Made a raft out of 4 blue barrels and some poles .... it was un useable .... way too buoyant! It rolled a soon as we got on it, I can confirm that lake Windermere is refreshing in February!
We made ours out of barrels one of the bus got them free from someone will ask him who they were far to buoyant so we cut the tops open and sat in them and it was spot on but we just bolted them together but just had to be careful getting in and out quickly when water levels weren't high I'll try and dig some pics out
If you could find out would be brilliant thanks. I went to buy some, turned up but they sold a load and only had 1 left when they said i could have 6. Cheers
i think were after the plastic ones rather than metal ones...thanks.
Ill ask my brother, thanks for the offer. Iv got a feeling we would need so many of them for 6 people plus timber it wouldnt be the easiest of build to seal them.
We have loads of left over 20L oil drums ( plastic ) from work, can have as many as you need.... We have to pay to get rid of them...
They may or may not work... But nice and square.... Will have to be next weekend if you want them , working away all week
Hi Jeff
do you think these containers would be suitable to carry diesel in. I need to carry a load of extra diesel on a boat for a long trip and would lash them on deck.
Thats the plan, we want them sealed incase if we go side on in a weir, dont want to flood them. If its too bouyant we can put water in them to trim the raft.....help keep it level if some members have bogger beer bellies than others
Still on the hunt for some local, found some in holsworthy and sherbourne, but will need 2 trips in the van so would prefer local.
If you're doing the Dart raft race, dont forget that there are some parts where you might have to carry your raft if the water level is low. 6 200 litre barrels weighed down with ballast, all held together with a 6 x 2 timber frame is going to take some carrying!!!!
These will be fine with 6 on. I've done this race a few times. Our first raft was stable, comfortable and robust, but bl**dy heavy to carry. The last one using this sized barrels strapped to the underside of a couple of aluminium ladders.was ideal.
Good idea with the ladders. How many barells did you use for 6 of you?
It was the full length of the ladder, so maybe 4 or 5 for each pontoon? Another year, we used 2 sections of a scaffold tower strapped together lengthwise. When we got to the rough bits, we could separate the 2 halves into 2 short 'sub-rafts', then strap back together for the flat fast bits.
