Can Ram X Plastic be melted to Repair cracks in Ram X Canoe?

I have an old 16 foot Ram X Canoe that has a couple small cracks. Can I use strips of extra Ram X plastic to melt and fill in those cracks? I have read several times that nothing else bonds to Ram X plastic Long term. IF you think this is possible, what sort of soldering iron would you recommend?

Polyethylene can be welded. I would checkbout some youtube videos. I would try a cheap harbor freight (or other chinesium) plastic welder.

My friend did some plastic welding with some success on his old Coleman. He ultimately placed a big custom made stainless steel patch over the bow. If he had to pay to have it made it would cost more than the canoe.

Here is a link to some instructions:

Plastic welding is often used to repair cracks in single-layer, linear polyethylene canoes and kayaks. The Ram-X material is a three-layer rotomolded PE material with a foam core. What is more, it is described as "cross-link thermoformed high density polyethylene".

There are two chemically distinct varieties of polyethylene used to roto-mold canoes and kayaks, linear and cross-linked. Linear polyethylene can be thermally welded. Cross-linked polyethylene (using that term in the correct chemical sense of the word) cannot be repaired with thermal welding. If you try to the material will not melt but simply spark and burn.

Having said that, I believe that Coleman and Pelican are not using the term "cross-linked" in the correct chemical sense of the word. I believe they are referring to the foam core which is "cross-linked" to the two outer solid layers of PE. I could be wrong about that, but I believe the Ram-X material is high-density linear PE.

If so it can be repaired with thermal welding but the trick will be dealing with the foam core. It will be easy to melt. I have heard of folks using thermal welding to repair three-layer roto-molded PE and Royalex hulls, which also have a foam core. But it is not often done and I believe would be best left to someone with experience repairing that type of hull with thermal welding. Unless of course, you are not too heavily invested in a successful outcome and just want to experiment.

Mark, welcome to site membership!

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My understanding tracks that given by @pblanc.

And then there’s G-flex or 3M 5200? Maybe “it cant be done” but i’ve used both, successfully on OT Discovery’s.
maybe i’m just lucky or foolish or both?
Ive also welded kids toys (hot wheel’s) etc with a propane torch and a screwdriver.

Alasgun said:

And then there’s G-flex or 3M 5200? Maybe “it cant be done” but i’ve used both, successfully on OT Discovery’s.
maybe i’m just lucky or foolish or both?
Ive also welded kids toys (hot wheel’s) etc with a propane torch and a screwdriver.

Click to expand...

G Flex will work and I have used it to effect repairs in many Royalex canoes and also a few single-layer polyethylene kayaks and C-1s (one of which was a cross-linked PE hull) and one three-layer, roto-molded PE canoe. But to achieve a satisfactory bond to PE using G Flex epoxy you must first prepare the surface by cleaning and degreasing it thoroughly, light sanding, and a final wipe down with denatured alcohol. You must then pretreat the plastic just before application of the epoxy with flame oxidation, which is achieved by passing the tip of the inner blue cone of a hand-held propane torch quickly over the surface to be bonded. This will ionize the otherwise quite chemically-inert polyethylene molecules on the surface sufficiently to achieve a decent bond to the epoxy. If you omit the flame oxidation the bond to the PE will be worthless.

Hi Mark & welcome to the site. Crack repairs have been discussed quite a few times here over the years (especially in the winter) so they're not at all an unusual problem. Please consider posting your repair procedures, experiences and, perhaps, a "what I'd do differently next time" summary afterwards to help others who might attempt repairs in the future.

Best of luck with the repairs and we'll look forward to seeing you around.