Hello All,
New to this foiling thing..

Got a new axis foil setup.

Do people leave foils assembled or take them apart each time? Found salt water puddles in mast and fuselage. I know salt, water, carbon, stainless and aluminium can cause corrosion quickly.

Found Park ASC-1 Antiseize Compound - 113g Tube in my bike tool kit. Is this ok? Or is Tufgel the best?

How tight should the bolts be?

Thanks
steven.

I'm a newbie too. I'd love to say I disassembled each time, because that was what I planned to do.

I liberally TefGel'ed everything when I first got it 9 months ago, with good intentions of breaking it down each time I used it... and I've pulled it apart and TefGel'ed it twice since.

It lives assembled, but I do loosen everything off each day.

I liberally tefgel and disassemble about every 3 months (AXIS foil). Have only had two bolts sieze over the last 6 years.

tef-gel is the shizzle and a foiler's best friend

I use marine grease, cheap and easy. All joining surfaces and hardware coated. Disassemble every 1-2 months. 3 years and no corrosion or stuck screws on a Naish alloy foil.

Running ally means that tefgel and hot water are your friends, salt will find its way everywhere. That said when i had a naish i just left it assembled all the time. Didnt really wash it much. Jammed it with tefgel. There was a bit of corrosion around the mast and fuse but not enough to reduce functionality. The reality is that the gear is moving so quickly that i dont think longevity due to corrosion will ever be the real issue for most of us foil brained frothers.

Oh yeah seen some guys who run axis keep a cheap battery powered hand drill in their van for quick gear breakdown and setup, reliable bolt torque...

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airsail said..
I use marine grease, cheap and easy. All joining surfaces and hardware coated. Disassemble every 1-2 months. 3 years and no corrosion or stuck screws on a Naish alloy foil.

I have just started using white lithium grease (spray can with a straw) instead of tefgel. Easier to apply on screws, less mess, not sticky, but I wonder about longevity and protection compared to tefgel...?

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airsail said..
I use marine grease, cheap and easy. All joining surfaces and hardware coated. Disassemble every 1-2 months. 3 years and no corrosion or stuck screws on a Naish alloy foil.

Fully agree and much easier and nicer to use than tefgel.
I use marine grease as used for boat trailer wheel bearings.

I had a slingshot foil, had to put tefgel on all the bearing surfaces and loosen and retighten the bolts on a regular basis.

then I bought an Armstrong, no grease, no disassembly required. And half the weight

I only ride in fresh water so corrosion in not a big problem. I always completely disassemble the foil. I think it is a good habit as you will naturally inspect the gear when assembling and dissembling. I also use a Skil Rechargeable 4V Cordless Screwdriver, best investment ever.

White lithium grease for over 2 years. But dismantle wings & fuselarge. And loosen mast to plate screws.
Regrease basically 1 to 2 months. No probs.
Just nip up the screws. No need to over tighten.
If the screws seem hard to undo or make a crack noise when loosening after a session then it may be time to either regrease or use less force when tightening.
Usually the crack noise means lubrication has washed off and the heads of the screws are biting into the countersunk holes.

I use tefgel, never disassemble it, but rinse the whole rig after the session.

My thinking is that if salt water can find its way in some places, rinsing it will find the same way.

I was thinking of having a shallow pool (plastic basin or kid pool) to just put the foil wings + fuz flat in fresh water in it and let it bathe for some time after a session, but didn't do it (yet).

I don,t take the stuff out of each other too often.With Naish I used anti seize stuff I use for my MTB and rinsing it after a sess with a portable shower and that worked well, With Gofoil no need at all.

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Pacey said..then I bought an Armstrong, no grease, no disassembly required. And half the weight

What he said

I have SAB/Moses gear very rearly pull apart and no issues with the grease I mentioned above.
Plus no issues with wear of parts as can happen with some very expensive carbon gear.
Sorry, could not help myself but most gear now is very good each with its individual issues.

Well I've said this before but when I had the axis gear I first kept pulling it apart and re applying Ted gel. Got sick of that and eventually 3-4 months before I took it apart with one a red fell application. Never had a bolt seize. Now and then I cracked the mast bolts. but I suppose there is always a risk of it seizing


.... oh and what Pacey and Hilly said

Thanks all.

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airsail said..
I use marine grease, cheap and easy. All joining surfaces and hardware coated. Disassemble every 1-2 months. 3 years and no corrosion or stuck screws on a Naish alloy foil.

what airsail said. Use Marine grease, breakdown every couple of months. You'll be good!

DC

Yeh I forgot to add I eventually used marine grease as per above as well.

I disassemble every session. It's not for maintenance reasons. There's no way the assembled foil would fit easily in my car, and there's nowhere to store it in the garage at home.

I disassemble, wipe things with a damp chamois, put everything in the padded bags and it goes neatly in the boot. At home it slides into a thin shelf under the board rack hanging from the garage roof. When I choose my gear for the day the selected pieces slide out of the shelf and straight into the car.

The assembly process takes only 5 minutes. That's usually combined with watching the conditions and chatting to the crew, or watching the sunset at the end of the day. The rest of the crew spend more time dithering and chatting than I spend doing the assembly.

