SRC Raft Frame Fittings — Forged Connectors for 1-1/4″ Pipe

Description

Will These Fit Your Frame?

These clamp onto 1-1/4″ IPS schedule 40 aluminum pipe, which measures 1.660″ on the outside. That is the most common frame pipe out there, and it is what most aluminum raft frames are already built on.

If you are starting from scratch, you do not need to think about this. Order the connectors, then go buy pipe to match.

How Many Raft Frame Connectors Do You Need?

The math is simple once you see it. A frame with three bays has four cross bars. A frame with four bays has five. Every cross bar meets the side rails at two points, so you need two connectors per cross bar.

A three-bay frame takes eight connectors. A four-bay frame takes ten.

Frame	Cross bars	Connectors	Pack
2 bay	3	6	6-Pack
3 bay	4	8	8-Pack
4 bay	5	10	10-Pack

Four bays is the most common build out there, which makes the 10-Pack the one most people end up needing. It is priced to match, at $27.49 a connector.

One thing to add to your count. Those numbers cover cross bar to side rail connections only. If your build has uprights or a mount that clamps to the frame, add connectors for those.

The Budget Build: Forged Corners, Tees for the Bays

Here is the build I would point a first-timer to if the full pack is more than you want to spend right now.

Put the SRC connectors on the four corners and run Hollaender aluminum tee fittings on the cross bars in between.

For a three-bay frame that is a 4-Pack plus four tees. For a four-bay frame it is a 4-Pack plus six tees.

The reasoning is about where the abuse actually happens. Your corners are the high-stress points on a frame. They take the leverage from the oars, they take the twist when you are prying off a rock, and they take the hit when the boat lands wrong. That is where I want a forged part with a wide clamping saddle. The cross bars in between are mostly carrying gear in compression, a cooler, a dry box, a drop bag, and a good aluminum tee handles that all day.

That is my judgment as a boater who has built a few of these, not a load rating. Nobody in this category publishes one, me included.

The other thing you keep is modularity. Tees clamp to the same 1-1/4″ schedule 40 pipe, so the whole frame still comes apart with a wrench, still packs down into a corner of the garage, and still adapts when your cooler changes size next season. One pipe spec throughout, two kinds of fitting, and no welding.

If you are building on a budget and want the strength where it counts, that is the combination I would run.

How These Raft Frame Connectors Came Back Into Production

I guided for fifteen years. Kern River in California, the Grand Canyon, and a lot of water in between.

A couple of seasons back I was building a frame for my own raft here in Central Oregon and went looking for connectors. I found these. A boater and fabricator in Utah had designed them himself, because the fittings he wanted were backordered six months and river season does not wait six months.

I liked them enough that I built frames for myself and a few buddies around Bend. Then I found out he was almost out of them and was not planning another run.

So I called him. We partnered, got another batch made, and that is what is on this page.

Raft Frame Fittings for 1-1/4″ Schedule 40 Aluminum Pipe

Your whole frame runs on one size of pipe. Side rails, cross bars, all of it is 1-1/4″ IPS schedule 40 aluminum. The saddle clamps down on the outside of the pipe at 1.660″ and the stub slips inside the next piece at 1.37″, so you are buying one spec and cutting it to whatever lengths your build calls for.

Most people order connectors first and then go source pipe, and that is a fine way to do it. Call a local metal supplier rather than a big box store. They stock 1-1/4″ schedule 40 aluminum, and most of them will cut it to your lengths for free or close to it. That saves you hauling twenty foot sticks home and fighting them with a chop saw in the driveway.

If you are adding to a frame you already own, put calipers on it before you order. You are looking for 1.660″ on the outside. 1-1/4″ aluminum is the most common frame pipe out there, but plenty of frames are built on 1″ pipe in both aluminum and steel, and these will not fit those. If you get a number you are not sure about, email it to me and I will tell you straight whether these work. I would rather lose the sale than have you eat return shipping on a part that was never going to fit.

Forged 6061 T6 Aluminum With the Hardware Included

Every connector ships with a stainless steel flattened U-bolt and all the hardware to mount it. No second cart to fill, no hardware store run halfway through your build.

The saddle gives you 2.9 inches of grip on the rail, which is a lot of contact for a fitting this size.

Designed in Utah. Forged in China. I would rather tell you than have you wonder.

Will These Raft Frame Fittings Hold Up on a Commercial Rig?

Yes, and I want to be careful about how I say that.

I do not have a lab certificate or a published load rating to hand you. Nobody in this category has one, which is its own problem, but it means I am not going to claim something I cannot back up.

What I do have is fifteen seasons of watching gear either hold together or come apart, usually a long way from a road. These are the connectors I put on my own boat and on my friends’ boats. Outfitters can run them. That is my judgment as a boater, and I would rather frame it that way than dress it up.

Build the Raft Frame Your Boat Actually Needs

Bay spacing, bar height, where the cooler sits, where the rod holders go. A prebuilt frame makes you live with somebody else’s answer to all of that.

Raft frame fittings let you build to your boat and how you actually run the river. Our step-by-step build guide walks through a full four-bay frame with these connectors, and the materials guide covers what to look for before you cut anything.

Need pipe too? We stock 6061 aluminum pipe in the same 1-1/4″ IPS schedule 40 spec, and SRC oar towers if you still need those.

Small Batch, On Purpose

We run these in batches with a fabricator who actually rows. That keeps the price sane without thinning the spec, and it means when you email with a question you get one of the two people who make them.

We are not the cheapest fitting on the internet. An industrial pipe fitting from a hardware supplier costs a third of this and will hold a handrail together for thirty years. It was designed for a handrail. This was designed for a raft frame that gets loaded with gear, wrapped on a rock, and rebuilt at a boat ramp with whatever is in your dry box.

That is what the difference buys.

Where To Get The Pipe

Call a local metal supplier rather than a big box store. Ask for 1-1/4″ schedule 40 aluminum. They stock it, and most of them will cut it to your lengths for free or close to it. That saves you hauling twenty foot sticks home and fighting them with a chop saw in the driveway.

Side rails and cross bars are the same pipe, same spec, all the way through. You are buying one thing and cutting it to whatever your build calls for.

If you want the longer version, I wrote up what size pipe to use for a raft frame, including how much you will need and the difference between anodized, waxed and bare.

Common Questions

How many raft frame fittings do I need?

A standard four-bay frame takes ten connectors. Two bays takes six. Count your corners and junctions, then add one or two spares if you run multi-day trips, because a fitting is a lot easier to carry than a welding shop.

Do these come with the U-bolt and hardware?

Yes. Every connector ships with a stainless steel flattened U-bolt, nuts and washers. You supply the pipe and a drill.

Will these fit my boat?

They fit the pipe, not the boat. Any raft or cataraft frame built from 1-1/4″ IPS schedule 40 pipe will work. If you are measuring an existing frame, check the outside diameter of the rail with calipers and compare it to 1.660 inches.

Can I add more later?

Yes. Same part, same spec, so a connector bought next season fits a frame you built this one.