Please note that due to the high weight of this raft, it must be shipped motor freight.
AIRE's big seventeen-and-a-half foot 176R self bailing whitewater raft is shown priced with no thwarts (the photo shows three, sorry!), and the price includes a 5% allowance toward motor freight fees or accessories. If you live back east in a remote area, and want this raft delivered to a residential address, in some cases the freight bill can exceed 5%. In many instances though it will be less than that, so you can apply any remainder toward accessories. Our shopping cart does not deduct the 5% allowance, nor is is set up to calculate ship rates above the 150 pound UPS limit, so that's why you need to phone in orders for large boats like the 176R. An additional price break of 5% is available for payments made via cashier's check / bank transfer
AIRE Whitewater Raft 176R
No one here at The Boat People have used a 176R, and we have no feedback on it either, so we can only discuss it compared to the "little brother" 156R. We have put plenty of miles on another 17'6" bucket raft that was a few inches wider than this one, so we do at least have experience with a raft of this size. Obviously any boat of this length and girth is intended for extended trips, preferably with fairly high water volume, where you might need a high load capacity. A 176R can still make it's way down "normal" rivers at reasonable flows, but no one should buy this as a general purpose raft for waterways that normally only run 3,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) or less. At 7'8" in width, technical boulder fields will be a tight squeeze.
These are not always available, so if you have to wait the normal five to six weeks you can get any color you wish. Note that the valves are in a different location than shown in the photo, which actually depicts a 156R model, not the 176.
AIRE Whitewater Raft 176R Has Six Air Chambers
The 176R whitewater raft features six air chambers on the main hull rather than four, for maximum safety. If you are not going to trailer your 176R, plan on using a dolly or a lot of helpers to get it to the water's edge. At 190 pounds with two thwarts, it is no featherweight. Tube diameter on the 176R is 22".