In foul weather it's easy to stow each piece in the car separately rather than trying to wrangle the whole kit in with the doors open and the rain beating in.

On road trips the foiling gear fits into the gap at the base of the back seats between the car fridge and the seats. It's like have nothing in the car.

My kite foiling gear has all Torx screws. I use a t-handle wrench for them. It spins faster than my electric screwdriver with no risk of cross-threading. It lives in a pocket on the mast sleeve so it's always handy. I used to have hex screws but the heads wear out eventually. Torx screws don't wear at all.

For winging I use GoFoil with Phillips screws. I bought a Wera stainless steel screwdriver and that makes the whole process very clean and painless.

I switched to all carbon gear in 2016. I had aluminium before that and had a couple of masts replaced under warranty and spent countless hours dealing with corrosion and water inside the mast.

My most used carbon kiting foil has 650 hours over 500 sessions. Zero corrosion. Zero maintenance. Zero wear and tear on the fittings. I have refurbished the tip of the most used foil where it grinds into the sand.

My GoFoils have about 100 hours and take not much more effort to assemble.

Both kite and wing foils have tuttle heads. Two screws and they're attached. The kite foils have a one piece foil/fuselage/tail. The GoFoil has single screws for the foil and tail wing. Both systems have 4 screws each in total.

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Gorgo said..
I disassemble every session. It's not for maintenance reasons. There's no way the assembled foil would fit easily in my car, and there's nowhere to store it in the garage at home.

I disassemble, wipe things with a damp chamois, put everything in the padded bags and it goes neatly in the boot. At home it slides into a thin shelf under the board rack hanging from the garage roof. When I choose my gear for the day the selected pieces slide out of the shelf and straight into the car.

The assembly process takes only 5 minutes. That's usually combined with watching the conditions and chatting to the crew, or watching the sunset at the end of the day. The rest of the crew spend more time dithering and chatting than I spend doing the assembly.

In foul weather it's easy to stow each piece in the car separately rather than trying to wrangle the whole kit in with the doors open and the rain beating in.

On road trips the foiling gear fits into the gap at the base of the back seats between the car fridge and the seats. It's like have nothing in the car.

My kite foiling gear has all Torx screws. I use a t-handle wrench for them. It spins faster than my electric screwdriver with no risk of cross-threading. It lives in a pocket on the mast sleeve so it's always handy. I used to have hex screws but the heads wear out eventually. Torx screws don't wear at all.

For winging I use GoFoil with Phillips screws. I bought a Wera stainless steel screwdriver and that makes the whole process very clean and painless.

I switched to all carbon gear in 2016. I had aluminium before that and had a couple of masts replaced under warranty and spent countless hours dealing with corrosion and water inside the mast.

My most used carbon kiting foil has 650 hours over 500 sessions. Zero corrosion. Zero maintenance. Zero wear and tear on the fittings. I have refurbished the tip of the most used foil where it grinds into the sand.

My GoFoils have about 100 hours and take not much more effort to assemble.

Both kite and wing foils have tuttle heads. Two screws and they're attached. The kite foils have a one piece foil/fuselage/tail. The GoFoil has single screws for the foil and tail wing. Both systems have 4 screws each in total.

I bought a van and leave the foil assembled and mounted to the board all the time. Much easier.

That would make a bit of a mockery of the idea of a fun, easy sport that everyone can do. Compact equipment. Do it in any conditions from any place you like, fun for all the family ... but you have to buy a van to cart it around.

Not to mention the work involved in modifying my garage so I can get a van in it.

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hilly said..

Pacey said..then I bought an Armstrong, no grease, no disassembly required. And half the weight

What he said

Same .....you won't get any corrosion with Armstrong, but it is possible to get galling on threads ,mainly on the T nuts so a little tefgel once in a blue moon will prevent this.

Steven F, like Jethrow suggests, I think you can leave things assembled but ensure the bolts have been loosened and washed in fresh. When I get new gear, lube all bolts with marine grease. Maybe after 20 or so sessions, relube everything.
I take the fuse off the mast to pack it up, and mast off the board (takes an extra 3 mins if that). All bolts loosened off after a sesh. Never had a problem with bolts seizing.

I had a naish foil for 3 years.. Put marine grease on first and because I lived in a sh!tty apartment in a built up area just kept it assembled in my car and only rarely washed it after a session. Despite many sleepless nights worrying about it it never ceased up. Had to take the impact driver to it frequently to prevent seizure and eventually the corners of the very tip of the aluminium fuse corroded away and broke off, so i sold it..

Now I have an armstrong foil and never worry about any of this. Never take it apart and just give it a rinse under the shower at the beach whenever possible. Hard to believe folks are forking out the big $$ for carbon/alloy setups (eg slingshot phantasm) where this is still an issue.

Any recommendations for a marine grease .
thanks.

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rgmacca said..
Any recommendations for a marine grease .
thanks.

Tefgel, if only because it appears to be the stickiest substance on the planet. Once you put it on its almost impossible to get off unless you use turps

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rgmacca said..
Any recommendations for a marine grease .
thanks.

Any reputable marine grease used in boat trailer wheel bearings