Ranger Pac Boots Update

Updates this and this.

And now for the rest of the story.

These boots are lightly constructed in the heel and insole area. It is like a waffle pattern there. Makes for a comfy walk and warm but there is not a whole lot of rubber between the foot and the road.

Towards the end of the cold season in the spring of 2011, both boots sprung a leak in the heel area. It was already warm enough that the snow was melting so there was a fair amount of water, and my feet were getting wet, so I stopped wearing them in favor of my ICW boots.

I had read somewhere that RTV can be used to repair the wear surfaces of shoes and boots, but beyond buying a tube of RTV I did not try to repair these boots until last week.

I know - a year and a half is a long time. I did not attempt the repair at the time and then never got around to it because I was not using them, mostly since I was not wearing them because they leaked.

Here are some pictures I took a few days ago. I put a flashlight inside the boots. You can see the blue light shining through the holes in the heels.

So, I filled in a little inside the waffle matrix where the holes were, and built up the surface of the heels with some RTV. I have tried them a few times and it seems to work OK for the limited use I have put them to. I will have to report back after more extensive usage. The boots are not really suitable for serious use anyway, but they are handy when I go someplace I  have to remove my boots as they come on and off easily. They are also handy for short trips outside like to shovel the porch when I don't want to go to the trouble of putting on and lacing up my other boots.

I did not do a bang up job of it, just kind of globbed it on. We will see over time how well it holds up.