Drysuit latex seal patch

[W3tWilly]

I manged to poke a hole in the latex seal of my drysuit on the very first dive in it. My cousin who is more knowledgeable in the scuba realm then I, says it can be patched with a piece of tri-lam on both sides of the whole and an appropriate adhesive.

I am unable to find an all-in-one patch kit as for the type of repair he mentioned. In other threads I have read of other means of repair: duct tape, electrical tape, inter tube tire repair kits, etc.

Does anyone have a link to an all-in-one patch kit as he mentioned, know the pros in cons of the tri-lam patch kit vs inter tube tire repair kit or other longer means of repair excluding the tapes due to the one or two uses you would get per tape fix?

And if you really want to how I punctured it:

The swim ladder on my boat is non-collapsible and can only hinge up out of the water with the legs of the ladder pointing straight up at this point. Well when docked the lines on the back can on occasion get behind ladder legs as the winds change/ boat moves and the like. Then the wind will change again and the little latch that holds the swim latter up is not strong enough by any means to hold the force that is applied to it when this happens, breaking the latch making a little jagged metal hole punch where the latch use to connect to the boat right above the ladder. So after my dive i was climbing up out of the water reached up to grab the edge of the boat(right above the hole punch) and lifted myself out of the water. Which effectively pushed my latex seal onto the hole punch.

 

[radiocraig]

try contacting DUI in san diego...i think they have a trilam patch kit...or they used to

 

[Ken abucs]

A good inner tube patch kit will become one with the latex, and stretch with it. That's what I used, and it worked great.

 

[W3tWilly]

I may be wrong on this, but I don't see the adhesive that is used to attach the patch to the seal, flexing and stretching there for I do not see the patch becoming one with the seal. Kind of the same principal why they can not patch holes in car tires that are in the sidewall, as those will not flex as the sidewall flexes. Anyone have any more thoughts on this?

 

[Ken abucs]

Bad analogy. most tires today are tubeless, and are patched with plugs. This type of repair will not work in a sidewall. This is analogous to patching an inner tube. You can patch the sidewall of an inner tube.

I'd be more worried about a cheap patch kit. In these kits the patch itself can be much stiffer that the latex, so it won't stretch properly. I used a high quality patch kit from a bicycle shop, and it stretches just like the latex.