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New 2013 PA 14 Owner
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Author:  Herk [ Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:33 am ]
Post subject:  New 2013 PA 14 Owner

I've owned a Quest 13 for about 5 years now and done quite a few mods to it- double anchor trolleys, thru hull depth finder, etc., but have wanted to move up to a mirage drive kayak and recently bought a PA 14. My first shakedown trip, I ran into a couple of issues. I use a bed extension to haul the kayak and it works great, but when I off loaded the kayak, inserted the heavy duty cart wheels I noticed that the kayak was very heavy to pull and I discovered that the wheels were rubbing on the bottom of the kayak. This was a surprise because I would expect that Hobie would have made sure that there was adequate clearance, but there wasn't. I had the wheels inserted in the aft scuppers, so I move them forward to the mid scuppers and then had clearance and much better balanced load. I learned I needed to install the adjustable collars on the cart to provide clearance, but upon closer look at how they match up to the scupper holes, it appears these collars only touch the area of the scuppers in just a few areas and all the weight is concentrated there. The 1" foam pad takes none of the weight at all. Didn't like that so I replaced the 1" foam with a 4" piece of pool noodle which spread the weight more effectively and eliminates the need for the collars. Seems to me that maybe some kind of rubber donuts would be more effective at spreading the weight and minimizing wear on the scuppers than the hard plastic collar set up Hobie uses now and probably less expensive as well. I see that Hobie has reinforce the scuppers by inserting black plastic pipe in the scuppers holes as well so there must have been an issue with scupper cracks in the earlier models. The rest of the shakedown was uneventful and I really liked the mirage drive and the rod tubes worked great. I did discover that the rudder was not balanced so I had more left rudder than right, but that was an easy fix. One question- Is the lowrance depth finder installation kit an option or is it included with the kayak?

Author:  Flyfsh [ Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New 2013 PA 14 Owner

option.
I installed one on my pa12 and it works great.
Jim

Author:  RockyRaab [ Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New 2013 PA 14 Owner

I'm sure the Hobie staff can correct me if I'm wrong, but I am pretty sure the cart bushings are SUPPOSED to rest on the scuppers and that the foam sleeve is NOT supposed to touch the boat bottom. That's because the scupper posts are stronger than the boat bottom.

I found that the rubber bushings wouldn't stay in place even with the set screw tight. So I cut short sections of PVC (measured to still allow the trolley retainer pin to function) and slid them on under the bushings. Simple, permanent and effective.

Author:  windknot [ Fri Feb 15, 2013 12:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New 2013 PA 14 Owner

I use this for the scupper cart to spread out the weight.
From other other forum: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index ... ic=41447.0

Author:  Herk [ Fri Feb 15, 2013 6:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New 2013 PA 14 Owner

Great ideas, but I decided to use the 4" pool noodle piece and some 7/8" inside diameter high density foam for building custom rod grips. I just split the pool noodle so that it would slip over the cross member. I may take duct tape and wrap the noodle so it's secure. I took the high density foam and cut two 2" pieces and slipped those down the uprights as you can see. Image Now the 4" pool noodle conforms perfectly to the hull spreading the load and at the same time, the high density foam pieces spread the load and cushion the scuppers. A little field testing this weekend should verify how good this will work.

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