C-Forum

This is a noob question but I have to ask it. What is the best way to blow up my airbags when I am at the river? Should I get a footpump or what?

battery powered air mattress pump but i leave mine inflated all the time.

Yeah, leave a little air out when they're not in use so if it heats up they don't expand too much and burst-- but otherwise leave them inflated enough that you don't need much more than your lungs to get them ready to paddle.

if an air bag does need to be replaced, what brands are out there that are top quality...nrs or gaaii--sp??

I have a rechargeable Coleman mattress pump from WallyWorld and it works very well for inflating the 60" bags in my Howler. I leave them inflated most of the time and top them off with lung power when needed. As someone else commented, be careful not to leave too much air in if it is going to warm up or if your canoe will be in the sun.

I bought Gaia bags last year (http://beta.gaiasports.com/) and I've been happy with them.

SYOTR

I bought some short NRS bags a few years ago for one of my play C1's.
They are the worst air bags I ever had. Started to delaminate withing 2 seasons and pretty much all the the inflation hoses came off at some point and had to be reglued.
In other boats I have Harmony bags that must be close to 10 years old and are still as airtight as they were on day 1!

TGG!

Many of my paddling budies inflates/blow out completely and store their bags before and after each trips, pretending that a long roof car trip could sometimes gets your bag to damage.

I'm not doing it (such a drag!) and nevr had problems so far, but I saw on the net somebody's pictures of cardboard (choroplast?) panels that were shaped to fit right under the ropes to protect the bags from dirt and damage during transport... Thought it was a neat idea.

Some of the travel damage to air bags left in the boat is due to "rumpling" of the fabric from air currents. This can cause small leaks at the ends of rumple zones, or at the end of folds. Lightweight fabric bags are more likely to sustain this problem. Another possible cause of damage is a bag being blown around so that it rubs against grit caught between the bag and the hull.

I have always left lightweight bags in my boats. It just is not worth the trouble of deflating and inflating them, even when I have traveled from Atlanta to CO or beyond.

It is important to check the bags to see that they do not hyperinflate as you drive to higher altitudes or into higher temperatures. I have seen marked distortion of my Royalex canoe when I drove from 1000' to 5500' feet and left the car parked in the sun. The distortion did not persist, but you could see it from 1/8 mile away.

Just outfitted a boat, and I put a length of bungee in the strap that runs from the nose of the boat to the D-ring. The purpose is to allow a bit of give-and-get when the bags expand and contract. I may put in a full length light bungee UNDER the lacing, so that when traveling, the bungee keeps some pressure on the bag if it deflates due to lower temperature or lower altitude. This will keep the bag from rumpling in the wind due to getting soft.

I always leave them inflated. Like EZ said if they are not fully inflated and flap around you will have problems. The only problems I have had is from pulling into that small eddy, with briars hanging down

If I was driving cross country, I would take them out just to simplify things due to elevation and temp changes.

Always had good luck with Mohawk bags, not sure if the new owner sources from same place as previous though.

Just another good thing about a Teaureau except to check if they have air ever fourth or fifth trip air bag are out of sight out of mind.

I don't like letting them get beat up in the wind on top of the truck and I don't like dealing with a big set of wet bags (or inflating all the time). In one boat I was paddling very regularly I made a cover from coraplast - pix somewhere in here : http://picasaweb.google.com/scott.broam/CanoeOutfitting $10 in material, maybe a half hour to make, and 5 minutes every trip for cheap bag insurance. Certainly less time than inflating/deflating/removing. The bags still look like new after a year or two of that.

I don't worry about it in the Spanish Fly - the bags seem to be very heavy duty and are more protected (I think). The deflation to protect them from heat expansion never seems to take more than a few puffs to replace.

In other boats I use a cheap 12V inflator. I put a 12V outlet under my truck bed rail so it's pretty easy when I do need to do that.

Mohawk has great air bags....they last for yrs....Air them up by mouth or compressor

the new NRS bags that they just came out with a couple of years ago (think they're called Infinity) are awesome. They can't delaminate like the old NRS bags and they come with a lifetime warranty.

with royalex getting thin and crappy, and canoe companies folding up, it's nice to see one product that has gone from crappy to bombproof.

Hmmm.... Maybe we should think about switching manufactures process then? Forget about royalex and let's make whole OC1s from airbags!

After the IK, here comes the Inflatable open canoes!

Maybe that's what Smerda's the april Shuu was all about

Inflatable open canoes are old news, they have been out there for over 20 years...
I paddled a few of them, none of them impressed me as far as the performance was concerned.
If I was going to do a really remote trip with lots of whitewater, then I might consider one, other than that, give me a hardshell boat any time.

TGG!

http://www.grabner-sports.at/OUTSIDE.ou ... .html?&L=2
http://www.grabner-sports.at/XR-TREKKIN ... .html?&L=2
http://www.spreu-boats.de/
http://www.gumotex.cz/en/products/infla ... o-s4397547
http://www.soar1.com/soar_12.htm