC in question. Can it safely be repaired? Maybe, but only after examining it could I offer an opinion, descriptions delivered over the internet are a poor second to hands on.

Many BC's that have an inner bladder have no provision for replacement, and I would be concerned about slicing open the outer cover, any method used to close this slice is likely to become a new failure point.

I would recommend that the BC be returned to either the manufacturer, or to a manufacturer's approved repair station.

Tobin
 
It's not about how easy or feasible it is to repair something yourself, it's about the level of experience. There are quite a few people here who surely have a comfortable (perhaps even expert) level of experience fixing flats, but can you blame a guy who has never patched a tire before about having a degree of concern about doing it himself?

Another way of putting it: I've never removed a tire and patched it before. While some may be perfectly comfortable driving down the highway on a tire they patched themselves, would they be nearly as comfortable if I patched it for them? :eyebrow:
 
It's not about how feasible it is, it's about the level of experience. You and Don surely seem to have a comfortable (perhaps even expert) level of experience fixing flats, but can you blame a guy who has never patched a tire before about having a degree of concern about doing it himself?

No not at all. Learning what tire damage can be safely repaired, and what scraps a tire is the key. That's really my point concerning the BC. Discussing the feasibility of repairing a BC that only the OP has seen is really not too useful.

Tobin
 
Do you know if the manufacturer was consulted...?

He said he called, as opposed to sending it in, and they refused to do any sort of repair.

Don't cut a slit in the cover. If it has an inner bladder, then it has a zipper or other seam intended for bladder replacement.

With an inner bladder, his fully-inflated scenario is not an issue. Patch the inner bladder with poly patch material, glued with AquaSeal. When reassembled, the outer cover will help hold the patch in place when fully inflated.

Agreed. If the bladder can be easily removed, that would be best. He said there wasn't a zipper and since I exclusively dive with a BP/w when given the choice, my knowledge of the builds of jacket style BCs is a lot less, cutting was simply an option that could be exercised if necessary. I too didn't see a problem with patching and letting the outer material hold the glued patch there.

Now back to the BC in question. Can it safely be repaired? Maybe, but only after examining it could I offer an opinion, descriptions delivered over the internet are a poor second to hands on.

Also agreed, the posting was more for the humor of fully inflating the BC while at depth in a tropical area.
 

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