I have a 5 inch rip in my tramp. What is the best way to repair it? Dont have the money to replace it right now.

If you can get one of those stitching tools that have the spool in the handle, an assistant and a piece of mesh big enough to cover the hole, your in (as long as you have a mesh tramp, don't know about vinyl)

While we are on the subject
I removed my front tramp which is secured by aluminium strips on the front of the main beam and also along the inner bows but tied off with rope to a front beam. The tramp came out easily when I needed to re-rivet the main beam strip, but the bolt rope in each side pulls out of the slides as I try to reinsert them. The tramp is very tight and I have resorted to using pliers to try to pull on the tramp and insert the bolt rope an inch at a time. Would putting the tramp in hot water make it more pliable, should I use a heat gun or what? Suggestions?

Lots of liquid soap.

Brett,

it depends on what kind of trampoline you have. If it is a mesh cloth tramp, I would have bought some vinly coated cloth from sailrite and stitched it to the underside of your tramp. Overlapping the edges of the tear with 50mm should be sufficient.
http://secure.sailrite.com/itemdesc.asp?CartId=&ic=112011&eq=&Tp=

You can easily stitch this material with a domestic sewing machine. While you are at it, buy needles and fitting thread from sailrite as well.

I have no experience with other trampoline materials, but I think the above should work well with vinyl and other materials also.



Qb2:
Heat guns and trampolines dont mix well! Have you tried having a friend help you so you can work on both sides?

the mesh is a woven black plastic material. I had to use a fair bit of muscle to pull it out of the tracks when I removed it. Once started I kept pulling and out it came. Trying to get it to feed back into the slots has been hell with one person pulling on the bolt rope and the other with pliers pulling the material inline with the track, an inch at a time, one side of one hull and then on the other.

I gave up in disgust and sheer exhaustion and now each side is partially in the slides along the bows.

I tried surfboard wax & aerosol spray lubricants, but nothing worked, I just got greasy hands which made it harder to pull. we undid the bolts for the main and front beams and tried to flex the bows in to reduce the mount of stretch but that didn't work.. the only thing i can think of is rying to heat the tramp up to expand it more.

Mine was tight enough to have to unbolt the crossbars, slide in the boltropes, and then rebolt the crossbars. Of course this means you have to drop the stick if its up, and I unbolted one side of the front crossbar and the other side of the back one so the the hulls stayed upright, if you undo the front and back of one side that hull will fall over...

the tramp will probably have to be re stitched a bit after my efforts to force the bolt ropes in.

Disassembling the hulls! I found one front beam bolt turns around but doesn't undo, so the bush or whatever it screws into has broken free. I will have a go at unbolting the opposite side bolts and main beam and will give it a go.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Hello All,

There is a great place in St. Pete that repairs tramps. They advertize in the monthly Catsailor Mag also.

For example,on my 5 year old I-17 tramp, they restitched, with Teflon thread, my entire tamp, did a few gromet repairs,..and a some other little stuff,..cost was $110.00 USD.

It is like new.

regards,

Bruce
St. Croix

What kind of boat is this? If it's a Nacra, on some of mine the aluminum insert laid up in the fiberglass of the hulls that the bolt screws into stripped the threads, and now has a longer bolt with a nut that you have to reach in through one of the ports to get a wrench on. They have that turning the bolt and nothing happening feeling...

The cat is a 4.4 metre Alpha Omega built by Darryl Barret in Adelaide, Australia. There were about 300 built in the 80's. I think Darryl has updated the moulds to produce his new F14. Access to the hulls is by pulling off a deck cover and then reglassing it, something i don't want to resort to just yet. from memory I think the problem bolt screws into a threaded bush and not a nut. Don't know about accessing it and not too keen either. I will unbolt the beam from the other hull and the main beam and try to reinsert the tramp after I re sew the bolt ropes.

Assuming the threaded bush is still captive and all you've done is strip the thread, you should be able to repair it with a s/s thread insert. These are marketed under various names, Helicoil being one of them.
The kit comes with a thread insert to the finished thread size/type you specify, a tap and an insert tool. You simply drill the old thread out to the EXACT specified size, tap it with the supplied tap, and then insert the new thread unit. It's a very cost effective and neat repair.

Thanks for the info
The bolt is still tight, but can be turned with a spanner. I don't think its stripped the thread but broken loose the bushing. I will inquire with the builder about repairs and see about a suitable helicoil insert etc.

Qb2-
On my Taipan the new tramp was extremely tight fit and I too was trying to get it on by myself. I finally figured out a way to do it by myself. First, I sprayed the tracks with dry silicone lubricant, then I attached the jib blocks at the rear inside corners of the rear beam and ran a separate line (to give me enough length to reach it from the front beam) under the tramp to the front of the boat. Then I positioned myself at the front of the boat and guiding the bolt rope with one hand while pulling the jib sheet line with the other I was able to get the tramp on.
Worked well for me!!

Kirt

I had 'gravity,' that's my daughters boyfriend (so called as he's usually asleep somewhere) get himself off the couch and give me a hand.

With one person bent over the front beam and pulling on the tramp and the other trying to feed it in the slides we succeeded in getting the tramp stretched out to its correct length, but with the last foot or so pulling out of the slides on each side. It refused to be fed in and pulled out every time. Very frustrating.

When I get the chance I will pull the tramp off and restitch the boltropes before liberally soaking the tracks in silicone spray and retrying it and 'Thank you' for the great idea!. I can rig the mainsheet off the front beam to get more effort into pulling the tramp while having a bit more muscle to get the ropes to slide in. Hopefully will get the chance to do it in the next few days

cheers

Mark