Has anybody found a particularly durable bumper fabric resistant to the sharp teeth of the divider or charging station edges? Our bumper corners’ 500d cordura isn’t faring well and I’ve seen similar cuts on other team’s 1000d cordura fabric. Suggestions?
6oz or heavier dracon Dacron sailcloth.
It’s weird to sew, but very durable, makes funny noises when it is rubbed against an element and squishing the noodles.
The heavy stuff will take screen printed numbers.
They sell red and blue sail repair tape on Amazon.
Also repairs okay with hot glue in a pinch.
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Do you mean Dacron sailcloth? (Gotta love spellcheck)
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friggin phone.
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We’ve been using that fabric since he recommended it here on chief. After 2 events and lots of drive practice we’ve seen absolutely zero wear. 10/10 would recommend!
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Dacron sail cloth is not great this year. I wears on the charge station. If you used it get this:
You WILL need it.
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The fabric has held up well, but this game has been harder on bumpers in general than most I’ve been a part of. Though we didn’t have any rips or tears, the numbers were scratched, and most importantly the wood backing and pool noodles have been damaged, so we recently rebuilt for the Colorado Regional. Rockywoods is out of the red fabric, though they still have blue. Discovery Fabrics in Canada has the red. For now, We are continuing to experiment with other Fabrics. This round, we are trying Nike Dri-FIT.
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This is good stuff. @Skyehawk got us hooked on it last year. This year i think we are using 4.4 oz(?) becuase that’s what we found. It sews surprisingly easy. Is rip resistant. Can take a bunch of heat when ironing on numbers as though its linen even though it feels like it would instantly melt.
Bad thing, expensive.
Also, @samthesnake made our numbers on a cricut. They look great.
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We’re big fans of Dacron sailcloth too. We started using it for Infinite Recharge since it was slicker and the power cells would not get caught on the bumpers. Unfortunately, this year’s field just seems to be tough on all bumper fabrics.
For numbers, we actually use sailmaker’s self-stick insignia cloth, cut with a vinyl cutter. The insignia cloth and its backing are about the same thickness as the vinyl and backing usually used in these machines, so it works great. It makes for beautiful clean numbers in any font you care to use and the stuff just will not come off of the Dacron once applied. After all, it’s made to mark sails and take all the abuse they do without coming off.
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Our 1000D Cordura hasn’t shown a single cut through our first event. I’ll report after this week if that changes after our second event.
Here is the evidence of hard play on our bumper exterior. Fabric is in good condition but numbers are not. Inside, the pool noodles are broken and in need of replacing. Overall I remain on the Schussmeister train.
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We are running the Schoeller Schussmeister (at Joel’s recommendation and based on our own experimentation last summer) and it is doing great so far-- no significant problems after 36 official matches plus many practice matches.
I hope the distributors will crank up their stocking levels to match the future FRC demand for this great product.
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We’ve been using VX21 TERRAIN X-PAC™ LAMINATED RIPSTOP FABRIC
So far we’ve ruined 4 bumpers with large cuts.
2x Blue bumpers in practice on a competition spec charging station. Should have used a practice set but our fault. Then this weekend we had two 24" front to back tears of a red and blue bumper right along the bottom.
I fear we will be replacing bumpers all season long.
Wow. I thought our bumper damage was bad - you win (sorry).