need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

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G George
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need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by G George » Fri Feb 01, 2013 8:30 am

I have a drysuit from kokatat, used it yesterday for the first time in the cold, to get ready for some spring whitewater.
My neck gasket felt too tight, and i was worried about passing out. Ha.
Seriously it was very uncomfortable.
Then after 2 hours of stiff paddling, my thumb and fingers were tingling from the latex cuffs being tight around my wrists.
Now, i do not death grip my paddle, mostly cradle it in hands and let cupped fingers do the pulling.
I have read horror stories about trimming the gaskets,and have not trimmed them.
Also i stretched the neck gasket over a round similar too my neck size for 2 days.
Can anybody school me on how to make this problem go away??
If you need more info please let me know.
Thanks for any help provided!
G George

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SteveGabbard
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by SteveGabbard » Fri Feb 01, 2013 9:37 am

You can try stretching it some more but you may end up having to trim it to get it right. When you trim insert a ceramic bowl to get it pretty tight and do the trim with one razor cut all the way around. It should have some lines for guidance. Stay between them for the whole cut. It's not as bad as it sounds. I did a really crappy job with the first one I ever trimmed and broke all the rules. It dryrotted and never tore.

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okieboater
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by okieboater » Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:10 pm

I have never purchased a dry top or dry suit where the gaskets fit my neck or wrists. Have tried but never got the stretch procedures to work. I do not stretch much but do a little bit of stretch before I cut. My take is if the latex needs a ton of stretching to fit then it needs cutting to a comfy fit.

All sorts of methods, for me very careful cutting with really sharp scissors is the best way. Just do not cut down to the ends of the scissors to the point you create a nick. I did more damage than cutting with the razor bowl setup.

Also it is what works for the individual, but I run all my gaskets just a bit loose. I like to have the warm blood have a easy path to / through my hands, feet and neck.

As mentioned above, be very careful to follow the lines and only take a little latex off with each cut. Cut a little and test the fit. This is specifically needed with wrist and ankles as a little cut goes a long way on those conical seals.
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G George
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by G George » Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:55 pm

Thanks Guys; my suit has cloth feet so i only have the 3 gasket to deal with.
Sounds like i need to trim my gaskets.
Kinda hard to cut on something that expensive! lol :sick:

Thanks for your support!
George

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okieboater
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by okieboater » Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:09 pm

Take it slow and be very careful!
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SteveGabbard
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by SteveGabbard » Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:31 pm

As dave said some methods work better for certain people. When I used scissors I couldn't get a smooth cut without nicks and couldn't stay between the lines.

He offers excellent advice on the wrists. They don't take as much trimming. Also, when you put it on pull the wrist gaskets up your arm past the wrist bone a bit. If the gasket is over the bone it can leak a bit when it flexes.

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okieboater
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by okieboater » Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:14 am

Since this has more or less turned into a how to latex thread, a few more more additions.

Some like to use 303 others don't. I use it quite a lot. I think it helps the latex last longer. Plus I like the shine 303 puts on the latex. I also like the fact that the seals seem to slide on and off a lot easier with a good coat of 303.

Another tip, on those really cold mornings put your dry Top / Suit in the heated part of the car as you drive to the water. Cold latex will crack and tear a lot easier than warm latex. I had my latex seals tear one super cold morning on a early Middle Fork trip. Not good!

When putting on the latex, help it stretch with your fingers, especially good for the neck seals.

I do not know if this is true or not but I keep my dry top / suit in a zipped up gym bag inside the heated / AC part of the house. Let it dry outside but 303 it up and when dry into the gym bag and stashed behind the sofa in my computer room. I don't know if this is true or not, but the gossip circle says keeping latex garments in the garage is not good. Reason is the vehicle exhaust affects latex.

As mentioned several times in this thread, every boater has opinions and if it works for you, that is ok with me. Lot's of ways to get the job done.
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G George
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by G George » Sat Feb 02, 2013 6:04 pm

I too use 303 on my gaskets and they are easy to slide on.
My Wifey made a bag to cover my suit and i hang it in the basement, in the darkest corner on a special suit hangar called the ventilator.
Also stored with zippers open.
My neck gasket has trim rings and can be trimmed, but the wrist gaskets do not have the raised rings, and Kokatat says the wrist gaskets should not be trimmed.
I have a GMER gore-tex suit.

303 says let the product set on gasket for approx 5 min and buff dry.
Kokatat says every 3 weeks, i have treated every other month since i have been storing, when i use it i treat after each usage.
P.S. i get made fun of for shop vacking my yaks out and treating them with 303 as well.

