• Ok, I ended up doing something that really hurt to do. I performed surgery on my raft. I made an incision and accessed the tubes, welding them back to the floor. I then applied seam sealer to avoid them lifting up. Since I cut into my mostly finished raft, I added a name tag and phone number contact like I do in all my whitewater boats. If it’s h…[Read more]

    • When I built my raft, I thought I’d use the zipper access to store things. It’s been far more useful as a way to access the interior area and turn the boat inside out.

  • Uncle Fred replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 1 day ago

    The pictures were helpful. Yes, I’ll look into that.

    Question. Have you tried to see if this adapter works with the smaller inflation valves Matt sells? Currently, I have one of the white adapters that came with the Flextail pump epoxy’d on permanently. It fits loosely over the valve’s head but is sufficient to get these smaller objects filled…[Read more]

  • Uncle Fred replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 1 day ago

    Yes, I’ve tried the smaller design just inflated. It was Alpacka’s offering that made me confident an inflated footrest would work. I filled the bag as full as possible without using a mechanical pump. The issue is that your feet don’t apply even pressure on the footrest when paddling. It only felt solid once you added an object and pushed out all…[Read more]

  • I see now. It’s the floor separating from the tube fabric. I’ll try flipping it over tonight and ironing from the bottom up with parchment paper.Valve view

  • Hmm, that’s unusual… I’ve actually never seen that before. Could you send me some pictures from the inside of the cockpit, and maybe take one or two shots through the valve opening so I can see where tubes 4L and 4R are attached to the floor (if possible)? It does look like something might be separating there, but I can’t tell why. Can you see…[Read more]

  • <p style=”text-align: left;”>Sorry for so many messages on here, but I’m a day before my on water test for my telkwa and I’m noticing that I have a very large bulge in my floor where 4R and 4L tubes are. Due to the air bulge on the opposite side at the reinforcement strips, I’m assuming that I need to further reinforce the strip with the floor…[Read more]

  • Matt (Admin) replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 1 day ago

    Very cool! I was thinking about foot rests just before you posted this, because I’m testing out a new seat, somewhat similar to yours. The footrest looks like a great design. I’m curious if you’ve tried using it without stuff inside it, just inflated – you mentioned that the larger one felt like pressing against a balloon, but I wonder if this one…[Read more]

  • Great to know! Thanks for the update.

  • Matt (Admin) replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 1 day ago

    Very cool! I should really get one of those pumps… and a 3D printer! I’m seeing some great ideas lately.

  • Video: The Fabrics I made this video to show the current fabrics that I use to make the Ultralight and the standard weight DIY Packraft kits. In the video, I talk […]

  • Tested and it works well!

  • krafter replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 2 days ago

    The pump is definitely not strong enough, and this makes it go faster I think – so both. Feel free to make a new forum post with the link!

    Emails went to my spam folder :facepalm:

  • krafter replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 2 days ago

    @UncleFred, I did print out a prototype and test it – it fits perfectly into the pump and is a tight fit on the valve as well. I messed up on the pins by heating the whole adapter at once  with a hair dryer, which caused a couple of the holes to close up. This messed up the insertion of the rest of the pins. See photos.

    I fixed the design to…[Read more]

  • Uncle Fred replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 3 days ago

    Krafter, have you made any of these adapters and tested them? I want this!

    To answer Matt’s question: For my version which is the max pump, no. The pump is not powerful enough to push air through the check valve.

    An attachment like this would be a huge godsend. Krafter, If you’ve printed out any of these, I’d happily pay for one as I don’t have…[Read more]

  • Matt (Admin) replied to the topic in the forum DIY Accessories 3 weeks, 3 days ago

    What a cool idea! Thanks for sharing. This might deserve to be a whole forum topic on its own.

    It’s an interesting idea to use prongs to hold the check valve open – is the pump not strong enough to pump air through the valve, or does it just work faster that way?

  • Thanks Matt. I’ll keep an eye on it and report back.

  • In my tests, the D-rings themselves break at about 45 kg or 99 pounds load (on average), and the attachment point itself should be stronger than that, but over time things could wear. If I were you, I’d probably use it as-is but keep an eye on it and if it looks like distributing the load over one or two more points would help, then it looks like…[Read more]

  • I’m still in need of adding seam grip to fix a leak that I have, but while I’m waiting for the seam grip to arrive, I went ahead and added attachment points for outfitting with the d rings and my back rest, seat and thigh straps. My question is that the attachment points don’t seem like they would hold up as well as I’d like. I’m especiall…[Read more]

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