I just mounted a nut inside a small aluminum plate (~1"square) for each track bolt. I then applied release tape to the track, bolted the nuts/plates on, gooped the plate at each end of the track with thickened epoxy and positioned them with tape. Once they were in position, I finished adding and shaping thickened epoxy to a tapered pad which was maybe 1 1/2" square at the hull surface. After the epoxy set, I removed the track and cleaned up my pads with file and sandpaper.

Anyway, one of the tracks moved under the tape after it had been setting for a while. I thought it was behaving fine, but it must have let loose after I stopped paying attention. As a result, both nut pads on one track set up totally cockeyed, and I didn't discover the problem until the following morning when the epoxy was well and truly hardened up.

The point of this story is that I could not believe what I had to do the get those pads off the hull to re-mount them in their proper positions. They were not properly seated because of the way the track had rotated under the tape. Consequently, they had maybe half the attached surface area that they should have. I used a hammer and chisel to chew/shear them off the hull, and I could not believe the beating they took before I finally got them off. There is no way that even brutal use of the footpegs will move those pads when they are properly seated. With your nuts mounted in a continuous strip rather than just on pads at the track ends, you would have to rip large chunks out of the hull for the attachment to fail.

As I believe Rob Macks has pointed out, it is possible that the mounting could be weakened by serious heating when the kayak is sitting in the sun, but I have no experience there. Hypothetically, I expect that once you were in the water, and you aren't too likely to stress the mounts before then, the water would have cooled things down to more normal temperatures.

At any rate, aside from the issue of excessive heat, surface mounts for tracks are remarkably strong.

Best regards,

Allan Edie

: Yeah that's what I did too. I don't have photos, but did the
: following:
: * got some offcuts from our local DIY store of skirting board. This
: stuff was ideal as it had the perfect angle on it to angle them
: upwards.
: * trimmed off the excess so that they neatly fit the foot peg frame
: * drilled out some holes to take nuts, and epoxied the nuts in
: * then I just sat these in a light puddle of thickened epoxy approx
: just below the sheer.

: It was easy to mount them after joining the hull and deck. And they
: are immensely strong. Actually, messed up the alignment (mounted
: one a couple of inches back) but I don't think I could ever get
: them off neatly!

: Cheers, Ian