cataraft NRS frame sitting atop a tall drybox

[slamkal]

I want to optimize the space under the rower seat so I can put all my heavy items in a drybox located in the center of the boat, making it somewhat easier to spin my cataraft.

So I want to sit on the drybox (on a seat on the drybox).

the drybox I have is about 16" tall with an NRS frame with yokes. I'm running pretty big tubes (27" lion) and I have either 6.5 or 8" towers available.

Most of the flip seats are about 4" rise. I'd like to avoid spending $400 on a new drybox plus $100 for a flip seat.

Right now I've got about 3" rise using some plywood blocks that raise me above the nrs seatbar. Last trip I ran 9.5 oars with extenders (10.5) and it felt pretty good.

It looks like with a 16" drybox I'm going to need about 5" rise. With the seat thickness etc this puts me pretty much upright, especially compared to the standard NRS seat bar.

I've got 72" frame and 10' oars so I think the geometry would work out to my advantage with this setup (not needing longer than 10' oars). On the plus side this would give me quite a bit of vision over the tubes and whatever crap I'm going to load on the front of my boat. On the minus side I don't want any issues where I spend a lot of money and it works out for crap.


Anybody have experience with this? I think the DRE seat sits about that high.

Oh by the way if you have a 13" tall by 40" wide drybox that you want to sell please PM me.

[jamwin33]

I ran into a similar situation where I was worried about seat height in relation to oar towers, etc. I was able to save several inches of seat height by mounting my seat to a piece of plywood that was the same size as the top of the drybox. I just strapped the seat to the top of the box (you have to strap the box in anyway) and off we went. It also allows for alot of adjustment (plywood spacers), and with two oar tower heights, you should be able to make something work. This is my son on the setup:[IMG]file:///C:/All%20My%20Stuff/Marks%20Stuff/Float%20Trip%20Deso%202010/P6090294A.JPG[/IMG]

[lhowemt]

I do the same on a cooler on the raft. Our platform is a bit smaller than the top of the cooler, allowing it to slide front/back for different rowers. Make sure you keep enough wood on the sides, for stability.

[CROE]

I got a flip seat bracket from AAA in Denver (lots of similar available...Downriver, Clavey,...) to go over a cooler for the same reason, a couple of years after I had the normal NRS seat mount with tractor seat.......I am tall (6'2") and found that it screwed up my "geometry" enough that my standard/low size NRS oar towers were too low, I couldn't get "around" in arrm/hand movement without banging into the seat and restricting movement too much......anyway raising my seat made it necessary to get taller oar towers (I got DRE) for an extra $100 and had to move my footbar a little closer back to me..........I didn't "preconsider" that the seat height would screw me up on the oar tower height............Chet

[MountainMedic]

you can also look into having an adjustable (back & forth) seat beacket welded to the top of the cooler. had a friend with this set up & liked it alot.