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| To roto-mold one of our boats involves a two part process that uses two types of high density linear polyethylene resin. We first load our boat mold with the polyethylene resin that makes our boat’s outer surface. |
Our hull is formed all at once in this two part mold |
Cross Section (click on image for large view) |
We call this our skin. We then load our mold into an oven nicknamed the Terminator, and form our hull skin by rotating the mold while heating the oven to roughly 500 degrees. Once the outer surface has formed we stop the rotation of our mold, and drop a second resin into the mold. This second resin is then heated and rotated like the first resin, and in turn forms an extremely rigid closed cell foam that chemically bonds to the first skin. The combo material is referred to by thermo-plastic engineers as skin foam and skin foam skin. At Hog Island we call it SSB: Seamless Smooth Butter.
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| The result is a drift boat building material that it is awesome. Our material has so many things going for it on the water, in the river, and at your house. It is very tough and very quiet and naturally buoyant. Our hull easily slides over rocks, gravels bars, logs, and sand bars. In addition the color of our hull doesn’t scratch, it is easy to patch, and it is very easy to clean. |
Uber Lab Lola getting excited field testing SBS for its dog friendliness on the Colorado River |
| No more sticky and itchy epoxies and fiberglass cloth, no more looking for an aluminum welder, and no more sanding and refinishing wood. No more long hours fixing your boat before an important trip. No more winter ritual of flipping your drift boat upside down for the annual boat bottom work. Most importantly no more loud gut wrenching crashes that make you and your passengers instantly worry if your boat is going to sink….more about sinking in our Coat Guard section |
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