Fiberglass Boom Tubes?

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Blackout

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
Messages
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Anyone use solid fiberglass rod for a boom tube?? I can get them dirt cheap compared to carbon fiber. I am not concerned about weight. I broke my JAE 21 boom tubes over the weekend and looking for a cheap replacement until I learn how to drive better. :)

Thanks.
 
Anyone use solid fiberglass rod for a boom tube?? I can get them dirt cheap compared to carbon fiber. I am not concerned about weight. I broke my JAE 21 boom tubes over the weekend and looking for a cheap replacement until I learn how to drive better. :)

Thanks.
dont know.. rigger are hard on the boom tubes..fiberglass might crack/fracture easlyer..do to stress.
 
Craig,

Stay with the black glass hollow tubes (acpcomposites.com is a very good source) and put a wood dowel rod inside of the tube. I don't recall the exact size of the dowel but it fits inside of the tube. Cut it full length and glue it only in the last 2" of the ends. Do not glue it all throughout the tube. That keeps it locked in place but is flexible and yet firm enough to work for all except for a direct hit on a buoy. I have mine this way and have only broken one set and that was hitting a buoy and doing a cartwheel. Get the dowel rods from Lowes, Home Depot or the hardware store. It adds very little weight but stiffens up the boom tubes which is the weakness of the boat.
 
Solid fiberglass rods are used for marking driveways, fire hydrants in winter. They are dirt cheap at local hardware stores. I have some but opted not to use them in part because of weight; but mainly because of flexibility. They bend easily... couldnt decide if they act like a shock absorber and make for a smoother ride in rough water, or if they'd just bounce and make things worse.

Guy named Chuck Geisen on here runs them (at least he did last yr); he could tell you more about real life experiences.
 
The Power Surge Ninja uses solid fiberglass rods for the booms.
 
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WE have played with all sort of solid fiber booms and what I can say to you is that they flex too much even in small riggers.We put a GOPRO camera in a .21 rigger and what we could see was booms flexing almost half an inch in hard turns I would keep Zipp booms in your boat and improve your driving skills.

Gill
 
Thanks for the sources! Was too lazy to do a search here and was looking in all the wrong places. :rolleyes: I just ordered 6 sets of boom tubes at $9.00 per set. That is in my budget.

Thanks.
 
Break the booms, not the boat. Thats what I like about the zipkit booms. Ive had good luck with them, but I put thin wall aluminum tubing in the center section of the boom (sticks out and inch or so from each side of the tub). Others have NOT had success with the zipkit booms. I think every ounce over 4 lb really pushes these booms to the limit. My boat is about 4 oz overweight so thats why I put the aluminum in there.

at $9 a bouy strike its not bad.
 
The Power Surge Ninja uses solid fiberglass rods for the booms.
If I am not mistaken they were these...

http://www.mcmaster....ss-rods/=cfxfek or PN-8543K47

For some reason I can't get the link to the exact part to work. At any rate I think its the part number listed above.

Later,

Mike
Ya', I'm not sure where Mike Z. sourced out his parts when he was building them. One of the local guys that runs one of the early hand cut versions of the boat,replaced his with solid glass bow fishing arrow shafts.
 
Stu Barr uses Fiberglass tubes on his boats.

I use the FG on my Intrepid .21.

I tried solid 1/4" carbon on my new Cougar and didn't like them nearly as well as the FG ones. My new .21 will have FG tubes.
 
CAN YOU GUYS TELL US THE SOURCE WERE YOU GET YOUR FG RODS FROM? MARTY WHAT IS YOUR RTR WEIGHT ON YOUR INTREPID AND YOUR NEW 21 RIGGER? THANKS DAN MCCORMICK
 
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