Just got done rafting down the dirty water of the Missouri River. Wondering the best way to clean the raft after use. I just hosed it off and set it out to dry. Is there anything else I should do to keep my raft in good shape? Thanks
That sounds perfectly adequate. A lot of times, I don’t even wash my raft unless it’s muddy, etc. I live in a small apartment, so the big thing I try to do is dry the raft, or I end up with an apartment smelling like sour urethane.
The raft is amazingly inert. Aside from looking for any damage, my maintenance strategy for the last couple years has pretty much been “fire and forget.”
I appreciate the response. Thanks!
Rinse the gravel out or you risk wearing a hole where the gravel sticks between the tube and the boat bottom.
Dry fully or you risk a stinky boat – deflate your boat, take the bow and stern lines and bring them together, folding the boat in half but with the black bottom on the inside and the tubes on the outside and hang by the lines – this allows the water to drain in part but it is still trapped between the tubes and the bottom at the fold. To get all water out tug on the connection between the deflated tubes and the deck to turn/pull the bottom deck all the way out, allowing the water to drain out of your boat at the fold.
I also stand the inflated boat on end and sponge out the water.
I find it important to get out all the sediment build-up where the tubes meet the floor. After several uses I spray it out with a hose which gets most of it. When I really get obsessive I blast it with an air compressor…
-mg