Hard or soft floor for 11 foot inflatable
 

I'm looking to purchase a 11 foot inflatable to bring along in my SUV on
vacations. I've seen both hard and soft floors on these inflatables.
What are the main differences between these floors?

"KeithR" wrote in message
...
I'm looking to purchase a 11 foot inflatable to bring along in my SUV on
vacations. I've seen both hard and soft floors on these inflatables.
What are the main differences between these floors?




Weight, ease of set up and to some extent stability.

The hard floor gives you a bit better stability when standing in the
inflatable. The downsize is that it adds considerable weight to it and is a
bit more tricky to set up.

Go for the soft floor.

On Sun, 15 May 2005 09:55:52 -0400, "KeithR"
wrote:

I'm looking to purchase a 11 foot inflatable to bring along in my SUV on
vacations.

I had an 11' inflatable when I was a kid. I hung an old Johnson 125 on
the back of it, and went over 100 mph.
Me and the wife
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/harkra...bum?.dir=/1323

I've tried both. The inflatable floor is very easy to set up but it's lack
of rigidity shows up when planing in short (wind over tide type) chop. It
costs a faif bit more but is lighter. It worried me slightly that shoes
would damage it but this was never really a problem (although keeping it
clean was).
The solid floor (plywood in my case) was a pain to carry and fit (although
it got a lot better with time) but was easy to live with in the boat which
was also much more 'sure footed' at speed.
In the end I prefer the solid floor because it is better for standing on,
the handling is measurably better and it saved me money (which I have spent
on manecuring my broken nails from fitting the damn floor:-)
So what's more important, portability or useability?
CM
"KeithR" wrote in message
...
I'm looking to purchase a 11 foot inflatable to bring along in my SUV on
vacations. I've seen both hard and soft floors on these inflatables.
What are the main differences between these floors?

On Sun, 15 May 2005 09:55:52 -0400, "KeithR"
wrote:

I'm looking to purchase a 11 foot inflatable to bring along in my SUV on
vacations. I've seen both hard and soft floors on these inflatables.
What are the main differences between these floors?

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I've had several inflatables with hard floors. By far the easiest to
set up, and the best performing, is my Avon with the roll-up aluminum
slats.