makejetskiinggreatagain
Brandon
I thought I would start a thread about my recent experience with installing the rickter adjustable footholds. This will probably be best suited towards people new to builds and composites like I was/am. A little background: This was my first time installing any footholds and my only experience with working with fiberglass was a week prior when I reinforced my engine bay, so if I can do it anyone can. This was also done on an fx-1, not a superjet like the kit is specified as. Because I was new at this I made some mistakes. Also, I believe rickter could make a tweak to the design to make it far easier. Dont get mad that I just suggested Rickter isnt perfect, I'll explain my findings. For those of you who want the cliffnote version of the problems I faced see all text in red.
Here we go.
The Rickter site mentions that extensive fiberglass work is required. However, I thought these inserts would be made to fit fairly well and that the only glass work I should have to do is glassing over the flanges and along the base of the holds after everything was riveted in. When I pulled the inserts out I fitted them to a piece of cardboard by cutting a hole out in the cardboard. Then I used this cardboard template to figure out the shape needed to cut out of my gunwale. The pic below is of what i thought it needed to look like (disregard other cuts made to remove tray for defoaming): Notice how the flange on the insert at the bottom of the pic is even and remember this for later in this oh so riveting story. I did widen that hole a bit so it would fit better.
This cut was identical so the insert flanges were supposed to fit snugly against the inner gunwale walls and the back wall of the inserts were supposed to sit nicely against the outside wall of the ski. I was unpleasantly surprised to see that this did NOT happen. However, I would have expected that this would happen had I measured my fx gunwales compared to my superjets. The fx has much thicker ones so naturally there was a gap between the wall where the adjustment plate is mounted to and the outside of the ski where the bolts mount from. i hope this makes sense. A picture later on in the story may clear up any confusion with this.
I only mention this step because i need to explain my next decision. I had been avoiding widening the tray because I was nervous enough about glass work as it was plus I didnt want to add any time to the build. I was already way behind. So my next thought was "Ok, I'll just cut the flanges off of the inserts so i can slide them all the way in to the back and then i will just glass over the small voids that i will end up creating." That was a mistake on my part, and would have been avoided had i taken a closer look at the inserts. When i cut off the flanges and was able to push the inserts all the way in i noticed a problem that an observant or experienced person would have caught right off the bat.
This is where i believe Rickter needs to adjust the design. Even if i were to install these on a superjet, they would not fit by cutting a hole as i had planned. The problem is that if you look straight down at the inserts as if you were standing in the tray above them you would notice they are not square, as they should be, but triangular shaped. In other words the thickness of the inserts next to where your heel stands should have been the same as where your toes would. Why? Because a superjet (like every other ski) does not have a tray that is wider in the back than it is in the front. the gunwales do not angle. I drew a hand sketch of this problem.
Now if you wanted to you could simply butt the flanges up to the tray wall and leave a gap behind the back of the insert and the outside of the ski. But then your footholds (and thus your feet) would angle out quite a bit. You would also need much longer bolts to extend that gap. Here is another pic of what i mean.
Unfortunately this meant that for the adjustment plate wall of the inserts to butt nicely against the outside of the ski while keeping the insert flush with the tray wall i would need to widen the back of the tray by about 1" on each gunwale (2" total across the tray). However, I would also need to keep the front of the tray the same since the front side of the inserts were about an 1 longer than the back. Here are 2 more pics to help visual people grasp what I am having a hard time explaining. notice in the first pic that i only needed to cut out the tray at the back and not at the front. In the second pic, notice how the front of the inserts fit fairly flush with the stock tray while the back needed the relief. during this fitment the adjustment plate wall of the insert is flush against the outside of the ski similar to my first drawing above.
Quite frankly, in the end I was happy I had to widen the tray. However, I believe those doing this mod on a superjet will have to do the same thing because of the triangular shape of the inserts instead of them being rectangular, just not to the extreme I had to because of the difference in gunwale thickness.
Here is a pic of the inserts after being glassed in. My fiberglass has black pigment in it because i used that resin to do the engine bay reinforcement. I used a layer of 3oz twill covered with a layer of 12oz biax around the outsides and 17oz biax on the tray floor for anyone wondering. I only did the 3oz around the outside first because I needed to shape the corners in such a way that the 12oz would be able to wrap around. I was worried the 12oz wouldnt like a really sharp transition corner to wrap around. Once they were in i drilled the holes for the bolts that would eventually mount the adjustable plates.
After glassing these in I should have poured the expanding foam behind them for structural support. However, I didnt have my foam yet. It was still being shipped. I mistakingly decided to move on with paint in the mean time. It was my first time painting and i had been nervous about it for months leading up. The paint turned out awesome and I was relieved...for about 12 hours before i ruined it. The day after i sprayed primer my foam showed up but i was in paint mode so i sprayed color. About 12 hours later I drilled 1" holes in the top of the gunwales above the foothold inserts and poured in a good amount of 2 part foam. To my horror, I had forgotten to plug the holes and expanding foam poured all over my fresh paint, etching itself through the clear coat, and even through part of the color paint underneath.
