On my last trip I took a new Alpacka Chinook. In the past with my standard ‘classic’ Alpacka rafts I always used an inflation bag and then my mouth for topping off. I’m sure I rarely put in more than 1.5 psi, which worked fine. My Chinook has 10″ tubes, so these have less flex-resisting structure vs the 12″ packraft standard. The boat is also quite a bit longer, so a longer lever to flex. I bought the Pack-A-Pump (PAP) for this reason. It works great, though I probably won’t use with my other boats since it’s unnecessary for my applications. The hollow plunger allows for some waterproof storage, so I figured I’d come up with an electric pump that fits inside. Here is what I came up with.
The pump is a Picea Power TurboBean (TB). Yeah, odd name, but kind of appropriate. It’s very small and puts out a lot of air compared to other micropumps. It inflates my standard rafts in 1:15 and my Chinook in 2:00. They claim it will reach 22 kPa (~3 psi), but I have never let it run long enough to see if it can struggle up this pressure. Once the raft hits about the same pressure an inflation bag would provide, I just switch to the PAP. To get the full benefit of the TB, it needs to be run off a power supply able to provide at least 18 watts, but more is better. Newer 10k mAh and larger battery bricks will often offer this ‘fast charge’ capability, but most mini battery packs won’t, and I wanted one that would fit inside the PAP plunger. I found that the Anker Nano 5k mAh was just the right size and puts out 18 W.
The TB does not mate natively to the Alpacka valves, so I made an adapter from a bit of poly tubing. I heated the end with a heat gun and once pliable shoved it into the Alpacka valve and let it cool to mold it. I added a heat shrink tubing collar to keep the adapter from getting shoved into the pump. It has a nice snug resistance fit in the main Alpacka valve and also works on the accessory valves (seat etc).
I sewed a little storage bag, dropped the Anker and TB in along with a short USB-C cable, and voila. I would not take this setup on a trip with a lot of elevation gain, but for shorter outings or when I am not climbing into the alpine from sea level over and over, it’s a pretty sweet little setup.
