How To Replace Stuck Patagonia-Danner Foot Tractor Aluminum 29Aug21

Often the aluminum bars on the bottom of Patagonia and Patagonia-Danner Foot Tractor wading boots are worn down and not readily removable with the 3mm allen wrenches supplied - or even other heavier duty ones. First try to clean out the allen holes in the screws with a pick before attempting using the allen wrench. I then go to WD40 applied underneath the bars and dripped onto the screws - I lift the bars with a pick and then squirt some oil. Tools you will need all up often include: a small pick, a 3mm allen tool (I like my Park bike tool for leverage here), WD40, a Dremmel tool with metal cutting disk, and medium sized vice grips.

If a two-screw bar is stuck you might need to Dremmel it into two pieces and then remove each piece separately. Even then, the 3mm allen may not work and you'll need to grab it and spin it using vice grips. I typically remove half of the bars using the vice grip spin method... it doesn't seem to impact the Vibram rubber at all.

Clean the bottom surfaces and use a pick to clean out the embedded receiver nuts in the boots before reinstalling the new bar kit (~$45). All done!