I tried taking it to the pressure washer, and afterwards tried to use acetone on it but it was too late. Cured 2 part foam is impossible to remove from anything. i was told that had i used acetone on it before it cured i might have been able to remove it, but i cant confirm that that works. If you are in that situation though its worth trying because whatever that is on is ruined anyway. Lesson learned: Pour foam in before holes are drilled and (if possible) before paint is sprayed. if you cant, at least find a way to plug the holes. I got to repaint the next day. Luckily I wasnt as nervous this time around.
My next lesson learned: mount the plate as high as the inserts will allow so that adjustment vertically is only in the downward motion. This way you can use anything from 26mm underpad to 0 underpad. These being my first footholds i thought i would want adjustment up or down in case i was off, plus my padding hadnt come in yet and i wasnt aware how little it would compress. I ordered the 26mm plush so that i would have plenty of padding for comfort. I drilled my holes about 5/8" lower than i could have. When i got my underpad i was bummed to find out that i couldnt even fit my bare foot under the holds with just that underpad (not even including the thickness of turf). In fact, i would have had to sand/cut out 17mm of underpad to fit my feet in them (with shoes one), which would have given me quite the wall surrounding my foot. since these were my first footholds i wanted to be able to come out of them easily if i needed to and i was afraid a wall of pad of that magnitude surrounding my foot wouldnt allow that. Instead i set my holds to the max adjustment and ordered 9mm underpad. Had i mounted the plate as high as possible, The adjustment of these holds would have still allowed me to use 0 underpad and get my bare foot in there snugly (not that anyone would use footholds barefoot). here is a pic to kind of judge. The footholds arent bolted in and i should have taken a pic when they were, but oh well. I didnt. Sorry.
After my 9mm pad came in I turfed the ski. I thought it turned out decent for my first turf job. Again, also notice the wider tray in the back and the stock tray width in the front.
Luckily I spent the money to go buy adjusable holds because after using them the first day i ended up moving them horizontally 1". If you have never had footholds i would suggest buying adjustable ones for this very reason. You dont want to have to cut into $100+ worth of new turf and cut out /re-glass in your footholds because you put them in the wrong spot.
Lastly, since I spent all of this time typing this out I felt like i earned the right to throw in a small name drop for my water sport apparel company "Wet Dreams". I hope thats ok. Please like my page on facebook www.facebook.com/wetdreamsapparel and visit my online store to buy some Wet Dreams swag at www.wetdreamsapparel.com
Here we go.
The Rickter site mentions that extensive fiberglass work is required. However, I thought these inserts would be made to fit fairly well and that the only glass work I should have to do is glassing over the flanges and along the base of the holds after everything was riveted in. When I pulled the inserts out I fitted them to a piece of cardboard by cutting a hole out in the cardboard. Then I used this cardboard template to figure out the shape needed to cut out of my gunwale. The pic below is of what i thought it needed to look like (disregard other cuts made to remove tray for defoaming): Notice how the flange on the insert at the bottom of the pic is even and remember this for later in this oh so riveting story. I did widen that hole a bit so it would fit better.
This cut was identical so the insert flanges were supposed to fit snugly against the inner gunwale walls and the back wall of the inserts were supposed to sit nicely against the outside wall of the ski. I was unpleasantly surprised to see that this did NOT happen. However, I would have expected that this would happen had I measured my fx gunwales compared to my superjets. The fx has much thicker ones so naturally there was a gap between the wall where the adjustment plate is mounted to and the outside of the ski where the bolts mount from. i hope this makes sense. A picture later on in the story may clear up any confusion with this.
I only mention this step because i need to explain my next decision. I had been avoiding widening the tray because I was nervous enough about glass work as it was plus I didnt want to add any time to the build. I was already way behind. So my next thought was "Ok, I'll just cut the flanges off of the inserts so i can slide them all the way in to the back and then i will just glass over the small voids that i will end up creating." That was a mistake on my part, and would have been avoided had i taken a closer look at the inserts. When i cut off the flanges and was able to push the inserts all the way in i noticed a problem that an observant or experienced person would have caught right off the bat.
This is where i believe Rickter needs to adjust the design. Even if i were to install these on a superjet, they would not fit by cutting a hole as i had planned. The problem is that if you look straight down at the inserts as if you were standing in the tray above them you would notice they are not square, as they should be, but triangular shaped. In other words the thickness of the inserts next to where your heel stands should have been the same as where your toes would. Why? Because a superjet (like every other ski) does not have a tray that is wider in the back than it is in the front. the gunwales do not angle. I drew a hand sketch of this problem.
