Guide to inflating your RIB boat
Properly inflating your tube pneumatic bladders is crucial to the performance, safety, and lifespan of your RIB boat.
In fact, awell-inflated inflatable boat will be slightly faster than a less-inflated model, and will also consume less fuel, hence the importance of getting it right!
How to proceed? What instructions should I follow? Which method to use? Orca Retail answers all your questions aboutinflating your tires!"
What inflation pressure for a RIB boat?
To find out the optimum pressure to inflate your tubes, the best thing to do is to follow the manufacturer's instructions! Indeed, RIB boat manufacturers will be sure to indicate this information when you buy your boat or in their user manuals.
As a general rule, a fairly low pressure of 0.2 bar is recommended once in the water. But depending on the fabric used (PVC or Hypalon), the ideal pressure will not be the same. In fact, PVC (often used for small annexes) is less able to withstand overpressure than Hypalon (used for larger models), which is more resistant to temperature differences.
If in doubt, please contact the manufacturers' after-sales departments:
- Zodiac : By phone at 118 707 (€0.80/mn) or from their website zodiac-nautic.en
- Zar Formenti: after-sales service form.
- Highfield : By phone at 02 98 36 68 47 or contact form.
What impact does outside temperature have on inflation?
Temperature and sun exposure is your first enemy when it comes to the lifespan of your RIB and its bladders. The hotter it gets, the greater the internal pressure.
A difference of around 3 millibars per degree is estimated. If you inflate your bladders to around 0.20 bars (200 millibars), this means that on days when you happily have temperature differences of 15°C, you'll feel a clear difference!
So, depending on the season, your region or the time of day, the optimum will not be the same.
It is recommended, for example, that on a particularly hot day when your inflatable boat remains exposed to the sun for a long time, you operate a slight pressure release (even if it means re-inflating a little later when the heat subsides).
During the hot summer months, it's therefore always necessary to underinflate the tubes to create a little depressurization, compared to other times of the year.
This is also why it's important to cover and protect your RIBboat when stored outdoors.
What impact does water temperature have on inflation?
If outside temperature impacts the pressure of your bladders, so does water temperature! Ain contact with water, pressure will drop with the temperature difference. That's why you may be slightly over-inflated compared to your goal.
How to check the inflation of pneumatic tubes
If you don't have any tools at your disposal, to check the bladder pressure and be sure you're not making a mistake, you need to make sure that it should be slightly soft when you put your foot on it (and mark small creases in the fabric). It is also said that a boudin should be"hard on the thumb and soft on the knee".
For greater precision, the ideal is to acquire a manometer, available for around ten euros. By placing the manometer on the valve, you'll get an immediate reading of the tube pressure.
What's the risk of overinflating?
Usually, RIB boats are equipped with pressure relief valves, which as a rule avoid serious problems.
But if this isn't your case, or if you simply want to be very careful about this point, be aware that under pressure, the glues and seams of your bladders are likely to give way. This will cause irreparable damage to your boat, not to mention the risk of explosion. Also, over-inflated bladders lacking flexibility will absorb shocks less well (e.g. when pulling into a dock), and will be damaged more easily.
So keep a close eye on the pressure used when inflating your RIB tubes, and take environmental factors into account to a minimum.
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