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Hi Joni,
I took your advice and brought my inflatable PFD into West Marine today and asked about the cartridge possibly not inflating in an emergency and mentioned that I'd had it for 9 years, never used it and should I be concerned about it failing.
The guy told me his father made his family wear an inflatable PFD waistpack and then purposely inflate it so they'd know what the experience was like. He said he's had his inflatable for 20 years and has never had to buy a new cartridge. I took all this to mean he knew what he was talking about. He opened my PFD and said, "As long as you do not have a puncture in the cartridge and the blue thingy is still there, and it's seated properly, not to worry, it will work if you need it."
Also, you can buy an extension handle for your trolling motor that will make it much easier to operate.
FT
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Good on the vest, as far as the handle on the motor, an extension handle is not needed, I can reach the control easy, it is reaching back to kick the motor up when coming into shallow. It is back quite a bit farther on a Renegade than the Escape, but thanks for the suggestion. Man have you seen the one Tube Dude rigged up. Nice bend and everything/. Be like flicking a bug off your shoulder with his extension....very nice.
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TD is very creative. He's done some phenomenal things with his tube. Great guy, too.
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[cool][#0000ff]Careful. I might sue ya for slander. [/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]I am properly appreciative. Just that it's too hard to live up to a good reputation. Easier to deal with the other kind.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I think I have sent you some stuff on PVC that includes pics of my extension handle. Let me know if you need anything else. It just attaches to the motor handle with a hose clamp and rests on your shoulder...either side. I put a long bungee cord through the T on the end and loop that over my head to keep the handle handy. You can use it for speed, on and off or steering. But I have a remote on/off switch and I lock the motor in a straight back position and steer with my feet. I usually keep the motor on high speed so I seldom use the speed control either. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In a nutshell, I have the remote on/off switch installed on my right side and I can just push it down with my right elbow for a short run... or flip the switch over to hold it down if I want to make a longer run. The handle extension is always there if I need it but I seldom use it.[/#0000ff]
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My pontoon TietonIII did not have a swivel on the seat, I installed one, made it a lot easier to reach the motor handle...
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On the inflatable PFD, you can remove and weigh the cartridge to tell if is full, but you need a sensitive scale. The manufacturer can tell you the range of weights. I periodically test my inflatable PFDs every couple of years, just to go thru the disaster drill. This is done with both the backup manual inflation and cartridge.
If there is real danger when on a remote lake or where there are rapids, I will wear the PFD partially inflated just enough to keep me afloat face up. Best to remove the cartridge and plug the hole with the correct metric thread bolt, to keep water out of any mechanism when using manual inflation.
Hope this helps,
Pon
[quote Fishtales23]Hi Joni,
I took your advice and brought my inflatable PFD into West Marine today and asked about the cartridge possibly not inflating in an emergency and mentioned that I'd had it for 9 years, never used it and should I be concerned about it failing.
The guy told me his father made his family wear an inflatable PFD waistpack and then purposely inflate it so they'd know what the experience was like. He said he's had his inflatable for 20 years and has never had to buy a new cartridge. I took all this to mean he knew what he was talking about. He opened my PFD and said, "As long as you do not have a puncture in the cartridge and the blue thingy is still there, and it's seated properly, not to worry, it will work if you need it."
Also, you can buy an extension handle for your trolling motor that will make it much easier to operate.
FT[/quote]
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Good idea, Pon.
Thanks!
FT
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