Yeah raft makes sense due to load size .... the light duty rafts would be perfect to toss a couple bales in and tow them behind a kayak or canoe ... but it does suck popping one and watching how fast it sinks .... have a few patches and an air pump just in case.
Those tubes look really good man... how did you secure the cloth and hog wire? I'm havingine over lap 6"(fencing) and using metal wire from the $ store.
Well Ham it all depends on your environment and what works for your grow site... I grow in very urban areas that have parcels of secluded land such as swamp but have heavy traffic around them ... I find these areas quite secure because Joe shoe won't got into the swamp or fenced off land and neither will a hunter due to the proximity or houses/people and business. So I can't be hauling buckets and such in/out and I need something I can leave out year after year without issue.
I looked at grow bags too but they just didn't suit what I wanted as I'd rather not grow in plastic bags that don't get a huge amount of oxygen flow .... the burplap will most definitely allow the roots to grow through .... think about how thick a smart pot is and roots grow right through that as long as there is soil and water to grow into. Plus if need be I can pick them up and move them early in the season due to flooding or lack of water.
My tubes are simple field fencing cut to make tubes about 18diameter and 18"/22" tall. Once the fence is secured I slip it inside the burlap bag and fold the sack in so that the fencing is completely covered .... now fill with soil. This will soak up water but it will also dry out and increase oxygen to the upper root zone to prevent soggy soil with wet feet that causes root rot.
The fencing is cheap .... tractor supply ... feed store and farm stores have fencing for good prices ... 47" x 330' long for $150 .... I'm cutting the roll in half @ 23.5" x 660'long.
My 18"x18" tubes will hold about 20-25gallons of soil.
It sounds like we have very similar ways of building tubes man... however mine don't have bottoms and aren't mobile unfortunately. I like yours because you can actually move them in case of an emergency!
For the tubes I built - I just cut 18'' wide 2'-3' tall cylinders out of the fencing, rolled them up, and cut the end so it wasn't smooth (leaving about 15 wires hanging there that I bend into hooks). After hooking the cylinder closed I take pliers and really squeeze the hooks closed tightly - the same can be done with $ store wire though I just didn't have any at the time.
Then like the burlap bag, I just wrapped the inside and out with landscaping fabric and mended it to the wire with black zip ties. These can be flattened for transportation and then re-shaped after getting into the swamp, but honestly - lately I've been planting straight into the ground and will raise the soil up into a mound incase of any floods. That's about it... oh and I like to dig a moat around the mound to collect any rain water.
That potential site that requires the raft is about an hour away from me, most of my sites are within the 30 min mark and like yours, under everyones noses so to speak. I have one in the far end of a Nature Preserve, where the trails don't go and where you have to walk by train track to get to. Gotta watch out for rail workers, but that's about it so I really like that spot. I found out some guy was driving his ATV around the border of the swamp this fall after I harvested (I found his trail) and it literally goes right past my grow... about 200 yards away. It's hidden by the tree line and swamp bushes but it just goes to show how close you can really be to people and still pull something off like a bumper crop