Inflating packraft with Thermarest inflation bag

[adelorenzo]

I’ve figured out a lightweight solution for inflating my Ultralight boat which has the red PVC valves. I use my new-style winglock valve Thermarest inflation bag. A short peice of 0.875″ OD vinyl tubing from the hardware store connects perfectly into the Thermarest bag and then needs a few wraps of tape on the other end to fit the packraft valve.

Total weight is 12 g for the tubing and 54 g for the Thermarest sack, the latter of which I am carrying anyway to inflate my mattress. By comparison my pillow-case sized inflation bag from the fabric in the boat kit is 125 g which seems way too heavy considering the whole boat is only 800 g.

It takes quite a few bags (80 or more) to fill the boat up so not something you’d want to do multiple times per day. But for a trip where you are infrequently using the boat for river crossings and such I think it’s a good solution.

Option B would be to adapt the packraft inflation bag to inflate the Thermarest.

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[adelorenzo]

In case you were curious this little Thermarest micro pump inflates the boat in 10 minutes.

[adelorenzo]

It took me 5:30 to inflate the boat with the small thermarest sack. I use the dump valve to start and when it starts to fill up I switch to the one-way valve. 10 breaths to finish the job.

 

[adelorenzo]

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