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1,148 Posts
Haven't inspected them but the pics look good, the price is right, and the brand is pretty solid
Raft Riken Raft
Raft Riken Raft
anyone ever convert a Riken bucket to S/B?
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13 Posts
Yep. Last year I converted an ancient Riken Wave Rider 15 with intact baffles that I found with frame for less than $500 including the fuel to go get it. I used a beat up, leaky Maravia floor that I got even cheaper. It took me two solid 8-hour days, $50 worth of glue, $70 worth of grommets and a case of beer to get the floor laced in but I have loaned it out to three different friends in need of boats for overnights since I finished it. I do not think it would have been worth the effort if I hadn't been able to get the boat and floor as cheap as I did. That said, do not hesitate to pm me if you decide to go through with it and want to know how I approached the conversion and what problems cropped up.
Inflatable Technologies in Denver do the conversions regularly for people.
The one's I've seen no longer run thwarts because the position of the thwart forces the floor to extend down in that area. Not an issue if you are running it as a frame boat with a good drop in frame.
DanCan
The one's I've seen no longer run thwarts because the position of the thwart forces the floor to extend down in that area. Not an issue if you are running it as a frame boat with a good drop in frame.
DanCan
Joined
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17 Posts
looks skinny
I haven't done it with a Riken but I did push an old maravia floor into the bottom of a Udisco raft. Didn't need to glue it or anything, just stuffed the floor in there and punched holes around the perimeter, kind of like a Saturn floor.
My opinion: Those boats look pretty narrow, which isn't a problem but having gone through this I'd say the hardest part is finding the right sized floor to mate with the boat. In your case, you're looking specifically for something narrow like a puma but long like a regular raft. That may or may not be an easy find for you. If you end up having to buy a floor then you'd likely have been better off just buying a SB to begin with.
It can work, and work well, but if the boat is 1200 and you still need the floor... I think there was someone selling some used super pumas on here for about 2400 each...those will at least have some resell value.
I haven't done it with a Riken but I did push an old maravia floor into the bottom of a Udisco raft. Didn't need to glue it or anything, just stuffed the floor in there and punched holes around the perimeter, kind of like a Saturn floor.
My opinion: Those boats look pretty narrow, which isn't a problem but having gone through this I'd say the hardest part is finding the right sized floor to mate with the boat. In your case, you're looking specifically for something narrow like a puma but long like a regular raft. That may or may not be an easy find for you. If you end up having to buy a floor then you'd likely have been better off just buying a SB to begin with.
It can work, and work well, but if the boat is 1200 and you still need the floor... I think there was someone selling some used super pumas on here for about 2400 each...those will at least have some resell value.
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