What alpaca raft for moose quarters?

[Larry Bartlett]

Hopefully by next weekend. If not listed on the site by then, look for it the week of april 14th. I want to take fresh pics at the Show and post 'em then.

 

[North61]

Late to the party... never looked at the PR49 in person but it looks really good. I got a great deal on a Forager and it's certainly better with a load or if you sit low in it. Taping up the self-bailing holes really helped as I don't always wear a dry suit and was tired of either feeling unstable or having a wet bum. I don't do super rough water anyway so self bailing feature not that needed. The Cargo fly is amazing... but you will have to blow it up every morning. I use a battery powered widget that does the job in a jiffy with no effort. Fills it about 4X or so on a charge. Rated to 1000 pounds and I guess it wouldn't sink with that much in it.

 

[WMR]

Late to the party... never looked at the PR49 in person but it looks really good. I got a great deal on a Forager and it's certainly better with a load or if you sit low in it. Taping up the self-bailing holes really helped as I don't always wear a dry suit and was tired of either feeling unstable or having a wet bum. I don't do super rough water anyway so self bailing feature not that needed. The Cargo fly is amazing... but you will have to blow it up every morning. I use a battery powered widget that does the job in a jiffy with no effort. Fills it about 4X or so on a charge. Rated to 1000 pounds and I guess it wouldn't sink with that much in it.

I enjoyed your video about the Forager. You guys looked pretty comfortable in it.

 

[AlbertaFisher]

Late to the party... never looked at the PR49 in person but it looks really good. I got a great deal on a Forager and it's certainly better with a load or if you sit low in it. Taping up the self-bailing holes really helped as I don't always wear a dry suit and was tired of either feeling unstable or having a wet bum. I don't do super rough water anyway so self bailing feature not that needed. The Cargo fly is amazing... but you will have to blow it up every morning. I use a battery powered widget that does the job in a jiffy with no effort. Fills it about 4X or so on a charge. Rated to 1000 pounds and I guess it wouldn't sink with that much in it.

Interested in which widget you use to fill up your forager as it’d come in handy for some of my trips. I love my forager, but I’d agree that without a load , it’s more tippy than a canoe. It’s also a slog on flat water, but I’m looking at getting this: https://www.stikinepackrafts.com/products/removeable-fin

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Interested in which widget you use to fill up your forager as it’d come in handy for some of my trips. I love my forager, but I’d agree that without a load , it’s more tippy than a canoe. It’s also a slog on flat water, but I’m looking at getting this: https://www.stikinepackrafts.com/products/removeable-fin

When I’m filling up my rafts at the car, I use a battery powered Dewalt leaf blower. Fills them up in about 30 seconds.

 

[North61]

Here is the widget..It's by Exped. Also works as a battery bank and a lantern. Fills up the air mattress as well! I also use it with a length of hose to cool my rifle barrel between strings. Great gear!

Widget Pump | EXPED USA

The EXPED Widget is a powerful 3-in-1 mat inflation pump with a built-in lamp and power bank. The pump provides quick, air-free inflation for EXPED mats as well as non-EXPED mats with the help of a Universal Valve Adapter. Lamp has 3 brightness levels and USB power bank provides 1+ full phone...

www.expedusa.com

 

[AlbertaFisher]

Here is the widget..It's by Exped. Also works as a battery bank and a lantern. Fills up the air mattress as well! I also use it with a length of hose to cool my rifle barrel between strings. Great gear!

Widget Pump | EXPED USA

The EXPED Widget is a powerful 3-in-1 mat inflation pump with a built-in lamp and power bank. The pump provides quick, air-free inflation for EXPED mats as well as non-EXPED mats with the help of a Universal Valve Adapter. Lamp has 3 brightness levels and USB power bank provides 1+ full phone...

www.expedusa.com

Thank you!

 

[North61]

You are welcome... That Widget is light enough to use back-packing so fits the concept of the Alpaca pretty well.

 

[Legend]

Not to hijack the thread, but do people recommend a self bailing floor or a closed bottom? I know my thoughts but I have never used one.

 

[North61]

The advantage of a self bailing floor is in rough water you don't need to bail the boat out.....it just drains out the floor the problem is in calm waters you always have a bit of water in the boat under the inflatable zip in floor. It gets you wet and negatively effects the handling..... BUT you can tape the holes up and seal the self bailing feature giving you the best of both worlds.

 

[North61]

I enjoyed your video about the Forager. You guys looked pretty comfortable in it.

