Fellow boaters. I have a 2018 R 23. I have two areas where my rubber rub rail has popped out from its channel. I’ve tried lightly tapping with rubber mallet but I’m somewhat out of my element here. Any advice or direction would be most appreciated!!! Thanks much!
Rub rail issues
- Thread starter Hyde-Out
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- rub rail issues
jcr159
Well-Known Member
Had the same issue on my 2022 this year. Called the dealer and they took care of it for me as a warranty issue. You can't fix it because it apparently requires application of heat in a careful way to get it back into the channel correctly. At least that's what they told me, lol.
Note that they had to pull my boat out of the water to take it to the shop to take care of it, but they did that at no cost to me. your dealer may be different. Mine is across the street from where we dock, so they will meet us and pick up on their trailer for shop work...
CLDave
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Happened to me - just squeeze and rock the rail back in place. It fits in a channel - super easy to do (for my starboard bow corner anyway). Took me 12 seconds to fix.
Edit: I did this when it was nice and warm, so it rotated back into place easily - make sure yours is warm or use a heat gun. You can see what I mean at this spot in the attached video:
Edit: I did this when it was nice and warm, so it rotated back into place easily - make sure yours is warm or use a heat gun. You can see what I mean at this spot in the attached video:
Last edited:
Vikingstaff
Moderator
Mine came out in the aft my first year when it sled along my dock during rough water docking. Dealership took care of it in the off season for a minor charge. They described taking care of it after the fact similar to CLDave’s description and video above. Looks like new when your done, and certainly sounded like something I could have done in hot weather conditions had I looked into it further in advance.
I had the same issues on mine and here’s what I did. Used a clamp to hold the rub rail just before where it just started to come out of the channel. Used a heat gun to warm up maybe a 1ft section of the rub rail that had come out, then used a rubber mallet to tap it back in. Once the rub rail is warmed up it’s super malleable and you can use your hands to push it back in without needing the rubber mallet it most cases.
Move the clamp and repeat the process until the rub rail is back in the channel.
Move the clamp and repeat the process until the rub rail is back in the channel.