Foam Noodle Confession
 

As the Forum may be nearing its end, as may I, it is confession time. The actual history/invention of the noodle is controversial. Nonetheless, my family at one time was one of the major producer of noodles in the world. This business was sold years ago.

There is only one person on the Forum with whom I shared this information; but asked him to keep it private. He did and I appreciate his discretion and honesty.

Finally, I must say as much as I respect FLL I would not recommend the noodles as a water safety device.

Cool, though I'm wondering why the secrecy. Is being part of Big Foam Noodle dangerous?!

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Well Newbie, you just proved you never know what to expect on the winni forum!!:laugh:

Actually it may be. That’s why I’m in the Witless Protection Program.

My family do not believe I am funny either.

For surviving, a swim belt is not as good as a pfd, but is much much better than no flotation. After treading water for ten minutes in 65-degree water you will definitely wish you had either a swim belt or a pfd.

Swim belts keep you horizontally balanced, good for swimming, while a pfd keeps you floating vertically, good for surviving.

The foam $15 pfd from Walmart actually does a better job of keeping you warm in the water than a $100 SOS-pender inflated pfd.

One reason why boaters do not like to wear foam pfd's is because they become too warm to wear on the boat.

The noodle was a great invention with many uses. My favorite is to wrap it around my back with a pair of swim fins on and kick slowly around in the lake on a hot summer day.

Bed guard
 

We put noodles on the sides of a double bed with the noodles tucked under the fitted sheet. It kept a small child from rolling off. A crib was not available. We also did this on my Dad's bed until we could get a rail. He had fallen off the bed and wound up at Maine Medical with a brain bleed.

Car/pick-up truck roof racks with foam noodles
 

Foam noodles slit length-wise and duct-taped onto car roof racks act as anti-slide, friction padding so a canoe, kayak or stand-up paddle board becomes more safely secured to roof racks with rope or nylon straps.

Ditto that for other items like 8' or 10' long lumber boards and studs.

Foam noodle manufacturers could maybe find increased sales if they made noodles in the color BATTLESHIP GRAY for various utility use including the famous 2" x 30" swimmer's waist belt tied tight around the waist which is both a 'make-you-a-better-swimmer' and an anti-drowning safety item. (Length will vary.)

What AMERICA really needs is a BATTLESHIP GRAY foam noodle ........:patriot:!!!

Did you know that splicing a foam noodle onto a hula-hoop makes it much easier to hula and for a longer time due to the increased friction and increased hula-hoop weight ........ like no-kidding! ...... :banana:

Pick your size:

Black or dark gray pipe insulation as pictured above can be used on roof racks but does not have the material strength of the foam noodles sold at Walmart and other stores. Foam noodles use material that is denser and stronger than pipe insulation, and can be used for rolling a 250-lb sailboat down a grassy slope while pipe insulation will get crushed by the weight and not hold its round shape.

The pipe insulation definitely has its uses but is a lot softer and has less overall strength than a foam noodle. I don't think it has anywhere near as much flotation buoyancy as a foam noodle so it is somewhat different stuff like the difference between rubber and flubber ..... (ha-ha!)

Can you post pics of how the “battleship grey” noodles failed when you tried to roll a 250 # boat down the hill?

Foam noodles to move it along!
 

A 250-lb fiberglass sailboat is a standard 14' dinghy with a main and jib like a C & L 14 or a Hobie 14 which have wide hulls and using three foam noodles is a good way to roll it down a smooth embankment. It works very good and the noodles can be re-used many times. Is similar to using straight tree logs for rolling a heavy object like a granite block weighing a ton. Foam noodles would probably work with something weighing 500-lbs like positioning an empty hot tub into place.

If only foam noodles were available at the time they could have made it much easier for the ancient Egyptians to build their great pyramids ..... :D

Here’s another use … protecting ankles from a nasty tooth bar on the edge of my tractor bucket.

So, no personal experience with “battleship grey” noodles?

Battleship gray foam noodles do not exist, but could maybe be a decent seller if made. Like, why do foam noodles only come in bright red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink but not in drab battleship gray, a low visibility color?

Oy….

Several sources, including Rochester Institute of Technology and several manufacturers of foam based products would disagree that polyethylene (foam) pipe insulation does not have the compressive strength of “pool noodles”. In fact foam insulation is denser (and has greater compressive strength) than PN’s.
If you really need ‘battleship grey” noodles. These will certainly help roll your “250 lb” boat down hill.

Here’s a few links to put you to sleep while you finish your scotch tonight:

https://peer.asee.org/fifteen-plus-y...s-and-more.pdf

https://alcotplastics.com/save-money...0outer%20layer.

https://aeroflexusa.com/rubber-versu...ich-is-better/

Sleep tight.