Thanks... It's been a pretty good boat with a bit of a learning curve. For example with two people you need to use 2 canoe paddles rather than 2 kayak paddles as you can see on the video we interfered with one another. There is a shred apart kayak paddle that breaks down in 4 peices and includes canoe paddle ends that allow you to reassemble as two canoe paddles. In Class 1 and under tape up the self bailing feature as it creates a wetter boat.. In Class 2 and over the self bailing makes for a drier boat and you should put on the dry suit anyway..so take the tape off. You can run the boat solo by putting the inflatable seat in the back and back to the Kayak paddle. It works fine with one when the load is balanced. 2 guys with two Foragers could bring out a moose and a decent camp... use the cargo fly and you'll need 4 big dry bags each (it comes with two) and make sure you don't have jagged ends near the boat material...It's fairly tough but not bullet proof. You'll need to lash the antlers to the front. Carry your day gear in an exterior mounted dry bag and keep your night camp inside. Bring the widget (discussed above) and you can blow up the raft in a few minutes. I use the widget inside the blow up bag as the fitting works well on the interior blow up bag fitting.

 

[Rabbit Ranger]

Thanks... It's been a pretty good boat with a bit of a learning curve. For example with two people you need to use 2 canoe paddles rather than 2 kayak paddles as you can see on the video we interfered with one another. There is a shred apart kayak paddle that breaks down in 4 peices and includes canoe paddle ends that allow you to reassemble as two canoe paddles. In Class 1 and under tape up the self bailing feature as it creates a wetter boat.. In Class 2 and over the self bailing makes for a drier boat and you should put on the dry suit anyway..so take the tape off. You can run the boat solo by putting the inflatable seat in the back and back to the Kayak paddle. It works fine with one when the load is balanced. 2 guys with two Foragers could bring out a moose and a decent camp... use the cargo fly and you'll need 4 big dry bags each (it comes with two) and make sure you don't have jagged ends near the boat material...It's fairly tough but not bullet proof. You'll need to lash the antlers to the front. Carry your day gear in an exterior mounted dry bag and keep your night camp inside. Bring the widget (discussed above) and you can blow up the raft in a few minutes. I use the widget inside the blow up bag as the fitting works well on the interior blow up bag fitting.

What kind of tape are you using to temporarily seal the self-bailing holes?

 

[North61]

What kind of tape are you using to temporarily seal the self-bailing holes?

Trying Duct Tape as if you remove it every once in a while it doesn't leave too much residue and has been working fairly well so far.

 

[Rabbit Ranger]

Trying Duct Tape as if you remove it every once in a while it doesn't leave too much residue and has been working fairly well so far.

Thank you!

 

[Larry Bartlett]

No duct tape ain't gonna work for longer than 15 minutes. If you're trying to tape bail holes closed, the only temporary fix that might work is flex tape inside and outside the hole, and even then I suspect water will leak in to your bail holes with the fabric flexing and water/grit abundance that happens on the drift.

Bail holes are tricky and water trumps all our efforts to thwart leakage, IMO. If you have a self bailing raft floor it will leak unless you patch those holes from the outside and perhaps the inside if you're going for 100% watertight.

I discontinued my raft models' bail hole design because eventually water finds its way in the hull with self bailers "taped" off vs patched.

 

[North61]

Larry, Yup I get a bit of leaking but it hasn't been too bad so far. The flex tape is really hard to remove... any hints on that?

 

[AK_Chuck]

FYI we are about to have Outdoors Shows in Mat-Su and then Fairbanks. All rafts will be discounted by several hundred $$ sale. We're hoping to have those prices posted online as well for those outside the show areas.

April 12-14 Mat-Su (Wasilla)
April 19-21 Fairbank

We'll also have new accessories: Zippered Bow Bags, motor mount, Cargo netting, and custom Meat Tarp.

Hope to see some of y'all Alaskan Roksliders at the shows.

LB

Larry- are you gonna have these accessories on your site soon, or should I give you a call?

 

[North61]

I wrote Alpacka this is what they had to say about sealing the drain holes on the Forager

"Thanks for reaching out! We have heard that Tyvek or Gorilla Tape works well to temporarily seal holes on the underside of a self-bailing floor. The caveat is that you should remove the tape after each use to avoid adhesive residue buildup on the floor of your boat - it will stick pretty tightly after 2 or 3 days.

You could always test a small piece of the sheathing tape and see if it's easily removeable with rubbing alcohol or similar solvent first."

I'll go remove the Duct tape and see how bad the adhesive build up is. I put it on in the hot sun and let it cure on..... seems to have stuck on pretty well!

 

[jofes]

Does anyone have the total weight of the PR49, two life vests and a paddle? Or whatever your total kit weight is for use on a lake?

 

[Larry Bartlett]

Gimme a call for accessories. My web guru has a plan for the website but it'll be a minute after the Show this weekend apparently. Sorry for the delay