G owners, how's the seakdek holding up?

[wakeboarder3780]

Well, my swim step did it again. The PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) on my seadek has started letting go around all the edges and is peeling off the swimdeck. I finally threw in the towel and completely pulled off the rest of it this past week. This didn't start happening until I got a swimstep cover to protect it. I think the extra heat from the black cover just *does not* play well with the PSA.

This got me to thinking, how has the adhesive on the G's been holding up? Anyone with black covers who live down south? Any peeling up? This will mark the third time I've replaced the seadek pad on my boat and I honestly am considering just not actually replacing it until right before I sell it. I feel like it's a lost cause at this point

I bought some 3m neoprene adhesive which is supposed to be pretty good. I'm considering giving that a go.

[shag]

Have you contacted Sea Deck? I have not heard of anyone having issues with it pulling up... That said, based on the cover you said you have, heat build up as well as moisture could cause just about any adhesive film to fail in my opinion... Best of luck! Sea Deck is pretty awesome stuff!

[laurie8888]

I live in hot climate and I threw the black nylon cover. Mt gas shocks expanded in the heat and punctured my observer seat!!!!


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[shag]

I only use sunbrella, with vents.... A little more expensive but worth it..

[Miljack]

WB3780,
hi Russ, one of my buddy's has a 'Bu with the same issue. My $0.02 is because they use a thicker pad, more mass to heat and shrink with temperature changes, thereby causing the issue with the PSA on the pad/swim platform. That and Nautique is using much smaller segments of the Seadek to cover the platform as opposed to the one large piece as designed on the Mailbu platforms.
Have you tried to "roughen" up the gelcoat on the platform? My buddy used another adhesive on his this year, I'll ask him what is was, but he only has a few weeks on it so far...

OT, how's the new lake treating you?

[robertsmcfarland]

have not had a issue here, that's why I like teak, all my boats have had teak except the G , I cant find any body to make me one, unless I make the template ,thats crazy , for that amount of money they should go out and and do it themselves, so if wrong its their fought. they are the expert ...

[4th ski-doo]

32 hours on the boat and a bubble on the platform

[swankster]

After the first year of owning a G and I've had no issues of it peeling or bubbling. I'm in TX and use the cover on the weekends when the boat is parked in the driveway to protect the SeaDek from the cat. I had SeaDek on my 230 and the cat used it for a scratching pad.

[wakeboarder3780]

Yeah I think I made a couple big mistakes. For one thing I'm using a black cover. It worked fine in WI, but now that I live in SC I feel quite foolish. The black gets the interior so hot I have to sit on a towel until we drive around for a bit and let the breeze cool things off. Learned the hard way on that one. My next cover will be white or very light tan.

Another thing I got wrong is I assumed when I ordered by swim step cover from my cover manufacturer it would be made of sunbrella like their covers are - wrong again. I truly am thinking the issues I encountered were due to the swim pad cover, I have since trashed it.

I have contacted seadek 3 times over the same issue. They have been great to work with. The first time a guy named Kevin really worked his tail off with me on the phone both of us trying to hypothesize what might be wrong. He investigated on his end and thought that particular batch of pads may have had PSA issues. The issue with this first pad was the adhesive was not even on the foam pad to begin with. When I unrolled it after taking shipment the PSA was like falling off the foam around the edges. I installed it (like an idiot) hoping it would stick after. They sent me another one free of charge, no questions asked and this time they flat shipped it instead of rolled up.

I painstakingly uninstalled the first one. The adhesive sticks extremely well to the gel, but seems to not stick so well to the foam. So "installing" the new pad was a chore and a gallon of acetone and thinner each. And scraping that god forsaken PSA off the entire swimstep. I also learned to not do that process on the concrete because the PSA goo does NOT wash off the cement afterwards. Another lesson learned the hard way (see a theme? haha)

Installed the second one and had about a season of good luck. Then the pad started to peel again. I immediately called up seadek and we discussed again. I couldn't really think of what to do. They sent me a third pad, again, free of charge (this is why I feel that seadek stands behind their product). That being said, while it was shipping to me, I couldn't stomach investing an entire day installing the new pad again. The process is honestly a chore and while I love the seadek pad, I entirely hate their PSA.

I put the new pad in the garage as a backup and went about researching the best type of adhesive for foam to gelcoat. I ended up with a 3m neoprene adhesive that is supposed to be the glue to hold worlds together. I then waited for the pad to keep naturally peeling off from use, which took until about now.

During that time I was thinking about what else could cause issues and in the interim I decided the swim step cover could be at fault and just trashed it. If the little edge of gel that actually shows gets oxidized, so be it. I'll live with it. I made this post to see if anyone else had issues. I think it primarily comes when you allow the pad to get very hot. Right now I'm at a crossroads of using the 3m adhesive and the seadek pad, or the "backup" pad in the garage. I am leaning towards trying my own adhesive, but am terrified if it doesnt hold that I will have to somehow try to get THAT adhesive off, which I'm not sure if there is a way.

RE OT: I am absolutely loving the lake and the area here. Friendly neighbors, friendly people (if they call me a d*** yankee they at least do it behind my back), close to town, a bit of a boat ride to get to a riding cove but all manageable. A bit busy on weekends, but weekdays are not congested and I have been getting a ton of riding in (even landed a new invert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GBuLxE9Gss ). We are almost done setting up our boat lift to where it will be very easy to go riding every day. If I can somehow 'make due' with that lava black cover, i'll be in good shape, but what a bonehead choice for a color. *kicks self*

[santelee]

mine is holding up very well. it stays in shade in the boathouse during summer months.