Inflatables with folding aluminum floor.......... thoughts

[Leveraction]

I’m looking into a 9-12 foot inflatable and possibly a 3-4.5 horse outboard.

what I’m wondering about is the stability in an inflatable with a rigid floor that’s part of the rubber and obviously inflates and gets rigid while your inflating the rest of the boat, but how rigid is it ?, vs a fold up aluminium sectional floor.
I see some descent zodiacs for ~ $1400, plus a little outboard for ~ $ 700, you could set yourself up good for under $2500.00

thoughts , I’d appreciate some first hand comments.

THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE ADVICE, IM GOING TO LEAN TOWARDS AN ALUMINUM FLOOR.

[albravo2]

I've had an aluminum floor model. It was a JP Marine, bought off a member here but I can't remember who. Great boat.

I think mine was 14' and I had a 40 on it. it went a bit fast. The aluminum floor made it nice and rigid.

My original thought was to get a jet for it like HBC member Gattho or ElectricDyck but I didn't find it that portable so I went a different direction.

[REMINGTON JIM]

I have a 10 ft inflatable with a multi piece aluminum floor - I run a 6 hp 4 stroke Yammy on it as well as a 28 lb electric motor.

The Boat is the most stable i have ever being in BETTER then any aluminum boat i have used and there has being a few - i LOVE it ! RJ

[wildcatter]

I’m looking into a 9-12 foot inflatable and possibly a 3-4.5 horse outboard.

what I’m wondering about is the stability in an inflatable with a rigid floor that’s part of the rubber and obviously inflates and gets rigid while your inflating the rest of the boat, but how rigid is it ?, vs a fold up aluminium sectional floor.
I see some descent zodiacs for ~ $1400, plus a little outboard for ~ $ 700, you could set yourself up good for under $2500.00

thoughts , I’d appreciate some first hand comments.

You are talking about an inflatable with a high pressure air floor.
The Achilles LSI-E series is the best out there, but not the cheapest.
https://achillesboats.com/boatmodels...portboats/lsi/
Kits Inflatables in Vancouver sells them, I was the service manager there.
They are fairly rigid, but not quite as much as the ones with Aluminum floorboards.
They got an inflatable keel under the floor to give it a V shape.
The advantage is you don't need to take any floorboards out and re-install later,
just open all the valves and roll it up, easy.
They are very stable.

[RackStar]

Can’t beat inflatable

high weight capacity. 2 guys can easily stand in a 9’ boat and fish out of it.
great for packing moose.

im looking at the cap-it inflatable this spring. Aluminum floor, comes in 3 siZes, made by Merlon in Abbotsford

[silveragent]

Rode in one with aluminum floor that you have to snap into sections. Even with two people it seemed like a lot of work to snap it together with mashed fingers and straining and jumping on it to get something to move an inch. Yes, even when partially inflated. But there was no denying it felt very stable once on the water sitting, standing, jumping in and out. If it were me and I had space - and I don't - I would leave it built until end of the season. We were second at the launch but felt like the tenth to actually pull out because of the effort it took putting it together. It was the floor that was the most work. Everything else besides getting the motor on the transom the electric pump took care of.

[pg83]

I've had a bit of experience with https://strykerboats.com/product-cat...latable-boats/ in both the ocean and lake settings. They are solid, local, yadda yadda yadda. I'm no salesman, but they might be right up your alley

[butthead]

i had a 12 ft with wood floor and a 35 hp merk on it
wooden floor worked well for us
haulled ass about 47 mph empty
used it for scuba diving
need the bigger power if your putting any weight in it
4 tanks 2 guys and all our gear plus the bounty of the day

[st99]

How are they on big lakes with big waves?

[upnover]

I have a 10 foot Seabright with an inflatable floor. The floor is very rigid, but very comfortable to kneel on and if i brace my feet against each pontoon i can flycast all day long standing up without falling in. But dont buy a seabright, i have had seam issues from poor initial build quality. I would go another brand. That floor is very quiet and easy on my flylines.