Avon high pressure floor

[mikemosabe]

I''m curious if anyone else has experienced difficulty with bringing the high pressure floor up to the rated pressure. It seems to take forever just to get to the half-way point according to the gauge-which seems accurate for the pontoons. I''ve been using the floor pump with the two chambers, using the second to go beyond the 2.5 psi rate. Has anyone with a high pressure floor discovered the same or have a solution?

[WHOOSH]

Mike:

I don''t know where you''re located but I''d go easy on putting too much air in the floor unless its perpetually grey and overcast where you are. A dock mate gave up on his Avon inflatable floor dink, as the floor kept failing; he went thru two floors. We have been using the Achilles LSI model for 2+ years now and are on our 3rd floor. I think one problem manufacturers have is that they must glue the valve assemblies to the floor and, in the sun, the floor can increase its pressure as the air gets hot. The glue has to withstand both the glue and the increased pressure.

I just pumped the dink this afternoon and found the floor pretty quick to finish inflating when moving to the 2nd chamber. So...to answer your ''real'' question, I haven''t noticed it being a problem.

Jack
In St. Pete where it gets pretty hot in the sun

[ikent]

We have an Avon as well but we don''t see the problem you are describing. If you are relying on the little red indicator on the pump itself to tell you where you are, that might be the problem. These are just springs that can and do stick. On ours it seems pretty hard to overinflate the floor but as mentioned earlier be aware of the effect of the sun. Here in SoCal it''s a consideration on sunny days as well.

Another quick note, the second chamber of the pump moves less air with each stroke so it will take a lot of pumping to get there.

Ike

[mikemosabe]

Thanks Jack,

The older Avons were a problem for a while...the new ones are much better with the metal valve assembly. The inflatable rep said that it was advisable to bring it up to full pressure (11 lbs) which is indicated in green on my gauge. I checked it today about (80 in the So Cal sun) and it has moved up some but still a ways from the green zone. The gauge seems accurate so I might turn my suspicion to the pump unless someone else with the Avon/West Marine Air 310 has experiene with it.

[mikemosabe]

Thanks Ike,

The inflatable came with a nice gauge...no numbers but green areas to indicate the proper pressure of the pontoons and the floor. The red indicator on the pump only reads to about 3.5 psi so not something to refer for the higher pressure. I''m suspicious of the pump as it stays virtually the same (with the needle about 1/4 way from the green area) whenever I check the pressure after another 30 strokes or so.

[WHOOSH]

Mike, our Achilles LSI dink came with the same kind of gauge. It was the first thing to ''break'' and began sticking, which may be what you''re seeing. I kept it inside the mother ship at all times but it only lasted 3 months.

Jack