Now if you wanted to you could simply butt the flanges up to the tray wall and leave a gap behind the back of the insert and the outside of the ski. But then your footholds (and thus your feet) would angle out quite a bit. You would also need much longer bolts to extend that gap. Here is another pic of what i mean.
Unfortunately this meant that for the adjustment plate wall of the inserts to butt nicely against the outside of the ski while keeping the insert flush with the tray wall i would need to widen the back of the tray by about 1" on each gunwale (2" total across the tray). However, I would also need to keep the front of the tray the same since the front side of the inserts were about an 1 longer than the back. Here are 2 more pics to help visual people grasp what I am having a hard time explaining. notice in the first pic that i only needed to cut out the tray at the back and not at the front. In the second pic, notice how the front of the inserts fit fairly flush with the stock tray while the back needed the relief. during this fitment the adjustment plate wall of the insert is flush against the outside of the ski similar to my first drawing above.
Quite frankly, in the end I was happy I had to widen the tray. However, I believe those doing this mod on a superjet will have to do the same thing because of the triangular shape of the inserts instead of them being rectangular, just not to the extreme I had to because of the difference in gunwale thickness.
Here is a pic of the inserts after being glassed in. My fiberglass has black pigment in it because i used that resin to do the engine bay reinforcement. I used a layer of 3oz twill covered with a layer of 12oz biax around the outsides and 17oz biax on the tray floor for anyone wondering. I only did the 3oz around the outside first because I needed to shape the corners in such a way that the 12oz would be able to wrap around. I was worried the 12oz wouldnt like a really sharp transition corner to wrap around. Once they were in i drilled the holes for the bolts that would eventually mount the adjustable plates.
After glassing these in I should have poured the expanding foam behind them for structural support. However, I didnt have my foam yet. It was still being shipped. I mistakingly decided to move on with paint in the mean time. It was my first time painting and i had been nervous about it for months leading up. The paint turned out awesome and I was relieved...for about 12 hours before i ruined it. The day after i sprayed primer my foam showed up but i was in paint mode so i sprayed color. About 12 hours later I drilled 1" holes in the top of the gunwales above the foothold inserts and poured in a good amount of 2 part foam. To my horror, I had forgotten to plug the holes and expanding foam poured all over my fresh paint, etching itself through the clear coat, and even through part of the color paint underneath.
I tried taking it to the pressure washer, and afterwards tried to use acetone on it but it was too late. Cured 2 part foam is impossible to remove from anything. i was told that had i used acetone on it before it cured i might have been able to remove it, but i cant confirm that that works. If you are in that situation though its worth trying because whatever that is on is ruined anyway. Lesson learned: Pour foam in before holes are drilled and (if possible) before paint is sprayed. if you cant, at least find a way to plug the holes. I got to repaint the next day. Luckily I wasnt as nervous this time around.
My next lesson learned: mount the plate as high as the inserts will allow so that adjustment vertically is only in the downward motion. This way you can use anything from 26mm underpad to 0 underpad. These being my first footholds i thought i would want adjustment up or down in case i was off, plus my padding hadnt come in yet and i wasnt aware how little it would compress. I ordered the 26mm plush so that i would have plenty of padding for comfort. I drilled my holes about 5/8" lower than i could have. When i got my underpad i was bummed to find out that i couldnt even fit my bare foot under the holds with just that underpad (not even including the thickness of turf). In fact, i would have had to sand/cut out 17mm of underpad to fit my feet in them (with shoes one), which would have given me quite the wall surrounding my foot. since these were my first footholds i wanted to be able to come out of them easily if i needed to and i was afraid a wall of pad of that magnitude surrounding my foot wouldnt allow that. Instead i set my holds to the max adjustment and ordered 9mm underpad. Had i mounted the plate as high as possible, The adjustment of these holds would have still allowed me to use 0 underpad and get my bare foot in there snugly (not that anyone would use footholds barefoot). here is a pic to kind of judge. The footholds arent bolted in and i should have taken a pic when they were, but oh well. I didnt. Sorry.
After my 9mm pad came in I turfed the ski. I thought it turned out decent for my first turf job. Again, also notice the wider tray in the back and the stock tray width in the front.
Luckily I spent the money to go buy adjusable holds because after using them the first day i ended up moving them horizontally 1". If you have never had footholds i would suggest buying adjustable ones for this very reason. You dont want to have to cut into $100+ worth of new turf and cut out /re-glass in your footholds because you put them in the wrong spot.
Lastly, since I spent all of this time typing this out I felt like i earned the right to throw in a small name drop for my water sport apparel company "Wet Dreams". I hope thats ok. Please like my page on facebook www.facebook.com/wetdreamsapparel and visit my online store to buy some Wet Dreams swag at www.wetdreamsapparel.com
Last edited:
