12v Air Compressor

Inflatable Towables are a big part of summer fun for many people. But keeping them filled properly goes a long ways toward long term enjoyment. Here are some things to keep in mind the next time you go boating.

Tubes, rafts and boats need to be full of air and also properly maintained if you intend to get your money’s worth out of them. Under inflation causes trouble both for the inflatable and the boat. Under inflation allows them to sit lower in the water. The air in the tubes tends to be displaced because of this. This in turn creates additional stress on the towable, the rope, the cover and the boat. The tubes can easily rip, covers can be torn, ropes break and the boat burns more fuel trying to pull the inflated item. The real question then becomes how much air do you need to put in them?

The short answer is that the towable  is filled when it is very firm to the touch. The covering over the tubes should be stretched tight enough that there are no wrinkles in it. In fact if an adult were to stand on one, on flat ground, that person should sink no more than a couple of inches. Any deeper and you will need more air.

To fill them properly you need a high volume air pump. Notice I say “high volume” not “high pressure”. Towables as well as air mattresses use low pressure but very high volumes of air to fill them. The average air pressure is generally about 2 psi or less. Anything more could have a disastrous result if the inflatable towable was punctured.

Filling  tubes and rafts can be accomplished in a couple of ways. You can use a hand or foot pump designed to provide the higher volume of air needed to inflate these inflatables. But I think that you would quickly agree that using a manual pump is a lot of work. Especially if you have more than one item to fill.

You can use 12 volt air compressors made for filling tires on cars. Some come with adapters that can be used when filling towables and air mattresses. While this is a much better alternative to using a manual pump, these air pumps have the downside of plugging into the power port in your vehicle. This limits how much power they can get and also limits how fast the pumps operate. Still faster than manually pumping up inflatables, but you may spend a lot more time than you would like.

Another option is to use a 12v air compressor designed to fill inflatables. These are generally low pressure but higher volume pumps. This type of air pump doesn’t use the power port in your vehicle and are not so limited in their power. Instead they have clips that attach directly to the terminals on your vehicle battery. With the greater power provided by the direct connection to the battery, higher volumes of air are created.

Just filling up the air tubes on your boat towables is not enough. You will also need to take into consideration expansion and contraction of that air. What do I mean? Simply this, if you were to leave a fully filled tube in the hot sun it is going to try to expand and get larger than it already is. Now if there is no more room for the air to expand internally where is it going to go? That’s right it will most likely pop a seam on your raft and end your fun very quickly.

The opposite is true if your inflatable towable sits in a cooler environment too long. The air inside of it will contract which will make it under inflated. This of course leads to the problems that I already mentioned.

Unfortunately, keeping your boat towable inflated properly is going to be an on going game that you will have to play. But if you use a little common sense and a high volume air pump, you should be able to get long term enjoyment out of your inflatables