Rocky Mountain Rafts Review | Epic Rafts or Rip Off?
Rocky Mountain’s highly affordable range of products allows a broader range of users to experience battling with whitewater rapids. Offering inflatable rafts that can keep up with the pressure of rafting without breaking the bank makes them one of the boating crowd’s favorite brands. The brand’s continuous effort to innovate to maintain and improve its excellent quality manifests in its impressive selection of inflatable rafts. They show a simplicity that does not compromise performance, which also opens up better customization. Top 7 Best Rocky Mountain Rafts Reviewed We’ve reviewed some of Rocky Mountain’s bestsellers to help you choose a more fitting raft for your next date with the great outdoors. S-95 ThunderCloud SB-140 Self-Bailing Raft SB-180 Self-Bailing Raft SB-105 Storm SBDS-120 Drop-Stitch Raft PK-159 Peak PC-120 PhatCat 1. S-95 ThunderCloud We cannot underestimate the power the S-95 ThunderCloud offers despite its small size. Its compact build gives you a performance nothing short of excellent that it becomes perfect for your spontaneous whitewater adventures. ThunderCloud’s bottom has a smooth finish, allowing for smoother glides on water. The diminished tubes maximize your buoyancy but do not increase the raft’s drag, allowing for better water maneuverability. Its raised front allows for more comfortable resurfacing after steep dives, ensuring your safety as you paddle. Its factory setup allows for three paddlers, with its compact frame letting you have more contact with the water. This feature optimizes the energy of every paddle, giving you a maximum speed for significantly less effort. Applying a chafe-resistant layer on the bottom protects the raft from getting torn by the constant impact of rocks. Keeping this coating on the underside lets the raft remain lightweight, allowing for better portability. Two air chambers assure that you can finish the trail safely, with a patch kit included that allows you to make a temporary fix. Welding on its entire construction ensures that this raft can take the constant beating of whitewater rafting. The removable thwarts give you more control over how you want to maximize the deck space. 2. SB-140 Self-Bailing Raft The ultra-tough exterior of the SB-140 Self-bailing Raft lessens your worries about it being capable of handling customization. Its highly adaptable frame lets you have full control of the deck, letting you go from whitewater rafting to multi-day fishing trips smoothly. Rock Shield Polyvinyl Chloride makes the raft’s outer shell highly durable. The material promises superior resistance to impact and is highly compact, making the raft rigid. Triple-fused seam tapes seal the entire raft’s construction, which is comparatively better than glue or stitching. Leafield D7 Valves assure you that the SB-140 will remain airtight despite its massive carrying capacity. The same valve lets you spend more time paddling than setting everything up with its efficient inflation rate. Its Rapid Thwart Attachment System has pins holding them, allowing for more convenient removal and re-installation. The sloped ends of its thwarts improve its pins’ security, letting them be in closer contact with the raft’s hull. This feature allows for better weight distribution, spreading out the mass on the entire raft rather than concentrating in the center. Laced-in floors allow for more accessible storage since you can easily take it out after using it, making the raft more compact when deflated. This feature also expels excess water faster than glued-on floors, improving the raft’s buoyancy. 3. SB-180 Self-Bailing Raft The biggest among Rocky Mountain’s Raft offerings, the SB-180, is all gear boats’ mother, setting the standards high for its competitors. Its massive construction promises to be strong enough to carry all your gear and more, making it suitable for your multi-day camping trips. Its almost rockerless frame promises the ultimate stability, assuring that all your gear will stay dry. The smooth bottom reduces drag, which compliments the increased buoyancy in efficiently carrying massive cargo loads. These features, which make the raft relatively flat, allow you to maximize the entire deck, giving enough room for your stuff. Rock Shield Polyvinyl Chloride keeps the frame highly weatherproof and rigid, assuring you that the raft will remain airtight. Its Leafield D7 Valve efficiently traps enough air and optimizes its pressure to ensure your safety. SB-180’s welded construction assures you of excellent durability, making sure you get your money’s worth. If one of the air chambers gets punctured, though, you can make temporary repairs with the repair kit and wrench included in the package. 4. SB-105 Storm Rocky Mountain’s SB-105 Storm lets you go from adventures on foot to the water with its compact size. Having a relatively smaller raft also enables you to traverse all whitewater classes easily with excellent control and maneuverability. Its somewhat smaller tubes let you have more contact with the water, optimizing every paddle and gaining more speed. Leafield Valves on the two air chambers, two thwarts, and floor assure you that the raft will stay airtight from start to finish. This feature also lets you go whitewater immediately with its quick inflation and deflation. A Pressure Relief Valve will expel excess air to ensure the raft’s integrity and safety. Having separate air chambers for each tube also ensures that you will finish the course safely, with repair kits available to let you do a temporary fix. You need not worry about the raft’s durability with its Rock Shield PVC construction. The high-quality outer shell material promises to stay rigid to ensure your safety and is resistant to immediate damage from constant impact. The Rapid Thwart Attachment System lets you have full control of maximizing deck space, allowing for better customization. Removal and installation of these seats are convenient with pins that promise excellent security to help keep you in place as you paddle. 5. SBDS-120 Drop-Stitch Raft Much like the SB-105 Storm, the SBDS-120 Drop-Stitch Raft allows you to bring the rest of the family out from the backyard to battle the rapids. The increased size improves the raft’s balance letting you be more stable as you paddle. Doing away with an inflatable floor significantly reduces the raft’s weight allowing … Read more