Driftsun Rover 220 Review
Rating
Performance: 2
Size/Weight: 3
Durability: 4
Setup: 3
Value: 3
OVERALL: 3.0
For the thrill-seekers.
Just like its 1 person counterpart, we’re impressed with the performance and features that make this work for rapids! With its high pressure valves and 8 self-baling ports, you know it’s going to be an adventure. It also has a GoPro mount because there’s no way you ain’t recording that ride in class IV rapids! We find the cockpit narrow and the bulky side tubes hard to reach over, but it can take a beating when going downstream.
Comparison
Rank: #
Open Size: Shorter
Packed Size: Portable
Weight: Light
Capacity: Excellent
Perfect For: Rough and whitewater.
Pros: Comfortable seats, relatively light and portable, high weight capacity.
Cons: Difficult to fit back in the bag, standard weight PVC on the bottom not the best choice for rapids, handles poorly on smooth water.
Verdict: A great choice for whitewater.
Skip ahead to First Impressions, Setup/Packdown, Paddling Experience, or the Final Verdict, check out how the Driftsun Rover 220 compares to others in our list of the Top Ten 2 Person Inflatable Kayaks or see how we choose the best inflatable kayak.
Specs:
Open Size: 381 x 96.52cm
Packed Size: 80cm x 50cm x 35cm
Weight: 13kg
Capacity: 272kg
Approx Price: £1,248.92
First Impressions
Putting the “drift” in Driftsun Rover 220, this kayak is made for adventure, particularly for rapids. With a 380cm length and 270kg capacity, this is a shorter two-person kayak with good carrying capacity. You wouldn’t want anything much longer for going down rapids, but its relatively short length does mean it’s tight for longer-legged people.
The reinforced layered PVC construction is made to move against rocky surfaces and bounce off any rough whitewater obstacles, but we have reservations about the toughness under the floor.
It has comfortable, durable EVA padded seats with high back support, a front camera mount, removable rear tracking skeg, aluminium paddles, and a travel packdown bag - in general, thoughtfully designed.
Setup/Packdown
Given the load capacity, we expected a heavy kayak, but it was nicely transportable with a bag that stores the paddles, seats, and pump neatly. What we struggled with a bit was using the small pump included to inflate the rather chunky kayak - we ended up switching to our own triple-action pump. However, we loved that the Rover uses only three high pressure Halkey-Roberts valves, which made it easy to inflate.
Once inflated, everything else was easy to handle. Seats were easily clipped in, and can be adjusted to your preferred position for either 1 person or 2 person paddling.
Deflating was definitely a breeze since it doesn’t need to be manually deflated and can release all the air out in no time. We struggled a bit to fold it back into its original shape so packdown ended up taking slightly longer than we thought.
Paddling Experience
Like the 120 model, we found it doesn’t track particularly well on smooth, flat water - it had a lot of what would be called oversteer in a car: you paddle, the kayak nose swings across in the opposite direction, you paddle on the other side, it swings again. It made staying in a straight line pretty challenging, even with the removable skeg on. However, we also took it down a class II river where straight line tracking isn’t a concern, and found it nicely manoeuvrable in that environment.
The seats deserve a mention here, with the great back support and nice firmness. We enjoy sitting close along the floor as these seats do as we find it makes our paddling efficiency much better.
The self-bailing drain plugs were also a great feature on our whitewater trip! Usually we prefer not to use them as they do slow the kayak down, but on rapids they’re essential and slow paddling speed isn’t an issue. With eight of them, they did a good job of draining the water from the kayak.
Final Verdict
Overall a great choice for whitewater and rough water paddling. If you’re looking mainly for a kayak to take on smoother water for recreational trips then given its relatively high price point we’d look elsewhere - but if you’re specifically into rapids then this may be your jam.
Want to see how the Driftsun Rover 220 compares to other kayaks we tested? Head over to our list of the Best Two-Person Inflatable Kayaks.
Water & Outdoors reviews are written by our staff writers, who combined have over fifty years of experience on the water and outdoors. We may earn commissions if you choose to buy through a link you’ve clicked on our website, however this does not influence our reviews. For more information, please see our Editorial Policies.