Eric Greenwell wrote:
My 12 year old blue stripes turned brown several years ago, so I'm now
trying to install the new ones. It's not going well.

Since I had an abundance of soapy water and high temperatures (102 F), I
used that method to replace the right stripe. I did it out in the sun,
so the stripe was extra hot. The sun also made my wife extra hot, but in
a sweaty, "can't we do this any faster", kind of way.

The first 22 feet slide on before I couldn't pull it any farther. I had
to remove 8 feet of the stripe from the channel at the end I was pulling
on, then pull the rest of the stripe on. The 8 feet was then pushed on
the channel 1/4" at time with a screwdriver, so it was slow and tedious,
but at least I could do it in the garage in the shade.

Total time was about 1.5 hours.

The left stripe was installed using Pam cooking spray (basically, canola
oil in a spray can) sprayed on the stripe and the channel on the
trailer. That was lot easier - I was able to install the stripe by
myself in 30 minutes in the garage in only 90 F heat, except for the
last 5 feet. Putting the trailer in sunlight warmed the stripe up enough
to easily pull the last 5 feet into the channel.

The canola oil seemed slicker than the spray olive oil we had, but I'm
sure there is something even better than Pam. That would make it easy to
do at lower temperatures. A trailer for 15 meter gliders would be easier
than my 30 foot long trailer box (34 feet with the tongue) for an 18 M
glider.

I noticed the new vinyl stripe is almost twice as thick as the 12 year
old stripe, so someone that's replaced a stripe years ago might be
surprised by the (likely) extra effort required to replace a stripe now.

The trailer looks almost good as new now, with the new fenders (replaced
because one was destroyed by a tire tread) and stripes. Just wait until
it gets it's new axle and wheels!

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org