bad colours for ribs

[catrib]

Hi guys,

Im buying a new inflatable boat off a company, and I have a wide choice of colours to choose from. Ive seen a picture of an all black boat and it looks really well. My question is is it a bad colour to choose because of its heat absorbancey. Will the tubes be more likely to suffer accidental over inflation or will the material break down quicker with the sun rays.

Anybody with a black or very dark colour rib with any experiance of such problems.

Thanks

[willk]

Originally Posted by catrib

Will the tubes be more likely to suffer accidental over inflation or will the material break down quicker with the sun rays

Probably not in Mayo...

Welcome to RIBnet! Most half decent ribs will have overpressure valves fitted, so a "burst" is not likely. Keeping them clean is a problem I've heard owners mention, but again, not a factor in racing.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by willk

Probably not in Mayo...

Welcome to RIBnet! Most half decent ribs will have overpressure valves fitted, so a "burst" is not likely.

Yeahhhh butttt...... the overpressure valves only release air when the pressure is actually kwite high. Ie. high enough that if it occurs regularly it definitly has the potential to damage seams etc. so simply relying on the fact that the o/p valves will blow I don't really think is a good idea.

Think it was Martini that told me that a while back, he's always topping up/ letting air out his tubes so he ought to know

[willk]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Think it was Martini that told me that a while back, he's always topping up/ letting air out his tubes so he ought to know

He'll be delighted that you mentioned that on here. In fairness, I would fight to the death to defend a man's right to inflate/deflate his tube/s as much as he feels the need.

I stand by my original reply though.

[Erin]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

the overpressure valves only release air when the pressure is actually kwite high. Ie. high enough that if it occurs regularly it definitly has the potential to damage seams etc.

Errrm, so why exactly do we bother having them then. I would have thought 2.4psi would be fairly harmless to seams etc. Stuffing or bouncing off a pontoon probably induces a far greater short term pressure build up before a PRV would be able to vent the excess.

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Think it was Martini that told me that a while back, he's always topping up/ letting air out his tubes so he ought to know

I've never asked or looked that closely, but I thought the reason he did that was because he didn't have PRV's

To answer the OP, black is probably fine but will get hot to the touch in summer. Other dark colours such as navy blue or maroon have a tendancy to fade quite quickly. I think Gotchiguy's boat started off maroon

[m chappelow]

Another slight downfall with black tubes is in hot sunny weather anyone just sitting on them can get a very hot backside or backs of their legs scorched ,and the black shows up salt stains much more than other colours when the water evaporates in the sun and leaves the salt behind.

[willk]

Having thought about this a bit more, I'd hazard a guess that more tubes have been damaged from use while underinflated, than from accidential overinflation from sunlight/heat.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Erin

Errrm, so why exactly do we bother having them then.

Because they stop the tube blowing An unexpected blow can result in some very unhappy faces TBH though I don't suppose you really need them though do you? Your flashes of "Burgundy" can exactly make much difference to the hardness potential? In fact in some cases I suppose flashes of reddish colour may actually be an implication of having a leak in the tube

Originally Posted by willk

Having thought about this a bit more, I'd hazard a guess that more tubes have been damaged from use while underinflated, than from accidential overinflation from sunlight/heat.

I agree. We store Into the Red deflated, and the potential for damage is huge. Not only to the tubes themselves but the the GRP lip they are attached to, especially if climbing on board when it's on the trailer.

[chewy]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Yeahhhh butttt...... the overpressure valves only release air when the pressure is actually kwite high. Ie. high enough that if it occurs regularly it definitly has the potential to damage seams etc. so simply relying on the fact that the o/p valves will blow I don't really think is a good idea.

Think it was Martini that told me that a while back, he's always topping up/ letting air out his tubes so he ought to know

How high is quite high?

[willk]

Originally Posted by m chappelow

Another slight downfall with black tubes is in hot sunny weather anyone just sitting on them can get a very hot backside or backs of their legs scorched

Yes, but he's in Mayo (Mayo Town actually, so we can assume that he's not teaching Geography ). I'd guess that bare skin burns on a Caesar in Mayo are a fairly remote risk.

Kinda wet/drysuit territory

[bedajim]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Because they stop tube blowing An unexpected blow can result in some very unhappy faces TBH though I don't suppose flashes of "Burgundy" can exactly make much difference to the hardness potential? In fact I suppose flashes of reddish colour may actually be an implication of having a leak

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by catrib

Anybody with a black or very dark colour rib with any experiance of such problems.

Thanks

I have Military Grey/black tubes. Looks great, no over-heating probs.

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by Erin

I think Gotchiguy's boat started off maroon

Pink by July.

[willk]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

I agree. We store Into the Red deflated, and the potential for damage is huge. Not only to the tubes themselves but the the GRP lip they are attached to, especially if climbing on board when it's on the trailer.

On the water, u twit.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Erin

I think Gotchiguy's boat started off maroon

Originally Posted by Mollers

Pink by July.

20 mins work at the beginning of last season, will do again this year (right hand side done only - for comparison )

Originally Posted by willk

On the water, u twit.

I've only tried it in water once tbh. besides arn't/isn't your tube(s) a little older than mine? Perhaps yours doesn't appreciate sudden changes in pressure? I enjoy when the blow occurs, although I have heard that the valve needs regular blowing to keep it in working order

[martini]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Think it was Martini that told me that a while back, he's always topping up/ letting air out his tubes so he ought to know

I think you may be confusing me with someone else

I'm often topping up because my tubes (a couple of chambers at least) leak like sieves.

I don't have pressure relief valves so if I top up prior to an early morning 50 mile passage, I'll let a bit out when I get to my sheltered harbour destination in anticipation of the 30 degree heat that'll be beating down on the black tubes for the rest of the day. Common sense really.

If you've got prv's then assuming they're functioning you never need to worry, you could connect a 100psi airline to the tubes, it'll p**s out as quick as you can get it in.

Black isn't the ideal colour for tubes depending on climate, if you regularly see over 30ish celsius then you might get fed up with burnt legs and flat tubes on cold mornings after hot afternoons.

As far as UV resistance goes, grey has the most resistant pigments, red has the least resistant

[Gotchimum]

Originally Posted by martini

I think you may be confusing me with someone else

He is a little bit stupid you know.

[martini]

Originally Posted by Gotchimum

He is a little bit stupid you know.

Yes, we know.

[Erin]

Originally Posted by martini

As far as UV resistance goes, grey has the most resistant pigments, red has the least resistant

My patches and go-faster stripes have suffered badly, even with regular dollops of 3M protectant. A bit of polish brings back the lustre, but only for a short time.

Originally Posted by Gotchimum

He is a little bit stupid you know.

Just a little? You under-estimate him.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by martini

I think you may be confusing me with someone else

Might be Roy actually. Memory's fading and all that

Originally Posted by martini

If you've got prv's then assuming they're functioning you never need to worry,

I never do

Originally Posted by martini

As far as UV resistance goes, grey has the most resistant pigments, red has the least resistant

Yep that's why we've been careful with loads of stuff to try and stop the fading looks like its worked so far too. I think we'd have gone for boring old navy tubes like Hightower, or maybe the more exciting and traditional scheme like Mollers' old one, Ian's and a variation on the theme, Marcus4's one in caraibe