How To Properly Inflate And Use Your Rapid Raft
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Seth, developer of Uncharted Supply Co.'s Rapid Raft, talks you through proper inflation technique. You'll learn how to roll your raft TIGHT, prevent slow deflation and maintain optimal pressure inside of your Rapid Raft.
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I spent a few weeks inflating it every morning, setting it aside for a day, and coming back later to see how much air I had lost. I've gotten much faster at inflating it (probably a minute at most now), and my folds are tighter, so it keeps air longer. It still leaked, though, and after 8 or so hours it took at least 5 breaths through the top valve to bring it back to full. I made one modification to it that has helped. On either end, near each buckle, I squirted a bunch of silicone caulking/glue on the inside corners, and then used two flattened hose clamps on each side to tighten that fold and glue it shut. The hose clamps are each maybe a quarter inch from their respective buckle, and the amount of glue used was sufficient enough to ooze out a bit when the clamps were tightened. This fix has made it so that, after 8 hours, I now only need 1 breath through the valve to top it off. Not perfect, but much better. I'm hoping maybe I can get my folds even tighter, to where I can't see any air loss after 8 hours. Hope it helps.
OK, thanks. I'll give this a try. I was definitely disappointed by how much air I was losing over a few hours with it just sitting in my living room. I imagine on a lake with a load actively "squeezing" the raft, it could happen much more quickly. I'll give it a try tonight and report back soon!
Hey Everyone - I've had a lot of emails come in with questions around the raft, and thought I'd answer some more here in the comments. The Rapid Raft is designed for rapid water crossings. It is designed to allow you several hours of use on still to moderate bodies of water. It is possible that with temp changes, you may need to top off the raft with a few puffs during usage, and maybe if not rolled correctly, a bit more.... but this is very, very simple to do, and the reason we put this one-way valve on the raft. The raft is not intended to be inflated once, and used for multiple days without having to re-inflate. You should think about this product differently than large rafts which are designed to be inflated once for multiple days. Rafts like this require pumps, are much heavier and take up significantly more space. The Rapid Raft allows you to bring a raft where you previously could not, inflate quickly, and repack and move on. Perfect for bike packers, multi-hour trips on water, fishing, hunting, and survival where space and weight are a premium. The raft will lose air over extended periods of time (overnight you can expect 7-10 breaths to be needed to reinflate), but this is the raft operating as designed.
This instruction video was quite useful. I took my raft out on the weekend and was able to inflate it with only 3 breaths. I was out on the water for a few hours, did top it up a few times which wasn't a big issue. Overall the raft worked really well.
@@hikerinaustralia Great to hear, glad you're enjoying it!
@@UnchartedSupplyCo Yes, I've taken it out a few times now. I have a few videos of it in action on my UA-cam channel. Unfortunately with the current lock down, it will be several months before I get to take it out again. Am certainly looking forward to taking it on a longer hike. I also need to get some of the webbed gloves and give them a go rather than take paddles.
Thanks for the detailed instructions. I got the raft back out tonight and deliberately made each fold tight and clean. Bathtub test, still shows air leaking out of the end. Can you show a video of the end submerged with your correct rolling procedure, so we can see it doesn't leak when we successfully fold it the right way?
We love the rapid raft by they way. We successfully had it out on the water for over 30 minute without a problem. We only came in because the water was freezing. For all intents and purposes it does exactly what you said it was designed for.
Hello AstronomicalOddz! Seth here. A little bit of leaking is normal, and why the Rapid Raft requires a puff on the inflation valve every now and again. I would expect even my raft to show small amounts of bubbling from the rear under use conditions. It sounds like you've tried and enjoyed the Rapid Raft in its best case which is short-duration deployment. Thanks for supporting Uncharted Supply Co and for passing along your experience!
@@height.studio Thanks for the quick response, and validation that I was doing it right. Also thanks for a great product. Based on our experience it would be very feasible to travel upwards of an hour without needing to add a few puffs, but after an hour of sitting, I am ready for a stretch anyways.
@@astronomicaloddz4599 Fabulous! It's our pleasure.
normalization of deviance is not an acceptable explanation
"short duration" was not in the product specs and it's a lame answer. There's a cold wind blowing.
Can you use the mouth valve to let air out as opposed to unraveling the seal?
Hii ,I'm big fan of uncharted 72. Hrs Bach but can you ship this rapid raft and 72 hrs bag in india.plz reply
Thanks!
Just inflated mine and experienced some air loss. I'll update once I'm on the water but I am not worried. A few notes: I've found that with roll tops, they commonly lose air faster when in an "unloaded" or underloaded state. Meaning my spidey sense says there is going to be more air loss when unladed (ie on your living room floor) as the roll top mechanism does best with lots of pressure (ie, when in the water with a person in it). Also note that all craft, especially packrafts, best practice is to inflate, roll water onto the tubes and wet them. Then top off and get in and go. It's amazing just how much pressure you lose just by putting cold water on the tubes. Also I am usually on shore at least once ah hour and usually many times an hour to site see, pee and eat and re-arrange etc. So a few top off breaths per hour don't bother me.
FYI - I posted a review of the Uncharted Supply Co Rapid Raft for anyone who might be interested seeing it in action.
ua-cam.com/video/iza87U_GYHQ/v-deo.html
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The amount of time and attention it takes to properly roll the top and buckle it to achieve a slow leaking raft far exceeds one minute. A lot of air was lost ensuring the initial folds were done tightly. So I ended up blowing the raft up most of the way through the top up valve. Also you’re at now more than twice the weight of the worlds lightest pack raft (which included paddles) yet still make these claims on your website and indiegogo.
Michael Hill we are confident that after a few inflations, you’ll have this down pretty efficiently. We can do this consistently with less than 7 breaths and be completely inflated. As for the weight, we haven’t updated Indiegogo because that campaign closed several months ago, but the correct information is displayed on the website. Yes, it got heavier, but we are very proud of the strength vs weight of the material and believe people are happy to carry a few more ounces for multiples stronger product.
If you have to blow it up, it isn't rapid.
Son of Liberty we would argue that being able to inflate in under a minute with no other tools is significantly more ‘rapid’ than anything else. But everyone is free to have their own opinion!