Thanks for the help and support!
G George

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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by Yarbrough » Sat Feb 02, 2013 8:01 pm

George,
A thousand years ago had a friend buy a brand new 100 dollar dry top. Not wanting to cut it, he stuck a football in the neck gasket for a couple of days. The Illinois Bayou came up on a really cold day and we were off! Maybe a mile or two downstream he started getting a headache. His face was somewhat a shade of purple with a prominent V shaped vein protruded from his fore head. His hands squeezed out of the gaskets like baked bread.
The leader of our group who is a nurse(and even meaner than me) started telling him he looked like he was having a aneurysm. Then rest of the group started chiming in. "you're having a heart attack",,,,,,you're stroking out dude",,,,,,"he is gonna need a helicopter"!!!
Between the pain of the neck gasket and the psychological torture of good friends he started paddling for a gravel bar as fast as he could. Once he made it to shore he acted like it was a emergency. Maybe it really was? He was clawing at his spray skirt like he had hooves. Rolled on the gravel bar a lil to scrape the boat off. Once he got the dry top up around his head he started a full body whip motion to speed up the process. Once he got it off and gasped at breath for a couple of minutes all was good. He hiked back to the trucks and ran shuttle for us.
The point is George your not the first and it could have been funnier uh I mean worse.
Yarbrough
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SteveGabbard
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by SteveGabbard » Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:12 pm

Try stretching the wrist gaskets with some cups a little larger than your wrists again. Leave them there for a few days. If that doesn't do it I would trim them anyway regardless of what kokatat says.

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Jim Krueger
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by Jim Krueger » Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:45 am

Thought I'd put my paddle in too on this conversation. My first ever dry top was a Kokatat Whirlpool (I think), at any rate I was so pleased to get this most expensive addition to my floating gear, sometime in the mid-ninties. At any rate, it was way too tight on my neck when I tried it on at home, so I followed the instructions and placed a jug in the neck to stretch the gasket. Actually, I placed a 1gal. glass vinegar jug in there, for those who know how tall and skinny I am, you'll know that jug was about twice the size of my neck... I had a long anticipated Buffalo trip coming up a couple of weeks from then, so I just left that jug in place , until about 10 minutes before putting-in that morning. I thought surely, the size of the jug, and length of stretching time would do the trick. I was sadly mistaken, and horrified that it was still chokeing at this late date. I should have tried it again sooner rather than later, however, I had thought about this possibility, and brought myself a small set of sharp scissors, and as my friends were nice enough to just hover around in the eddy waiting for me, I sat there and trimmed that gasket. Problem solved, and I must say I too recommend Okie's method of just not taking a full bite while working around with the scissors, that technique has worked well for me for all the trimming operations I've had to do. Later I also had to trim the wrist gaskets as they were making my hands just throb.
I never had any tearing issues with these gaskets from then on, however, 'for the rest of the story', my prized dry top came to an early end a little over a year later... I had just put-in on another Buffalo trip one morning, and about four minutes into the trip, I dislocated my shoulder...When I got to the doctors office in Jasper, I was thinking, how in the world I would ever get that jacket off in such pain. It was no mystery for the nice nurse, she cut that jacket right up the back, down both sleeves, and through all the gaskets, that whole rig came off like uncovering a sheet. The moral of the story is, scissors are your friend, just don't run with them in your hand :D
About a year later, I told the good folks at Kokatat my sob story, and they were nice enough to send me a brand new top at half price :thumbup:

Best Regards
Jim

G George
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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by G George » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:25 am

Too Funny, as im sure my face was red.
Kokatat is a great company!
I, have no local club or individual to learn from, so i appreciate the knowledge that you are sharing!

I am going to trim the neck and probably the cuffs as well, but there are no lines on the cuffs, so i will have to ink them on before trimming.

G George

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Re: need help with too tight drysuit gaskets

Post by okieboater » Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:23 pm

G George, a lesson I learned the hard way. On those wrist latex seals, make small width cuts and check the fit after each cut. When it gets close to being right. Stop the trim and wait till next day to do the final trim. Reason for this is if you cut too much you are screwed. :crossed: Been a while for me to trim new seals but if memory correct the width of the cuts I made was somewhere around or a bit less than an eighth of an inch. Which was about as small a cut as I could do very well. Those wrist seals are cones in shape and open up really fast if you trim too much.
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