Life raft: shipping or carry-on

Alvina310 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-07-2008

We are about to set sail to Guatemala and have borrowed an Avon 4 person life raft from a friend, committing to getting it back to the US for him.

Does any-one have experience with shipping a life-raft back to the US? (I have seen that they are classified as hazardous items and are usually handled by ground transport). Does any-one have experience with carrying one on board of an airplane?

Any insights & pointers much appreciated.

sailingdog · #2 (**permalink**) 04-07-2008

You can probably ship it as air cargo, but it is probably too big to be a carry on or a checked bag.

Paul_L · #3 (**permalink**) 04-07-2008

Shipping rafts can be a hassle. They are classified as Hazmat by the DOT. I believe their number is AN2990. The major shippers like UPS and FedEx will except them as Hazmat, but they only except from a shipper that is signed up for their Hazmat program. None of the standard retail outlets are.

Paul L