Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Hi @peteh
This is a common occurrence and nothing to worry about, due to some variations between the fabric pieces each time I cut them. You can trim the edge(s) to fit between the dots/slits, but don’t trim all the way along the seam – simply start trimming at the required width and then gradually make the trim narrower and narrower until it meets the edge of the piece after 20 cm (8″) or so. This minor variation won’t noticeably affect the shape of the packraft.
Is it just me, or are these comments not nesting properly anymore? I’m replying to other comments, but I’m seeing my most recent comments at the top of the page.
Yeah, that’s definitely the area that is most likely to leak. I find that a cup or two of soapy water on the floor of the packraft works well there – you can hold the packraft up so the water pools over the floor-tube joint and squeeze the tubes while rotating it slowly… the bulk of the water will stay at the lowest point (obviously), but a soapy film spreads out over the seams, making bubbles if there’s a leak. You can also push “down” on the floor to pull it away from the tubes which will open up any holes that might be weakly held closed by the inflated tubes (does that make sense?).
I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling discouraged! Are you sure it’s losing air, or could the pressure decrease be due to temperature changes? Can you elaborate on the situation and length of time we’re talking about?
Great, I’m glad that worked.
The ultralight fabric isn’t as strong as the heavier fabrics used in the other kits (obviously), but it won’t spontaneously start leaking in undamaged areas, so once the leaks are fixed that’ll be it unless it gets damaged.
You may have to expand your search with the soap and water to cover more area, not just along the seams (there could be small areas of the tube fabric TPU that were accidentally melted with the iron, for example). You might also check the valve to make sure it’s not leaking.
For the “V4” boats with the hourglass shaped seat/seat back, I find that a single “Type 2” attachment point (on the Tie-Downs & Attachment Points page) works well at the rear of the cockpit floor. I tie a length of cord through the attachment point and around the neck of the seat.
Thanks for posting this, Derek! We can all be glad that it ended well (more or less) and we can learn from the experience – but man, what a scare! I’m so glad you’re all okay.
Just yesterday I was thinking that maybe I should write a post or make a video about cold weather packrafting, and you’ve spurred me into action. For now, here’s a related cautionary tale:
When I was younger and more foolish than I am now, hanging out by the ocean with some friends on a cold winter’s night, I accepted a challenge to swim to some nearby pilings and back. I was a strong swimmer, having completed life saving courses at my local pool, and I had gone swimming in some pretty cold water before, so I thought it would be easy. I made it to the pilings just fine, slapped one with my hand and turned for shore. About halfway back I was astounded at how quickly my body began to shut down. I had been fine for a minute or so, and after that my brain was still functioning fine (other than getting myself into the situation in the first place), but beginning in my hands and feet my muscles quickly weakened to the point where they barely moved. In a matter of seconds the weakness progressed into my larger muscles as the blood fled from them towards my core, and for the last bit of swimming I was in panic mode, only able to make clumsy, inefficient strokes. Fortunately I reached shore before my limbs ceased to function entirely, but if shore had been much farther away I think I would have been unable to keep my head above water. I shudder to think of the horrible death that would have brought, being fully conscious yet so paralyzed that I’d be unable to stop myself from drowning.
What I learned from this experience is that you can’t rely on endurance or fine motor skills to get you out of a cold water situation. If someone had thrown me a rope my hands would have been too weak to hold on to it, and my fingers would have been unable to tie it around my body. In a packrafting situation, if I hadn’t been wearing my PFD I wouldn’t have been able to unfasten it from the packraft or climb into a boat or anything like that.
Sometimes you’ll see me post pictures or videos of me paddling without a visible PFD, and I should really stop doing that, because what you can’t see is that I’m paddling in conditions where I’m 100% confident I can swim to shore if something goes wrong. Anytime I’m in moving water or the water is too cold to be comfortably submerged in, I’m wearing my drysuit and/or staying so close to shore that I can simply stand up if something goes wrong. Now my early New Year’s resolution is to never again post pictures of someone packrafting without a PFD.
I have more thoughts on this topic, but this is already turning into a long post, so I’ll save the rest for the blog.
Thanks again for posting, Derek. I know your Voyageur was probably over-pressurized when it failed, but I’d still be interested to know exactly where the failure occurred in case there’s a design change that could reduce the risk of something like this happening again. Feel free to email me directly, if you like. Thanks!
Hi Robin,
The Skeena and Telkwa models are so new that probably only a handful of people have finished building theirs, and I’m not sure how many of them have paddled the other packrafts you’re interested in, so it might be a while before you get a useful review. In the meantime, I started writing some notes about things to consider and what to look for when choosing a packraft, and it got so long I decided to turn it into a blog post instead of posting it here, so that will be posted soon. In the meantime, I’ll just say that the Telkwa and Skeena are designed to fit the same niche as the Wolverine and the Rogue (a do-everything design). Cheers!
Hi Sean, I’ve found that the TPU to non-TPU welds aren’t very strong, and with all the rolling and unrolling a packraft goes through, it probably won’t hold forever, so I’d put some Seam Grip (or similar) around the edges so if it does separate there at least it won’t leak. The seam sealing glue isn’t great as a structural adhesive either, though. For that you’ll need a different glue. People have told me that HH-66 works well, and there’s another one whose name escapes me at the moment… I think it starts with a “B”. Also, 3M makes some permanent adhesive tapes that work on the fabric. I don’t have personal experience with any of those things though.
It’s hard to say how the part that was unsealed and then resealed will perform… it sounds like only part of it had the TPU separate from the woven fabric when you unsealed it, so it should be okay strength-wise, but again, I’d probably give that area a coat of Seam Grip – not so much for strength, but to prevent any leaks from developing.
When in doubt, I like to bend and fold the welds sharply several times to make sure nothing separates. There’s going to be lots of bending and folding every time you roll up your packraft after it’s done, so it needs to be able to handle those stresses without any problems developing, and it’s much easier to fix things while you’re building than after it’s done.
I can’t even count the number of hours I’ve spent figuring this stuff out… I think it was around 200 hours before I decided to make a website in 2015. Since then I’ve had lots of help and tips from great people around the world though, and that’s helped a lot! The masking tape trick is a perfect example – a guy named Mike in Seattle was the first to suggest it, and then Bruce in Fairbanks was the one who really showed me the light by actually sending me a wooden form with tape on it so I couldn’t possibly ignore it. There are some really great people in this little community!
Don’t worry – this is not a huge problem! If you can’t un-seal one side by reheating it and peeling it up, and then redo it (which you probably can’t), then I would cut a slit in the floor fabric perpendicular to the edge, long enough so that the fold disappears. Then simply cover the slit with patches – one on the bottom of the packraft’s floor and the other on the top. Make the patches out of 250 GSM (210D) fabric. The patch on the bottom should cover the slit and also extend onto the tube fabric so that it’ll make an airtight seal. It won’t be pretty, but it’ll be on the bottom of the packraft, so no one will see it. Cheers!
I’ll be curious to see the reviews, as I’ve never seen a roll-closure that doesn’t leak some air and it would be annoying to have to frequently add air (as a lot of people who bought Windcatcher camping mattresses have found). Given their false statements about it being the lightest packraft ever, I’m skeptical.
