Hi There,
Just put a huge gash in the LE bladder on my 2001 14.9 Free Air.
How big a patch job can you do on one of these?
Anybody have a replacement lying around that they'd sell off?
Anybody have any idea on what one of these things costs?
Cheers,
AL
Bladder Replacement on 14.9 FreeAir
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Dwight
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You can patch some real big holes with that tube of glue Wipika supplied with early Wipikas. The glue makes the plastic draw up and shrink. It’s best to tape the bladder to a flat surface. This will help hold it flat and tight when you apply the glue. I put some scrap plastic inside the bladder to keep the glue from bonding both sides of the bladder together. When the repair is complete, the scrap plastic is trapped inside the bladder. This is OK.
I have one old bladder that I cut up to make patching material from.
If you know somebody at Wipika, you may be able to get an old bladder taken from a delaminated kite. Wipika was pulling bladders from old kites and using them to help people out. I had so many poorly seemed bladders in my Wipika kites that I kept a few spares from my returned delaminated kites. Wipika had poor quality control on their bladder construction in 2001.
In the US, kite companies are sending everybody to Airtime for replacement bladders. Some kite companies don’t bother stocking bladders anymore.
I have 5 Rhinos and never had a bladder with a defective seam. Yeah!!
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dwight on 2002-09-12 14:25 ]</font>
I have one old bladder that I cut up to make patching material from.
If you know somebody at Wipika, you may be able to get an old bladder taken from a delaminated kite. Wipika was pulling bladders from old kites and using them to help people out. I had so many poorly seemed bladders in my Wipika kites that I kept a few spares from my returned delaminated kites. Wipika had poor quality control on their bladder construction in 2001.
In the US, kite companies are sending everybody to Airtime for replacement bladders. Some kite companies don’t bother stocking bladders anymore.
I have 5 Rhinos and never had a bladder with a defective seam. Yeah!!
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dwight on 2002-09-12 14:25 ]</font>