Hobie warranty
 

Anyone have any out of warranty experiences with Hobie? I decided to practice my re-entry skills after the whole Tony thingy. As I was capsizing my PA14 in the pool I used the arm rest on the vantage seat to pull my self over and capsize. As I did that I felt something give on my chair, I thought it just wasn't tied down in the rear. But when I got out of the pool and put the PA away I noticed where the seat cleat slides down in the front seat shoes on the left on it actually ripped the deck up with the mount and all. It's not completely free but there's no way you can sit on the chair without the left leg pushing right through the deck. It seems to me to be a really hard place to fix(without some kind of alum. plates or such). I was just wondering if its happened before and what Hobie might say about it. I can see it breaking if a guy jumped down in the seat and it broke, but lifting up on the armrest ? strange.

only one way to find out.

talk about a stress crack!

Maybe weld it up and get a big piece of plastic and weld it over it like double reinforcing it?

Just add it on the list of things to blame on Tony. I heard he had something to do with the mlpa too.:sifone:

Hobie pro rates warranty beyond the initial 2 years. Pulling up may not have caused the crack but only revealed it. There should be the closed cell foam block wedged under that to keep the pressure spread out over a greater area. Tony should chime in on this one :D If you chose to get this welded the block placement would be crucial to keep it from cracking again.

Easy to submit a warranty claim, always happy to help.

warranty
 

As tony mensioned and now iceman, the foam blocks were under the bottom of the mounts. I pushed them out of the way to take the pics so I could try and determine if I could repair the failure. I need to talk to someone who can help me with a direction forward.

Look one post up at the last line and pick up your phone.

got it
 

thanks

Yes Andy I will chime in on this one.

Make sure that you take it ASAP to your nearest OEX hobie dealer to get the process started. Your local OEX dealer will run the serial # with Hobie and they will determine your options. Don't try to repair it because you shouldn't have to.

I have a suggestion for other PA owners, and that is to make sure that the foam blocks, especially the cylindrical foam blocks under the seat are in place. Those foam blocks are absolutely critical, without them this area is especially prone to failure.

Since they are easily knocked out of place, I just Velcro'd those sum bitches down!!! Now they stay in place and are easily removed if I ever have to remove them.

The only way to repair that is by putting a pressure plate under the foot. High quality SS should work fine. It should be a two part pressure plate. The lower piece fits in the dimple, the upper piece should have at least a 3 inch overlap on the deck. Most likely it will overlap the two black plugs, so holes will have to be drilled to accommodate those. Fasten with SS hardare, and 5200 for proper seal.
I had my foot push through the deck of my standup jet ski and had to do a similar repair to that. It's tricky when it is a weight bearing area.

do 2012 outbacks have these foam blocks too?

Pretty sure all hobies have foam blocks in them. The ones in question are limited to hobie PAs with the Vantage seat. So all PA 12s, and late 2013 model to current PA 14s should have this block or blocks.

Foam blocks
 

You are right on. I moved both sides out of the way so I could take pics of the failure. I talked to hobie and they wanted rik at Oside dive and kayak to help me with the claim because he is a couple of miles away from me. He is a great guy and will do whatever he can I'm sure.

Hello Tsugg,
I have a question regarding the factory placement of the foam blocks. When you removed the foam blocks were they in the correct position, what was keeping them in place and were the blocks in slight compression?

My 2010 Outback had some long foam blocks inside the hull all but all they did was slide forward and back, I'm guessing these were suppose to service as floatation devices:rolleyes:

foam blocks
 

They appeared to be centered under the right and left shoes for the front of the vantage seat. They only looked to be in place and under some compression because of the inserts molded in for the shoe bolts. When I pulled them out, they had the impression of the inserts kind of molded from pressue in the tops of them, so I think the idea is once they mold or shape around those seat inserts they will stay in place. Tony has a good point about putting vecro on the ends to help them remain in their intended location as additional load bering supports. That being said I can fully see where Hobie didnt count on users pulling up on the armrests. That is why it failed, because I pulled up on it during a training excercise to capsize the craft.

yeah thats what i figured what mine was for haha

Warranty update
 

Two weeks of backlog and hobie has given me a brand new 2014 PA ! My old one was a 2013 so the new one has a few changes. I couldn't be happier! I just finished rigging all my old stuff on the new one plus I added a tony step.

Congrats!! Superb customer service!!!