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Welcome! Here’s some information about whitewater paddling in DIY Packrafts: https://www.diypackraft.com/faq/whitewater-capabilities-of-diy-packrafts/
I’m not sure if you saw the second “Note” on the heat sealing page, but what you’re describing could be normal. All of the seams in the packrafts are designed to avoid that kind of peeling force – they’re either shear forces only, as in the areas where the tubes attach to the perimeter of the floor, or the area that would feel a peeling force is backed with a reinforcing strip on the inside of the weld so it would have to peel in two opposite directions at the same time (as where the tubes attach to the floor at the cockpit’s perimeter.
It’s possible you received a defective piece of fabric, so if in doubt, test the strength of those types of welds, but it is normal for the TPU-fabric bond to be weaker in the floor fabric compared to the tube fabric.
Hi RhettB, I’m sorry I’m not doing any bulk fabric sales at this time. Maybe when global supply chains are back to normal and I have plenty of stock I will, but that won’t be in the foreseeable future. Some people have had success modifying inflatable camping mattresses to fit the packrafts floor – that’s the approach I would take, as it would save a lot of time and probably would cost about the same.
Ah, okay 🙂
It sounds like you’ve already got it solved, but one thing I noticed with mine is that the heating element can slide outwards, and if it’s not pushed all the way into its hole then it doesn’t transfer heat as well as when it’s fully inserted. Also, if the element is a bit loose in the hole, maybe adding some thermal paste (a heat transfer compound) would improve the heat transfer into the surrounding aluminum.
It seems like you’re spending a significant amount of time and money trying to get the measured temperature to match some value, but from your posts I can’t tell if you’ve tried welding any scraps of fabric to see if there’s actually a problem there that needs solving.
If so, carry on – I just don’t want to leave other readers with the impression that they need to be measuring temperatures and fiddling with transformers and such when the vast majority of people can simply plug in their irons and find the correct temperature by welding scraps of fabric together and then pulling them apart, as shown in the instructions.
It’s not possible because the design uses floor fabric that is coated with TPU on both sides and the 250 GSM fabric is coated on only one side.
This is great – thanks! If it’s okay with you, I’ll copy these pictures to the instructions page and give you a shoutout there so more people will see it.
The freezer might work – I haven’t actually tried it, but Gear Aid does recommend storing opened tubes in the freezer.
I usually toss the screw-on brush after the first use, and then I re-use the metal-handled brush even if it’s totally hardened, but in that case I use it more like a spatula. Sometimes I just use my finger to spread the sealant around (while wearing a disposable glove), or the tip of the Seam Grip tube as I’m squeezing it out.
The brush is nice because you can use the bristles to shove sealant down into cracks and crevices, but it’s not absolutely required.
Cheers
Just to make sure, did you see the “Ironing around the pointy bow” section on the instructions page?
It’s okay to have a few small wrinkles towards the edges of the seam strip there, so don’t stress about it.
Hi Cate, someone else did the same thing and was able to fix it by cutting off a bit of the valve stem (or the flange) and using the iron to melt it like hot glue and press it into the hole (kind of like welding metal). Give that a try first.
Hi pnwdavis,
I’m not sure why that’s happened – would you mind sending me a sample of fabric from that old seat? I’ll email you with the shipping info.
The packraft itself is made with the TPU on the outside, so it will be easy to see if the same thing happens there. If water is somehow part of the cause, that won’t happen to the tube fabric, as water doesn’t get inside the packraft. As a precaution, please do coat all the seam strips and reinforcing strips the Seam Grip+WP on the outside.
For unrelated reasons I no longer purchase fabric from the supplier who made that particular one, so all the new tube fabric is different (you may have noticed that on your new seats), so this shouldn’t be an issue going forward, but if there was a problem with that blue batch, I’ll have to warn others about it and figure out a fix. As I mentioned before, I used that same fabric in one of my boats and haven’t had any trouble with it, but in the packraft the TPU is on the outside, unlike your old seat, so it might not behave the same in that setting (and I used black fabric for the seams etc.).
Hmm, I have a lot more than 21 days on one of my boats made from that same batch of fabric, but I haven’t seen anything that bad – just a tiny bit of fraying along the edges.
I can’t really tell what part of your old blue seat that is in the picture – is that where you peeled it by hand, or did it actually come apart that much from normal use? That would be very odd.
I would cut off that seat attachment point and use a different design… having the cord run through two holes like that will multiply the amount of stress on the fabric, which might be why it peeled so much there. It’s too complicated to describe why without a vector diagram, and I know it’s counter-intuitive, but you’d be better off with just one hole there (or two holes with the same spacing as the holes in the seat, with two separate cords connecting the seat to the packraft, both pulling in the same direction independently of each other).
As an aside, if you attach the seat to the floor instead of to the tube, then if the attachment point fails there’s no chance of it causing a leak in the tube.
I think I should add a video showing my seat attachment point.
I’ll also add a step to the instructions suggesting people apply Aquaseal or Seam Grip+WP over the seam strips and any exposed edges with to prevent fraying and peeling over time.
I think if you coat your seam strips and any other areas of concern with Seam Grip+WP they should hold up fine going forward, but please continue to monitor things and let me know if you see anything else coming apart.
