Activity

I was thinking of using plastic D-rings instead of a loop made of webbing. These could be secured to the packraft in a similar way to the above.

Hi Jim,

My recommendation is to install a couple of these valves in the floor, at the sides near the rear, where they won’t be covered by your seat. When the valves are open, the packraft is self-bailing, and when they’re closed (on flat water) it’s dryer and lighter (because you’re not hauling water in the boat).

You could also model a…[Read more]

This is a great idea!

I’ll tinker with it a bit myself using 40D ripstop instead of Cuben.

Thanks, Jamie!

New guy here, no robot.

Just looking through the site and like the design.  Years back I used to pack cheap store bought heavy one man rafts into the Windriver mountains and now my older back needs to go as light as possible.

Stacker

Hi,

Just purchased my first packraft from this site and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for an iron in the UK.

Thanks in advance

Graham

Spraydeck plans. Yes, please!

Hey Matt! Thanks so much for creating DIY packraft. To the best of my knowledge, I am not a bot.

Aha – have just found a youtube video showing what you describe. So I guess this inner valve would also be ‘sticky and cling to itself’ as you mentioned before on your own gear. I’m dead keen on finding a replacement for zippers if possible, and was just thinking about making up a test rig of a bladder representing the hull with a ‘tube’ thing in…[Read more]

The Neo Air has a short internal tube made of a thin plastic film, which is bonded to the rim of the outer tube opening that is part of the shell. The internal tube acts as a valve (similar to the type of valve on some disposable inflatable pillows), whereby the internal pressure causes the valve to close up, thus providing an airtight seal. Maybe…[Read more]

Cool – please let us know how it goes!

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thanks – I take your point about the difficulty in getting an airtight seal. I have made air bladders out of TPU film (rather than TPU coated nylon). The material is stretchy and kind of clings to itself, so it wasn’t difficult to create an airtight seal. Maybe I’ll try and bond a tube of this stuff to the TPU coating…[Read more]

I made an air pillow once with a roll top, thinking that a dozen rolls ought to keep air in. It stayed up for a couple of hours but was always flat in the morning.

Thermarest have a new ‘speedvalve’ on one model Neoair. This looks like a roll top about 20cm wide. Towards the end of the video they say ‘tuck the black inner valve all the way…[Read more]

I was thinking of something along the same lines, but all the roll-top drybags I’ve owned aren’t airtight – they keep water out, but if you sit on them they slowly deflate – so I was thinking of a closure more like the slide-on clips found on hydration bags (Camelback, etc.). I don’t know how to make one of those though, and it would have to be…[Read more]