Any ideas for skid plates i really dont want to spend $100 on buying some. Does anyone have any ideas for how to make good cheaper ones and what did you use and how to do it?

It doesn't have to bean Old Town Kit. I assume you have a royalex canoe, so any skid plate kit for royalex will work. Here is an instruction sheet form Northwest Canoe.

Wenonah sells a skid plate kit for $80. Call them first to make sure it is for royalex.

Otherwise shop arround. There are cheaper ones out there.

You'll also find kevlar pads for about $25 apiece. However they do not come with resin. You have to get that on your own.

Skid plate kit

From the web page
"Affordable & easy to install on your Kevlar, Duralite or fiberglass canoe. Skid plate size is about 28" long and covers heaviest wear zone. Kits includes 2 felt strips, west system epoxy, sandpaper, stir sticks, brush & instructions."

You could simply use felt soaked in epoxy for your skidplate. Match the felt color with your canoe. Once the epoxy/felt cures, it's hard as a rock. Cost is very minimal compared to the more common kevlar plates.

quote Royce: " Skid plate kit


From the web page
"Affordable & easy to install on your Kevlar, Duralite or fiberglass canoe. Skid plate size is about 28" long and covers heaviest wear zone. Kits includes 2 felt strips, west system epoxy, sandpaper, stir sticks, brush & instructions.""

Since it does not mention royalex, it may not be compatable with royalex.

The Wenonah kit sold by Piragis does work on Royalex. I have it installed on 2 of my Rx boats. The Old Town kit has longer pieces of felt. Nice if you have a long boat or want to come up higher on the ends. I would use the Old Town on a Kevlar UL boat to add more protection on the bottom.

Nortwest Canoe is the only co to sell 3 sizes of skid plate kits. Find the kit that best fits your needs there. These guys are the experts.
CB

quote PineKnot: "You could simply use felt soaked in epoxy for your skidplate. Match the felt color with your canoe. Once the epoxy/felt cures, it's hard as a rock. Cost is very minimal compared to the more common kevlar plates.
"

Not sure what injury you are trying to address, but I can vouch for the homemade felt/epoxy stuff. I just used a boat that I got from someone else who had used maybe furniture pad felt (thicker than really needed IMHO) and epoxy to make skid plates. We were HARD on that boat, and the skid plates came home with maybe one tiny scratch and zero structural issues. Not the prettiest things in the world, but darn effective and cheap.

ALSO, I just added some strength (I hope) to my other kevlar boat and mixed epoxy with aluminum powder (strength) and graphite powder (black color) and got a nice thick paste which I simply PAINTED over a tape-blocked skid plate area. It finished up real nice and I think will give some added protection to those vulnerable areas.

Good luck!

Thanks we are just beefing up wear areas and i think we will try to make our own with felt and epoxy. All ideas are welcome and this is the best place to get a wealth of knowledge. THANKS

Plain old felt and epoxy. Cut out the skid plates...mark where they go...sand that area lightly to roughen surface...place plates on a sheet of plastic and soak with epoxy.....apply a thin coat to the marked area...place skid plates on....cover with cellophane and use your fingers to smooth and work out the air bubbles....carefully remove cellophane and wipe off any runs.....sand when dry and lightly recoat.

Question for those who have used your own homemade felt/epoxy. What kind of epoxy did you use? My Mad River kevlar is in need of skid plates after a recent trip with a heavy bowman who didn't want to get his waterproof boots wet.

Thanks, BeaV

Now when you guys are saying "felt", you mean plain, ol', woolen felt from like a fabric store and not kevlar felt, right? I'm not doubing it works, but I have never heard of it being used before.

Those of you that have done it, it works ok for you? Man, if it is as good as kevlar felt then that is quite the discovery.

define "as good" Bannock :) The stuff used on my previously-owned SR is a little "furry" or bumpy and ugly... but effective as a skid plate - YES. If you're racing and need clean streamlined edges, no go.

The stuff in cowdoc's pics is much thinner than what was used on my boat, and it still looks pretty good. Yes, I believe he used regular old felt from fabric store - but I'll let him speak for himself.

If you look at the Souris River redrock store and find the skid plate repair page, you can imagine how easy it would be to do with regular felt the same as kevlar.

Yes...just plain old felt and West Systems epoxy. It is a thinner felt that we use to wrap airplane wings before we cover them....but it's just regular felt. On the red canoe, I dribbled a little paint into the epoxy mix to color the felt similar to the hull.
It may or may not wear faster than the kevlar felt....if it does, you can redo it many times over and still be cheaper.
Beav....the red canoe is a kevlar mad river...works great.
Bannock....I've done a half dozen or more canoes and it's working great.

Cool! I learned something and that's always cool. :)

Great info on skid plates. I've never applied one, but am considering either standard felt, two layers of s-glass or a single layer of dynel. Between a friend and I, we have three royalex canoes that we may apply them to at some point.

I've settled on g/flex epoxy, and plan to mix in some graphite for the color and smoothness properties.

One main question I have is how much g/flex do I need to buy for each kind of material? I haven't found a reference that makes me comfortable. On the first canoe, I need at least one pretty long repair. No idea what the previous owners did, but the damaged area extends 36" back from the box. At any rate, if the final material patch is one square foot, is there a ratio I can use for the g/flex so I order the right quantity? I don't want to be stuck in the middle of the job and run out. But I also don't want to order the two gallon kit if I only need the 8 oz kit. Since I have three canoes I could use it on eventually, I don't mind moving up to the next size kit if that makes economic sense, but I also don't want to be left with more than I'll ever use.

When using g/flex for skid plates, is the best practice to thicken it, or just apply as is?

Thanks for any input!