@laikwokwah
Active 5 years, 6 months ago-
Matt (Admin) replied to the topic DIY Packraft Photos in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 1 month ago
Outstanding! I’m so glad the rod holders worked out. Great work, and thanks for sharing! It looks like you’ve already been to some stunning places. Cheers
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Atlin and length questions in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 2 months ago
I second BobDep’s advice 🙂
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Fishing Rod Holders in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 2 months ago
Cool! I hope it works out – it looks like it will. Thanks for posting the pictures!
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Atlin Tube 1 Final Seam Issue in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 2 months ago
Well done – it looks great! Do you mind if I add your photos to the instructions page?
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Tips & Tricks in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 2 months ago
That is a great idea! I’m going to add these heat sealing form tips to the Heat Sealing page.
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Atlin Tube 1 Final Seam Issue in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
Hi ztron, don’t worry, it’s not a big problem. I’ll post my advice on the Tube 1 instructions page. Cheers
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic DIY Packraft Photos in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
Yeah, that’s something I’ve thought about, but once there’s TPU on both sides of the standard tube fabric then it’s only slightly lighter than the standard 450 GSM floor fabric – the difference isn’t big enough to make it worthwhile on a floor that’s about one square meter (it might save 50 or 100 grams compared to using the standard weight floor…[Read more]
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Custom Ultralight Packraft options in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
It sounds like an Ultralight is what you want… I paddle class 1+ in the Ultralight and sometimes carry my wife with me on lakes. If you dig through my old YouTube videos you can see me doing these things in earlier versions of what became the Ultralight. Just four days ago a customer who built an Ultralight emailed:
“By the way last weekend I…[Read more]
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Custom Ultralight Packraft options in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
I’ve looked at the numbers before and unfortunately it doesn’t really make sense.
Having an Ultralight packraft with a wraparound floor wouldn’t make it stronger because the ultralight floor fabric is the same strength as the ultralight tube fabric.
Compared to a standard weight Telkwa, substituting ultralight tube fabric in a Telkwa only…[Read more]
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Fishing Rod Holders in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
Sounds great – thanks for the order!
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic DIY Packraft Photos in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
Great job, and thanks for posting! Cool accessories, too!
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Fishing Rod Holders in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 3 months ago
I haven’t tried it, so it would be a bit of an experiment, but I think that would be okay. I would make the parts that attach to the packraft’s tubes out of the standard weight fabric… there should be enough of that in the kit, but add a note to your order reminding me about this and I’ll make sure to add some extra. Cheers!
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Matt (Admin) wrote a new post 1 year, 4 months ago
Replacement Spray Deck Stiffener The DIY Packraft spray decks use flexible plastic tubing to stiffen the rim that the elastic spray skirt fits over (the coaming), and several […]
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is there a way to tell between the two batches? I got a kit six months ago and haven’t put it together yet. Should I just to put it together with Pex out of an abundance of caution?
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I don’t think there’s an easy way to tell, but the stiffener is something that you insert and remove each time you use the packraft, so you don’t really need to worry about it beforehand – if it’s not stiff enough to keep the skirt on when you get to that point then you can replace it.
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Thanks for addressing this issue, Matt. I found that with 1/2″ PEX-b for combing, the spray skirt stays fairly well attached to the spray deck through class III. However, it’s still far from dry in that boat. As my body rotates while paddling through whitewater, the waist shock-cord tends to drop down my waist until it sits quite low. Water then pools on the skirt and slowly drips through my shirt and into the cockpit. After running my local 2 mile stretch of whitewater, I had 50-70lbs of water in the boat. So while it won’t negate the need for a drysuit in cold conditions, it does at least prevent having to get out & dump the boat after every rapid. I think my next adjustment will be adding shoulder straps to the skirt to keep it higher on my waist. After that, I may look at aquasealing the holes along the deck where the tube-fabric-joining strips prevent a seal, as you suggest in the tutorial.
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I found the same issue with the skirt. You can correct this by adding adjustable straps to your skirt. These will prevent the skirt from gradually shifting down. I also found I needed to add additional fabric panels to offer more ‘give’ to the skirt, allowing me to shift around in the boat a bit more without putting tension on the skirt.
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Creases between Tubes 3 and 2 in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 4 months ago
If you pull the tube 2 fabric forward and align the edge with the 5 cm line beside the slit (letting the tube fabric overhang the slit) then it looks like it will lie flat. You don’t have to force the existing corner to sit on the slit – you can trim the forward edge of tube 2 later so it lines up with the slit.
Does that help? I’m not 100% sure…[Read more]
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Matt (Admin) wrote a new post 1 year, 4 months ago
New Heat Sealing Video As part of my effort to continuously improve the DIY Packraft instructions, I’ve made a new, more comprehensive video about heat sealing. It’s […]
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Great Video. I’m just about to start assembling my second packraft and I know my sealing technique needs improvements. After using he first packraft a few times I found the edge of the seams would develop little bubbles of delamination between the TPU layers which I spot hit with the iron. I think not having to move the iron back and forth along the seams during the sealing will help me get a better initial weld.
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic DIY Packraft Photos in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 4 months ago
Hi Christian, I sympathize with that fear! It took me some time before I felt comfortable paddling in the Ultralight packrafts. The newer Ultralight fabric is very similar to the older fabric – to achieve the packraft’s very light weight we must use a very lightweight fabric or reduce the size and capabilities of the boat.
As a confidence…[Read more]
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Inflation air 'multiplier' in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 4 months ago
It’s great to know that if I lose my primary inflation method then I can use a pen or a bit of tubing to inflate my packraft relatively quickly to get home!
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic DIY Packraft Photos in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 4 months ago
I don’t think my previous response got posted… I wrote something like:
Great work! Thanks for posting the photos and your thoughts.
I’d be really interested in reading more about your experience with the Ulralight. I haven’t received much feedback about that model, and if I can post it as a Customer Build Report (under the Gallery menu) then I…[Read more]
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Matt (Admin) replied to the topic Inflation air 'multiplier' in the forum DIY Packrafts 1 year, 5 months ago
That is fascinating! I have seen this phenomenon used before, but I never considered this size/application. Very cool! I wonder if aiming a drinking straw at the valve opening and blowing through it would also work.
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Matt (Admin) wrote a new post 1 year, 6 months ago
New Type of Airtight Zipper I have just received a new shipment of airtight/waterproof zippers from TIZIP, and this time I ordered some MasterSeal 10 zippers in addition to the […]
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Do you have any instructions for using the Masterseal instead of the Superseal. I have two Masterseals lying around from another project. I don’t need one of them and would like to use it for my Telkwa, maybe as seen in a customer build in the center of the rear seam.
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I haven’t made specific instructions yet, but you can either install it the same way as a SuperSeal or you can iron it directly to the tube fabric from the “inside” side of the tube. You will be on your own if you want to install it in a seam, at least for the time being, as I haven’t done that yet myself.
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Sorry, I don’t know anything about that. Maybe ask Kipara?
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These zippers cannot be shortened like a regular zipper, they have to be ordered in the desired length from the factory.
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This is great. I could see these zippers being very nice for bow bags and ultralight builds. I was hoping Matt could offer a few master seals in a couple of different lengths.
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