Spar wear

[Morrunya]

I realized when packing up one of my revs, that the end caps put a little wear on the ends of the spars. Because of this, I decided to wrap the end of all my spars (except for the advantage spar) once with electrical tape!

You can see the wear on the spar that isn't taped.

[KiteLife]

That's fair, but to be quite honest... I've never had any problems from the wear or slight but inevitable chipping on the ends of the spars.

I'd have no use for the tape, added weight with no practical purpose.

My 2 cents.

[Baloo]

I have a REAL early Rev 1 that is obviously VERY second hand. The wear on the end of the spars is so bad you can sort of feel a step in them.

Still seem to work fine though.

Wont the tape wear and end up a sticky mess inside the end caps??

[fortflyer]

I have a REAL early Rev 1 that is obviously VERY second hand. The wear on the end of the spars is so bad you can sort of feel a step in them.

Still seem to work fine though.

Wont the tape wear and end up a sticky mess inside the end caps??

The very early Rev 1 I purchased last year (never flown) seemed to have the ends sanded to fit in the metal end caps and metal ferrules on the leading edge even the down spars had about 1" slightly sanded on each end. seems they did that on purpose.

Watty, I wouldn't worry about it unless you start seeing carbon unwrapping.

[Morrunya]

I guess it's a little unnecessary, but I'd rather be safe than sorry!!!!!!

[johnnmitchell]

I guess it's a little unnecessary, but I'd rather be safe than sorry!!!!!!

Yeah, your right! It is not necessary.

Those rods can take a tremendous amount of wear and still not break!

I have seen LE rods from an early REV I that were grooved from the verticals rubbing them and they still have not broken.

You won't have this problem in later(after about 1992) REVs as they have protective Kevlar under the two outer vertical black stripes to prevent the rods from rubbing through the material.

[TGunn]

Watty,

Nice idea, but electrical tape does make a sticky mess when it starts unraveling, and it will eventually. I too have had rev spars wear on the ends, and some wore down pretty bad after a few years use.

I use tape on many of my kites (dual line) to tighten up loose spreaders, wing tip arrow nocks, standoff sail fittings, etc..., but I use scoth type, clear gift wrapping tape. It's light weight and doesn't peel off as easy as electrical tape when exposed to heat and sand. Believe me Watty, when yo go fly at WSIKF in a few weeks, the electrical tape you're using will start unraveling, and will leave a sticky mess.

Electrical heat shrink tubing also works great for spar ends and leaves no messy glue.

[antman]

watty .. there is no need for that type of setup the wear happens with those spars but they last a life time if taken care of properly.. some of my rods have a big wear mark on them and have lasted me a long time

[KiteLife]

Bottom line, do what makes you feel most comfortable, based on the information you've received thus far.

When we're at WSIKF, feel free to look at every single one of iQuad's spars... We've put hundreds of hours on nearly all of them.

[ilh]

On a related note, anyone have a good way to keep sand out of the endcaps? I'm thinking of a short length (1/2-inch?) of very stretchy tubing over the outside of the endcap and spar to keep sand out. Perhaps surgical tubing?

It seems that some of the beaches I fly at have just the right size grains of sand to get in between the spar and endcap and making removal quite difficult at times.

--Lee

[johnnmitchell]

On a related note, anyone have a good way to keep sand out of the endcaps? I'm thinking of a short length (1/2-inch?) of very stretchy tubing over the outside of the endcap and spar to keep sand out. Perhaps surgical tubing?

It seems that some of the beaches I fly at have just the right size grains of sand to get in between the spar and endcap and making removal quite difficult at times.

--Lee

Best thing I found to date is silicon tubing. I've been using it for about 10 years. It is not 100% perfect, but good enough for me.

[ilh]

Thanks, John. I'll look for it.

EDIT: I ordered a variety of sizes from McMaster-Carr. I'll let you know how it goes.

--Lee

[jay1957]

Hi Dont know if you have it in the States but over here in some of our Fishing Tackle shops we have some Carbon Cleaner Restorer Which is supposed to deposit more carbon onto the rod, Cant say if it works personally, never had to use it, it was designed for fishing poles and the wear they recieve at the joints which is considerable.

Just thought that may help.:-)

[Stephen Hoath]

On a related note, anyone have a good way to keep sand out of the endcaps?

--Lee

I found the best way is to NEVER EVER EVER fly on a beach!

[johnnmitchell]

Hi Dont know if you have it in the States but over here in some of our Fishing Tackle shops we have some Carbon Cleaner Restorer Which is supposed to deposit more carbon onto the rod, Cant say if it works personally, never had to use it, it was designed for fishing poles and the wear they recieve at the joints which is considerable.

Just thought that may help.:-)

I don't bother to do anything but normal cleaning, however I suspect car wax or car dashboard polish might make it look better.

[johnnmitchell]

I found the best way is to NEVER EVER EVER fly on a beach!

Right on there, however as we all know ?