Float Tube Air Chambers

[LloydE]

I had some difficulty inflating my float tube the other day and was wondering if others have had a similar experience. I own a Fish Cat4. Over a period of five or six fishing trips my inflatable inner tube started to turn and twist inside as I deflated it and folded it up for travel. Finally, I started to get a somewhat distorted float tube; i.e., it looked like the insides had areas where the tube had ballooned out. I finally had to get inside and try to straighten out the inner air chamber. It is now looking a little better, but I still have some folds and I no longer have the smooth surface I used to have. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to keep this from happening again, or improving the situation?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]That is to be expected from completely deflating and folding up your craft for transportation in a vehicle with limited space. That is one reason most tubers only partially deflate their tubes...if they have a vehicle with enough room to allow them to carry their craft without complete deflation. The other reason is that they can hit the water faster if the tube is mostly inflated already.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That is one of the divantages of vinyl air chambers. Because they stretch more, they will "balloon" more when fully inflated and will distort more from their intended shape than urethane.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I might recommend unzipping the cover and inflating the air chambers slowly to allow them to expand as much as possible, without confinement. It would be even better if you could remove them from the tube, but without a special valve tool that is difficult.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I did not notice any "wrinkles" in your tube on our last couple of trips. If anything, I observed that you may be over-inflating your tube. I think I made a comment to that effect. [/#0000ff]
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