Self-service Life Raft

M

mattonthesea

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Nov 2009
Messages
1,519
Location
Bristol
ayearatsea.co.uk
I'm about to attempt servicing my life raft. Having watched the last one I am confident except for a couple of points:

-what is a good way of connecting the holding straps? They are approx 3/8 wide green straps - the sort you see holding packing cases together - but the breakable connection is too far gone to examine clearly. Or is there a newer, better version?

- apart from the obvious additions, like drugs, are there any parts of the raft itself that might be out of life? eg do the CO2 cannisters run out even if the weight remains the same?

Thanks in anticipation
 
Can I suggest that you may not get much in the way or advice on this here.

I for one would never offer any advice regarding this, as would not want to be responsible for a raft not deploying or working correctly as a result of any guidance or advice given.
 
CO2 cylinder. Look at the shoulders of the cylinder. It’ll have a date stamped on it. If the date is 10 years or more ago, the cylinder should be inspected, tested and refilled. Try CTS (UK) Liverpool | Cylinder Testing & Sales UK Ltd | Call 0151 448 0555 they can do all the testing and refill with the correct CO2 /N mix and fit a new arming head if needed. If it’s in date, check weighing and an external examination to make sure it’s not corroding is all that is needed. Take care when doing this as it’s easy to trigger the arming head by mistake and that can be quite exciting.
Strapping. I used polyester webbing instead of the original strapping. Sew a D ring to one end, pass the strap round the canister, thread the free end through the D ring and bring it back to the webbing. Sew a patch of Velcro on in the right place and that’s it. I also taped the join between the canister halves before putting the webbing on: got a couple of people to sit on the canister whilst I did the taping.
Others will now appear to issue dire warnings on not servicing your own raft but I think that with a bit of care and attention and watching some of the YouTube videos on the topic you can’t go far wrong.
 
I haven't self-serviced my liferaft altho I do plan to do so in the near future. I was thinking of making up some narrow straps with velco to replace the holding straps - otherwise I couldn't be confident that the straps would snap/open if I actually had to deploy it.

I believe that, as long as the bottle weighs the correct amount and it is not corroded, then it is probably in working order. As far as I am aware, a professional service doesn't do more than that to check that bottle.

You might want to leave out all torches, medicines etc. and have a grab bag with such essentials - that way you can regularly check batteries.
 
I serviced one myself, an American brand but made in Italy.

Short of sending it to Italy and paying over twice the cost of a replacement by the time it was returned I was snookered. No UK Company was licenced to service it.

So I did it myself. No problems, watched a couple of youtube clips and photgraphed every stage.

I sent our current one to a well known and reccomended agent in the NW.

After finding a couple of things I was not happy about on its return and speaking to them about the issues I have determined to do the next service myself.

After all, it is not brain surgery, just common sense and attention to detail.
 
mattonthesea said:
I'm about to attempt servicing my life raft. Having watched the last one I am confident except for a couple of points:

-what is a good way of connecting the holding straps? They are approx 3/8 wide green straps - the sort you see holding packing cases together - but the breakable connection is too far gone to examine clearly. Or is there a newer, better version?

- apart from the obvious additions, like drugs, are there any parts of the raft itself that might be out of life? eg do the CO2 cannisters run out even if the weight remains the same?

Thanks in anticipation
Click to expand...
If the CO2 bottles weigh the same, and are not pierced or rusty, buying replacements would be a waste of money.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'breakable connection'?
I would consider replacing the painter if possible, it has been exposed to UV (depending where the l/r was stored etc).
I would take photos and notes of how everything folds into the container, it probably won't all want to go back in!
As you say, it can't be rocket science if you take care, there is a lot of hysterical BS talked about these contraptions, which makes huge profits for Ocean Safety etc.
Let us know how you get on.
 
Bobc said:
Can I suggest that you may not get much in the way or advice on this here.

I for one would never offer any advice regarding this, as would not want to be responsible for a raft not deploying or working correctly as a result of any guidance or advice given.
Click to expand...
You could say the same about anything really, eg what anchor shackle to use.
 
I take the view that while I could probably do the job myself, my life is worth more than a few hundred quid saved. A classic "the joy of a cheap deal soon fades".
 
There have been plenty of threads about this in the past, have a look.

I did ours for it's second service and the best bit of advise is to take lots, really lots of photos of every step. Every fold, and position of each bit for every step.

Putting it back, I used a couple of ratchet straps and slowly tightened down over few hours.

I left out all the rubbish you are better having in a grab bag and can inspect every trip rather than being hidden away, flares, pills, batteries, torches etc.
 
tidclacy said:
I suspect your insurance would not cover you servicing this yourself. Your life may depend on it.
Click to expand...
My insurance policy makes no mention of the life raft so I cannot see the connection. But the part about life depending on it is a reason that I would not consider self service. After all it is only £300 every 3 years, so not a big deal in the grand scheme of things
 
Comrade Red said:
I take the view that while I could probably do the job myself, my life is worth more than a few hundred quid saved. A classic "the joy of a cheap deal soon fades".
Click to expand...
I have paid to have my raft serviced only to find that it was wrongly assembled and would not have inflated, when I checked it myself...

Look at the investigation into Mega watt a raft that failed to inflate after being deployed.

Look at the Asgard the ass fell out of a raft after being launched, all serviced and in date!.

I fired an old (30 years with 16 since last service) raft last year which functioned perfectly...

There is no certainty with these things...only confidence...
 
rotrax said:
Until you pay, like I did, for poor work.

I prepared my own motorbikes for serious racing for 45 years.

I am familiar with the concept of my life depending on me doing it properly.................................
Click to expand...
With due respect- How does being good at riding a motorbike, make you qualified at servicing life rafts. In fact I would have thought that it would make you more appreciative of the fact that one cannot just do something without having first acquired the skills. If that was not necessary I might suggest that you would not worry about others servicing your bike - would you not?
 
Last edited:
What I learnt from the self service I did:

I know what it looks like and where all the bits are
I know how to manually inflate it
I know with out doubt what it contains
I know that the 'pro service ' from a well known NW service agent, left the light battery to discharge as it was activated when they repacked it, the painter was not connected so would not have inflated it. They weren't interested in my comments three years later when checked.

The old adage of, If you want it done properly, do it your self. is so true.

Daydream believer said:
With due respect- How does being good at riding a motorbike, make you qualified at servicing life rafts. In fact I would have thought that it would make you more appreciative of the fact that one cannot just do something without having first acquired the skills. If that was not necessary I might suggest that you would not worry about others servicing your bike - would you not?
Click to expand...

Maybe, but the more you know and understand about the kit you rely on, the better you will be in using it.
 
Engineering and maintaining my own boat I would service my own life raft but we are not allowed by law so it must be serviced by the manufacturer t great cost and if it fails my life would depend on it so I would much prefer to be sure it will work just like my boat
 
I did mine a couple of years ago.
Advice- takes lots of pictures at each stage.
If you inflate the raft, use a pump or hair dryer (on cold).
Never blow by mouth into raft, it introduces moisture.
Deflate using a pump, if you don't get all the air out you won't get it in the bag, even then, you might have to use strap wrenches to squash it down.
Cairfully check the painter to gas bottle trigger to boat tether to ensure it will pull cleanly and not snag.
IMO items that date expire are best put in a grab bag, as said above.

A forumite wrote an article when he did his, I have put it online here
SEAGO 4 man Offshore Liferaft - Self Service : Monty Mariner
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top