Granny Walker D.I.Y. kayak cart

'bunkers,

 look here; http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,6864.0.html

our resident master  fabricator made a recessed flag mount. i'm sure there's another thread with it ......

The rudder bungee is factory installed.  I just tied a loop in the end to help my cold wet hands grab the bungee easier.

The recessed flag holder works like a charm!  Low profile, and on the cheap.   

Following the lead of our very own insayn and living up to my promise to plagiarize his design, I built my Granny Walker kayak cart today. The only pictures I took were the initial pile of parts a Granny Walker turns into, for this and future projects. The "how to" was outlined nicely at the beginning of this thread and again, by insayn.

I think for the most part I did everything the same. I was fortunate enough to have almost everything prior to starting, so that kept the cost down. I have a dolly with plastic wheels, but it also has solid tires and that combination seemed too heavy. I had extra pnuematic wheels and tires from another project so despite the wheels being steel, chose to use them as I don't plan to be in the salt any time soon.

Other than that, a big thanks  to insayn for the idea. I haven't hooked it up to my Kayak yet, but hope to soon.

Wow!  That looks so dang close to mine, I'd almost think you stole it from my garage. 

Nice work!

You'll find that the strap closest to the wheels will be easy to tightened right away, as the front sticks will act like kickstands and be touching the ground when you first plop the kayak on the cart.  Then its just a matter of lacing the front strap together, and pulling moderately tight, and then just lift up on the front strap to pull the the front sticks to the hull.  Tighten it down as you do this.  It only takes a couple of lifts from the strap and tightening to get it cinched down nice and snug. 

Then proceed to beating the hell out of the cart by taking it over big bumps, curbs, down stairs, and over old people or small children.   

Wow!  That looks so dang close to mine, I'd almost think you stole it from my garage. 

Nice work!

Thank you for the compliment and the advice on getting it installed. As for stealing it from your garage, all I can say is, if you go out to the garage, the refrigerator is almost out of beer again.

It's been a few days since this thread was posted in, so can ANYONE that has one of these tell me how long you have been using it and what does your loaded boat weigh?

Copper pipe makes a great building material. Not much heavier than PVC but super durable.

Copper is good building material, however a bit more pricy than just hacking up a $8 Goodwill granny walker.

Tubes are already bent as welll. 

JoJo, as for longevity....well I still have it but upgraded to Wheeleez a long time ago.  You can see in a few pics in the first page of my two kayaks stacked together on the cart.  They must be close to 120 lb's together.  I was able to jump it off the curb and go down stairs with it no problem. 

I moved to Wheeleez due to the fact they actually roll in soft sand better than HF wheels do.

Ok how did I do?

Looks functional!  I still have mine up on a shelf in the garage in the event I ever need it.
I found that it wasn't the greatest in soft sand, so I eventually upgraded to a Wheeleez cart for my
Ocean Kayaks, and the Shed 40/Wheeleez scupper cart for my Hobie.

But the Granny Walker cart is one hell of a cart, that is pretty light as is, tough as hell and the best part....Super CHEAP to build.

Looks functional!  I still have mine up on a shelf in the garage in the event I ever need it.
I found that it wasn't the greatest in soft sand, so I eventually upgraded to a Wheeleez cart for my
Ocean Kayaks, and the Shed 40/Wheeleez scupper cart for my Hobie.

But the Granny Walker cart is one hell of a cart, that is pretty light as is, tough as hell and the best part....Super CHEAP to build.

I'm considering buying the extra wide wheels and going to try to find a solid aluminum axle if it's strong enough to hold my boat.

May have to build this granny walker cart for the new Outback.

About 80 percent complete. I need to cut and sew the straps. Forward straps will go through the scupper holes. I am using PVC spacers. Will post pics when done.

I remember the Granny Walker being a fun project. Looking forward to pics of your completed cart.

Well, if anyone can mess up an idiot-proof project, I'm your huckleberry. I looked at my granny walker and thought, I'll cut the handles exactly in half so as to provide material for a second cart for some other yak angler.  I didn't carefully consider the matter of the resulting frame clearing the wheels. The cart still works, but I am forced to position it far enough back so that the wheels clear the edges of the kayak. Dunno if you can see the issue in the second photo.




It does work, thank gosh: