[jyl]

Ideas needed!

My folding kayaks use inflatable sponsons on each side. These are 16’ long tubes made of thin vinyl material, that go into a sleeve in the hull fabric. They have a vinyl tube, like aquarium tubing, coming from the middle of the 16’ sponson, you inflate by mouth then shut a valve to keep the air in. You’re only inflating to party balloon pressure, like barely positive psi. When inflated, the sponsons are a flexible 16’ long, 6” diameter cylinder shape, inside the fabric sleeve. Those dimensions are not critical.

Well, my sponsons are 30 years old and springing leaks at the vinyl seams and elsewhere, and my spare sponsons are 30 years old and also leaking.

The company that made these boats closed in 2016 and, while I’m looking around, the working assumption is that I will need to make or adapt something.

What would you do?

I thought maybe get some very thin vinyl material and figure out how to glue or heat-weld seams to make a 16’ tube, then glue on the original mouth-inflation tube.

Or maybe get some bicycle inner tubes - for fat-tire bikes - and cut and vulcanize them together to make a 16’ long tube, and carry a mini-pump.