Common repairs

[Ike Jutkowitz]

What field repairs have you needed to make on your packraft, and what products have you found most useful?

Mine is showing no signs of significant wear after its first year, but as I continue to expand the scope of these trips, I'd like to be prepared for common types types of failure and how to fix them.

[Jon Holthaus]

Last Sept I bought a 2011 decked Yukon Yak from Mike Curiak and since I received it I've put ~ 80-100 miles on it. I'm sure based on his website he has taken it through some wild trips, I have only taken it downs bunch of Class II rivers. The boat has never needed a patch, not any major repair, other than removing some dirt from the threads on the screw plug as well as cleaning the elbow valve thread. Alpacka's site has a very good repair and maintenance section on their site, though I'm guessing you'll probably looking for actual users experiences. In that case only cleaning thread on my boat.
I am still constantly amazed at how incredible packrafts, namely alpacka rafts are.

[Richard Lyon]

Ike – Not much to add to Jon's comment other than to second his opinion. I have thoroughly abused my Denali Llama, particularly dragging it over rocks without a second thought, and I have yet to have a leek or any other mishap requiring a repair. Jon's spot-on regarding Alpacka's maintenance section too. In my experience all I've needed to do is ordinary cleanup.

Richard

[David Chenault]

I've punctured my seat twice; both times by gravel which got between the seat and floor. Fixed both with aquaseal back home.

I slashed a side tube just above the floor on a very sharp limestone ledge in a river. The cut was ~3" long but only made it all the way through the tube material occasionally. I was near the end of the run so I just packed up and walked out. I fixed this at home with a piece of Patch and Go applied to the outside. Two years later this is holding up great.

I developed a slow leak at the rear elbow (mouth) valve on a trip last year. Too much yarding on this rigid piece of plastic while inflating caused it to delam slightly from the tube material. This was probably exacerbated by temps at camp well below freezing the night before, rising rapidly once I got into the sun. I fixed this in the field with a bit of UV-cure aquaseal, which got me down the rest of the river. I enhanced that at home with a bead of regular aquaseal. Has held up to this day.

Other than this I've applied some preventative aquaseal to various wear points on the floor, and put on an occasional spray of McNett UV protectant.

My field repair kit is a small tube of UV-cure aquaseal, 2 feet of Patch and Go, and maybe 8 feet of duct tape. I have denatured alcohol available elsewhere (fire starting kit) for prepping any necessary repairs. The UV aquaseal cures brittle, and isn't a permanent repair, but in full sun cures to useable in 30 minutes. I figure it will get me out to civilization.

[spelt with a t]

Rivers were very low this spring and I dragged my butt across all sort of gravel on maybe half a dozen trips. I found one pinhole in the floor–and I do mean pinhole; I would never have found it if I hadn't been outside on a sunny day with the boat upside down and my head jammed into it to trace placements for thigh brace anchors. I used a small piece of tenacious tape on each side and sealed the edges with a thin smear of aquaseal. It probably didn't even need repaired but it was my first time using tenacious tape and aquaseal and I thought, why not see how they are to work with.

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