Make RV Travel Better with Inflatable Boats

Choosing to travel in an RV, cabover camper or pull behind trailer can lead you to all kinds of great water. Lakes, rivers and the ocean are all more accessible and fun with a boat but combining a full-size boat with a camper setup is difficult, especially for long term travel. If you really want a dedicated boat with a motor, traveling in a cabover is your best bet. You can still tow a full trailer and take your boat along. Adding a trailer to your rig does however reduce some advantages associated with a cabover camper. Primarily, the advantage of mobility because you don’t have a trailer to tow and can travel like you would in a regular pickup.

For casual boaters just looking to get out on the water and expand the range of recreational opportunities, an inflatable boat is an excellent option. You can easily store away kayaks for rivers and lakes or take along a full size raft for whitewater opportunities. You can even pair a small motor with a lake or river worthy boat and still keep everything compact and portable.

Ultimately, the boat you take along depends on personal preference and your intended use. A fisherman wanting to explore a large lake will have different needs than a backpacker wanting to hike up a river and float back down. Take some time to consider your primary use, budget and research brands and options before making the jump.

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Price and Construction are Relative

As with many things in the boating world, you do get what you pay for and the higher cost items often reflect more durable materials and higher quality construction. This rings especially true with inflatable boats. Watch out for off brands and what appear as unbelievable deals. Cheap PVC construction that is poorly glued together will fail in short order. Look for welded seams or high quality PVC construction with a warranty against construction. Anything made with Hypalon as the primary material is durable and easy to patch as well. PVC is lighter than hypalon however and is commonplace in modern inflatables.

Paddle Boards and Packrafts

These two are your lightest options and they pack down into a very tight space. Inflatable paddle boards or SUP are great for lakes and other placid waters. Experienced paddle boarders will even run rivers on their inflatable boards. Northwest River Supply (NRS) makes boards in a variety of shapes with narrow models for experienced speed paddlers on flat water, stability models for general use and river models designed for surfing waves and tackling whitewater.

High quality packrafts like the ones made by Kokopelli and Alpacka brands are incredible feats of lightweight construction. Rafts weighing under 5-pounds are designed for lake and river use. These rafts are designed to store away in a backpack and are excellent for floating on a high mountain lake after a long hike or a reservoir right next to your campsite. In terms of space savings and convenience, this is a good route.

Inflatable Kayaks and Canoes

While packrafts offer the ultimate lightweight boat, they do lack in comfort features. Switching to a dedicated inflatable kayak or canoe provides more in the way of stability and options. NRS and Aire are two top brand options but there are quite a few in this market. The “Ducky” style kayaks are great for running whitewater and perform equally well for general lake use. They are versatile and pack down small. You can find these single person kayaks weighing under 40-pounds in durable designs that are ready for big water. You can also opt for lake models with a more narrow base, cone specific models and even tandem kayaks that perform closely to hard body models. Although they are inflatables, they end up forming a rigid shell that tracks and plays much like a hard body boat.

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Running a Motor

Think you can’t run a motor without a pulling a trailer? Think again. Zodiac style inflatables come with a hard floor and inflatable transom that tracks and stabilizes the boat on plane. A 10-12 foot boat with a 9.9 or 15-horse outboard is surprisingly portable and it opens up big water. I ran one throughout a very large, high consequence river system and the adjoining lake in Patagonia for several guide seasons. The rubber and hard floor packs down into a manageable package that could fit in a standard size hitch mount cargo carrier. Carrying the motor is a more complex issue but you could easily build a 2x4 rack and mount it to the exterior or interior of your rig in an upright position. Storing in the original box is also an option. A 9.9 horse motor is light and can be handled by a single person with moderate strength. Several brands make these boats. Avon no longer manufactures one but the old ones are very tough. Achilles also has some great models available.

Inflatable Rafts

If you are crossing rivers and learn how to row a raft, an entire world of discovery becomes available. Exploring on a moving raft is a great way to interact with a river and you can tackle everything from short, mild floats to big whitewater. A raft with a minimal rowing frame can pack down to a portable, 100-pound package. If you pull a trailer with a pickup, a small raft can actually sit on your truck bed rails. I keep a Star brand, Lightning Bug model rolled up under the bed in my campervan. It weighs under 90-pounds and has oversized tubes for big whitewater. I use it for fishing and exploring rivers without worrying about having an undersized raft in a Class IV or V rapid. While I use a breakdown frame on mine that stores away easily, frameless rafts are also made for extremely lightweight travel. While I prefer the extra 5-10 pounds for big water, a smaller boat would actually clear through airport security and can travel with you in the air and on the road.