hey peeps...I have a buster 3.0 and it has blown cells...the edge of three ribs have ripped along the seam at the thread line inside on the underside.....does anybody have any suggestions as to how to repair this tear....and if I do repair it from the inside..would 3/8 of an inch tuck make a huge difference in the way the wing performs or should I add more ripstop.....the reason I ask is because the tears are very clean and it seems as if I could sew the existing rib back to the underbelly but I would lose about 3/8 of an inch and extra fabric would be a pain.....

holla atcha

DQ

I'm not sure if this helps. but i will tell ya what i had done. On the inside of the kite there is little strips of ripstop nylon inside of each cell that go from one end of the cell to the other . I have no idea what they are called. Ribs? anyways i had a really bad crash and blew 3 of those they ripped clean at the seam. Took it to mom and all she did was reinforce it with fabric . nothing fancy. ya i lost tiny little bit of ripstop, nothing earth shattering.........3 months later no problems. kite flies fine. :bigok: Goooo Mom!!!

I'd NOT alter the shape of the canopy. Take the time to add extra ripstop to the rib and sew it back together properly, even if that means picking out the seam and re-sewing in the rib.

If all you have is ripstop tape, try 2 layers stuck to each side of the rib, with some overlap that you can trim to shape and sew back in. If the tape runs back into the rib, the adhesive should be strong enough, or you could sew it to the rib face as well.

krumly

I'm with Krumly on that one. Add extra ripstop if you need to for reinforcement to try and keep the profile (ribs) in as close to the original shape as possible. Even with the bridles attached, you can usually invert the kite on that cell and do the repair.