Breakdown raft frames require excellent construction to maintain structural rigidity. That means you can’t really go cheap here but there are a ton of awesome lightweight, portable raft and cataraft frames available. Many small batch manufacturers spend the off-season building frames so time your order accordingly. Breakdown frames make travel easy and they also allow for transport on bush flights, commercial flights and in small space vehicles.
These guys make some killer frames. I first learned about them when reading a blog post about international catarafting. The guys were using these frames and showed how they breakdown into a super compact package that is easy for international travel. Pretty cool stuff. They make frames for catarafts and rafts of all sizes. The mini raft frames look really cool and have me thinking about that option for Alaska bush flights.
Riverboat Works – Salida, Colorado
These guys build custom, exact match frames that are a perfect fit for your boat. They use aluminum so they are light but super strong. The frames designs are simple and crazy effective with custom options for whitewater and fishing. Speaking from experience, the customer service here is fantastic and the crew is comprised of serious boaters. They are a full service retail shop as well so take a look if you’re outfitting for a big adventure.
This company has been around for a long time and they make some very popular designs for fishing and whitewater. They have one great breakdown raft frame option with the deluxe aluminum cargo model. It’s setup with 3-bays for latch-in dry boxes, bench seats, coolers and anything else you want in the configuration. If you want a breakdown frame made to hold a ton of weight and gear, this is a good one to look over.
NRS Raft Frames
NRS frame are modular so they are all capable of being broken down. The Longhorn, Bighorn I and Bighorn II are all easily disassembled with a socket wrench.
The clamp and rail system is simple and only requires a few minutes to build most frames on the river.
The Compact Outfitter Raft Frame is especially nice for a bare-bones model that still offers two bays for coolers and gear.
Class V Frames
I came across this company in a forum search a while back. Fair warning – their website really sucks. That said, I really like the look of their cat frames. They keep it simple and appear to have a killer design and happy customers. Also take a look at their accessories because they have a really cool looking table/bench and a few other products.
I saw one of these on Hyside Mini and it blew my mind. The design is unique and ultra-light and portable. If you are hiking a raft into a run or running bare bones on remote flights and airlines, this is a killer setup. They also have configurations for mini cats which is really cool. Converting one of these to an oar rig would be a super deal.
Other Options
You are likely to find a bunch of other small batch breakdown raft frame manufacturers. There are a few websites I browsed but they were very dated and it’s hard to figure if they are still in business. The ones listed on this page are a great start for getting setup with a light and portable frame.
