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Hi sourdough,

I think the company you're referring to is at < http://www.steelheader.com/ >?

I'd want to know more about workmanship and materials before I hand over my cash.  Here are some questions you should ask:

1.  What kind of warranty do they offer?  Industry standard is five years (as Tracey mentioned elsewhere).

2.  Where are the boats built (and who builds them)?  Some companies build overseas in one or two batches per year.  This creates a situation where if you have a failure that's covered under warranty, they may not have a boat to send you to replace the defective one (some companies operate on very tight margins and most boats are pre-sold before they're even built).  Some companies don't even build their own boats, and may therefore have very poor quality control.  This is very common with smaller boat companies.  On the other hand, some companies have boats built by reputable, well-established outfits that stand behind their work.  A good example is Outcast, which is built by AIRE.  < http://www.outcastboats.com/outcastboats/ >.  The point is, I would find out who builds your boat and what sort of reputation do they have in terms of reliability.

3.  Fabric-  PVC is not a very air-retentive material in itself.  That's why Maravia spray-coats their finished boats with liquid urethane, and one reason why AIRE uses an inner bladder made of urethane.  SOTAR makes a urethane boat with a polyester base cloth.  In the past there have been a number of companies out there making boats with uncoated PVC.  These boats will go soft on you just sitting on the floor for a day.  Another reason some PVC boats go soft is because of wicking; essentially air is bleeding out of the boat by traveling edgewise through the base cloth.  You can check for this by spraying a soapy water solution along the edges of the fabric on a fully-inflated boat.  Sometimes the leaks are slow enough though that you may not see bubbles escaping right away though.  The bottom line is that uncoated PVC is cheap to produce and there are a lot of these boats on the market.  Find out what Skookum is doing to control this.

Finally, you and I both know that it usually comes down to money.  We can't all drive a Humvee and wear a Rolex.  So it becomes a question of degree of quality for dollars spent.  You have a lot of choices for this kind of boat, and you have plenty of time to decide before the river melts.  I'd do a little background work; you'll probably have this boat a long time.

BTW, be careful on the upper Gulkana- there's a canyon up there that might eat that little cataraft!

-Mike

Message Thread:

• skookum rafts sourdough72 Feb 11 2005
  • Skookum Link Michael Strahan Feb 11 2005
  • Skookum? Tracey Harmon Feb 11 2005