Which Inflatable Jet?

[USMCret]

Looking for some advice and help. Looking into getting in the inflatable game. Done lots of float hunts and love them but getting a little older and looking to swim up stream. What inflatable do you have. Looking for any advice on going with the Solar or the Pro Jet, Hoping for more insight than the usual FORD/CHEVY stuff. Pros/ Cons, maybe first hand knowledge of your research. Maybe you have one and you buddy has the other. What model you went with. Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated. What motor did you go with and why.. Please keep unhelpful comments to yourself. Im in Alaska and wanting it for that. Im looking for something like the 470 SJT with maybe a Tohatsu 60/40. I know there is Solar in Big lake and Stone river in Wasilla. Do you wish you would have gone with the 520? Has anyone done remote steering instead of a tiller? On a side note Im struggling a little with the money investment in a boat that basically has a somewhat short life span when compared to a metal boat. Thoughts?

 

[AKarchery]

I just sold my SJT 470

Honestly it was awesome, but didn’t fit my needs the way I thought it would. The 470 with a 50/35 mercury was a little too big and heavy for what I wanted. If I was to do it over again, I’d get a SJT 430 and find a 2 stroke for it. We had the ambition of doing more Moose hunting and getting away from people. Well inflatables are just about everywhere now and we don’t like the river bottom near as much as we like the high country.

With inflatables weight and where it’s placed is a huge factor. The other big thing is keeping it inflated properly. They change a lot with the sun and temperature so you have to be mindful of that. Inflating it on the trailer then putting it in the water will typically drop the PSI and decrease the boats performance. Inflating it in the AM then the sun comes out and warms the boat up subjects it to over inflation and busting a tube. That’s where some of the differences come in, I believe the strykers have over pressure valves on every tube where as the solar only has one for the floor. Another thing that stressed me out was bears. While I never had anything happen, getting to the places you can get with those boats and having a bear play beach volleyball with my ride out was a stressor. With that as well, just a lot of the littler side rivers and things all have a ton of deadfall and river trash so running that balloon into the bank to get out of the boat was a challenge as well. All things considered, most people are running the setup I had. Or with the Merc 60/40. They are the same power head and the 50/35 is just detuned to be kenai legal.

Side note, it’s not going to cut any chop while running it. You can run in some super shallow stuff but you can still feel the water ripples over the rocks and river debris.

If you haven’t, look up BCExtremeOutdoorsman and Rob Bryce on YouTube. Those are probably the best two sources of info out right now. Rob has a business out of Canada that specializes in the inflatable game.


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[AKarchery]

And for what you can do with these boats I would never recommend a console. The quick reaction with a tiller is key. Unless you’re just running down some of the bigger stuff.


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[USMCret]

And for what you can do with these boats I would never recommend a console. The quick reaction with a tiller is key. Unless you’re just running down some of the bigger stuff.


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thanks for the input, I understand the bear thing, Never had it happen to my raft but always in the back of my head, If I was to do this and the upping in price brings that back to the for front. So what are you looking to do now?

 

[AKarchery]

thanks for the input, I understand the bear thing, Never had it happen to my raft but always in the back of my head, If I was to do this and the upping in price brings that back to the for front. So what are you looking to do now?

Getting a wheeler and going to try some pack rafting. We may do a metal boat but still deciding. For the cost of these inflatables you could have a small armada of 14-18ft g3s or similar.

We saw an old timer last year with a small gator tail on the back of a canoe way down a side river off the Yukon. He said he pulls a moose out from there every year in that thing.




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[Bluumoon]

I was not impressed w the Stryker 470s ability to run in skinny water, way underwhelmed. I've heard Solar and Jettech are superior in skinny water. It certainly could have been user error, but I don't think so.