My UL tube project...

[SHigSpeed]

Quick dissertation on valves:

You can see on the pics above that I have a nice inflator tubes on the 1/2 scale models. Garden sheeting and duct tape work great, but not quite as quick to prototype as the Press 'n Seal. Anyway, you'd be surprised what valve manufacturers will send you for free as a sample!

These inflator tubes are similar to what Outcast uses on the Trinity and on their inflatable seats. Work well, but not made for big volume in or out. I needed something else for the main bladder.

I think everyone knows what a Boston valve looks like:



Pros: Light (1 oz including threaded seat), cheap ($4 for a replacement)
Cons: I couldn't find anyone who sold the damn seat! Everyone sells the valve but I guess the seats only get welded into the vinyl overseas in quantities of 1000s or more! I did finally find a way to get seats, but let's move on...

Halkey/Roberts-Summit style raft valve:



Pros: These things are great! They don't need to be welded or glued in, they have a nice feature that you can inflate them most of the way with teh valve open, then top off with the check valve active. They deflate just as quickly.

Cons: They are a bit expensive, and they're HEAVY! 3 ounces. And BIG! Rolling one or two of these into a packing tube would suck. To have 6 ounces of valve in a tube that weighs under 3 lbs is silly.

Finally, this guy:





This is what's in my DC tube and gets the job done!

Pros: Light (less than 0.5 oz), low profile, check valve, relatively fast inflate and deflate. Cheap - kinda. I found where to get them, but their minimum purchase is $500!! I did get some samples though.

Cons: Well? It's a bit cheesy looking but asking around with people that design and build inflatable things say that they've never had a failure. It does require it to be glued or welded in, but who cares?

I do have another couple of options yet to investigate (more samples in the mail - should be here Monday) but I think I'm set on the main valve for now. If I do smaller bladders (backrest maybe?) I may use either the tube inflator valve or maybe something like a twist close Thermarest valve.

So, now that I have the basic shape pretty much down, it's time for a full size mockup. You may notice that I used the Summit 2 valve in this as it makes inflating and deflating easy peasy!



You can see the Outcast seat in place to get an idea of what's to come.

For grins, check out the evolution of the tube and sketchpad:



The plan is to make it a bare bones and modular tube. So far, it seems like the tube and seat MIGHT be doable at right on 2 lbs. On top of that there will be a strap-on pocket option, possibly a backrest, big cargo drybag for the "trunk", stripping apron, and rod holders. Don't expect the all-singing all-dancing PVC rocket-launcher rod holders for this flyweight. I think even with ALL of this it'll be well under 3 lbs. Perhaps with all this and the inflator bag it'll nudge up to where the Del Canty was ala carte.

More musings to come, gotta get dinner going...
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