Alpacka inflation bag w/ neo air

[James Castleberry]

I love the simple efficiency of the Alpacka inflation bag and wanted to use it to inflate my neo air all season pad. I'm sure a visit to Home Depot would find some other connectors that would attach right to the threaded piece on Alpacka inflation bag, but here's what I did:
Remove the connector pieces on Alpacka inflation bag (where the bag attaches to raft valve). I just held the silnylon bag with one hand and pulled on the connector piece with the other. Came off pretty easy. In the same manner, you can remove the valve connector pieces on neo air all season stuff sack/inflation bag (where it connects to pad valve for inflation).
Insert the neo air piece through the small hole in the silnylon alpacka inflation bag and connect it to the flexible rubber valve on the other side of the silnylon hole. You might have to experiment with placement of silnylon and the pieces and the seal isn't always 100% but it works, at least on mine. The key point is it works better than the default neo air all season inflation bag/stuff sack and better than the "lightweight" Therm-a-rest neo air silnylon pump sack. If you own both the Alpacka inflation bag and a neo air all season and the stuff sack it came with, it's extremely easy to figure out. Just pull the pieces apart and exchange. If on a packrafting trip, it seems it would be easy to switch the pieces back and forth as needed to inflate the boat or the pad. Alpacka inflation bag is $15.

[spelt with a t]

Thanks for this. I was thinking about it just the other day.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

You can buy just the valve from Theramrest – it's called the "Air Tap":
http://cascadedesigns.com/therm-a-rest/accessories/neoair-airtap-pump/product

I would just pop an extra hole in the inflation bag and add the Air Tap valve so you've got both permanently in one bag. The Air Tap valve comes with an inner cap, so just keep it capped when inflating a raft. Conversely, grab some sort of a cap (Home Depot?) for the Alpacka valve so you can block that when inflating the pad – or just awkwardly block it with your hand when filling the pad. That might work okay as it would only take 1-2 bags to fill the pad.

[spelt with a t]

I wound up wrapping some tape around the end of the rubber Thermarest nipple so it would seat snugly inside the alpacka valve. Works like a charm.

[NW Hiker]

James,

Great minds think alike :) I posted on this awhile ago – http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=63279&skip_to_post=541293#541293

Works great, 2-3 bags full and done.

[Author]

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