Inflatable boats - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Sharkskinner · RV-Dreams Community Member

Inflatable boats

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

I run a 10foot Zodiac (the Jacques Cousteau boats) with a gas outboard and never had any issue - and wouldn't expect to with this top-o-line inflatable. It deflates to a large duffle bag size.

Multiple air compartments is the thing to look for for safety's sake.

-- Edited by RVDude at 21:20, 2007-12-17

Darrell and Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a Sea Eagle 330 Kayak that we purchased in 2004. It has performed well even in shallow water and rocks. Never had any tears or air leaks. They are pretty tough.

Howard · Host

We have both the SE 330 and the Foldcat pontoon.

We have been astounded by the durability of the SE 330. We have dragged it across rocks in shallow river and creek beds and we have run it up on hidden stumps and sticks. We no longer have the fear of holes we had at first. smile

Now, I wouldn't take it into shallow salt water where there might be oyster beds - those things are extremely sharp. We always check the tides and make sure we have plenty of clearance over those. But, using common sense, it's a durable little boat and we love it.

Twice, we didn't get a valve cap in one of the chambers screwed on right and had slow leaks, but that wasn't the boat's fault. smile

Last winter while working a volunteer job for 4 1/2 months, we left the Foldcat (in its storage bag) under our rig. A rodent ate through the bag and chewed a hole in one of the pontoons. But we patched it with the kit that is included and have had it back out on the water with no problems.

Feel free to contact our friends Tim & Crystal at InflatableBoats4Less.com for more information. They are the largest dealer for Sea Eagle and they can probably give you additional information on failure rates. biggrin

-- Edited by Howard at 08:55, 2007-12-18

blijil · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a 330 kayak also. Wouldn't blame the boat but we did punch a thorn hole while going down the Rio Grande. Pulled it out, repaired and re-inflated the pontoon and finished the trip with about a 1 hour delay. The rocks on the San Juan River didn't seem to cause so much problem.

Be prepared and have fun.

Larry and Jacki

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are now on the American River in Lotus, Ca. and have just made a river run with our Sea Eagle SE-9 on it. The rapids sure were fun for us amateurs and we even got some complments on the boat. Folks this is a river rafting place with about 12 companys doing river rafting and we have seen it all out our back fiver window going down the river.
southwestjudy