Noob cart question

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm completely new to this. Just bought a kayak, PFD, & paddle. When I was leaving the shop I asked the guy who helped me what was the first thing I'd be back for. He said a cart. So I've been thinking about it and poking around the threads, but the one thing I'm missing is what do you all do with the cart once you get your boat to the water? Take it back to your car? Stow it in the boat? I understand the wheels come off, but is it practical to keep it on board?  Thanks!

Depends on the cart and the boat.  If you buy a small or medium sized cart, it should fit in the front hatch once the wheels are off.  If you get the big sand wheeleze cart (best option), then it likely won't fit, and will have to go back to the car.  (still worth it)

Some folks have through scupper carts, and then they flip it upside down and stick it through the scuppers in the tank well.

If you get the wheels filled with helium you can just take a rope with a caribiner on each side and clip one side to your boat, the other to your cart, and just let it float in the air behind you all day while you fish....














That or what Lee said.  Welcome to the site GoTimbers.

I think it would really depend on a few things: What kayak you have, what cart you buy, how close you park... With my OK Prowler and the scupper mount cart i have, I either put it on top of my bow tightened under the straps of my bow hatch or I walk it back to the truck..  Lately, since I have been goin out with my Catch cooler strapped to the bow I generally walk the cart back to the truck..  Good luck with that..

I've gone through the same questions myself. I put together a PVC through-the-hull trailer, but I wasn't happy with it.  I have the Wheelez cart with the smaller tires and happy 90% of the time. When I use them I just have a bungee around my bow strap and leave them on the Coosa when I go out. It works well and not too heavy. A freind of mine has the Wheelez with the sand wheels so I got to try them out when he took a trip south. They do have the advantage of going easier over the dry sand but they are noticelable heavier.
That being said I will stick to my Wheelez with the smaller wheels.

I have a the large Wheelez to which Lee referred.  The tires fit into the front hatch of my Hobie Revolution, but the frame will not fit.  I stuff the flat, folded frame under the front bungie lacing I installed.  It could also be stashed in the rear tank well. 

If the launch is close to parking, I'll just run it up to the truck and lock it inside. 

I have a Hobie Revolution and I put my cart in upside down in the scuppers and strap it to my milk crate. It's not in the way 99% of the time. Not sure what kind of yak you have, but it works for the Hobies. Here is a pic.

Hobie carts have another very cool  feature, that  I learned about from Jammer. They float! That means  when you launch your boat, the  cart and wheels stay right up next to the bottom of your kayak when the water lifts your boat. That's very good because you'd lose your wheels every time you launched otherwise.The downside of that is on occasion you'll wonder why your boat feels so sluggish when your paddling around and discover your wheels are still under water.

The coolest thing about that is that you launch in knee deep water and reach under the boat to remove the wheels  (pull down and at an angle to clear the bottom). I then invert them into the cart scupper holes and carry the wheels behind the seat. That means you're always ready to wheel your boat back to the car, if you have to make an unplanned exit from the river,

This works for both the cheap wheels and the big wheels, though it's much easier to do with the cheaper set of  wheels (less floatation ---easier to manage). When I'm working with the bigger wheels. I've learned to align the vertical tube closest to me with the near side scupper hole. I then spin the cart until the other tube aligns on the opposite side of the boat (like a compass drawing a circle). You then wiggle the wheels again until they float up through the scuppers from the underside. The big wheels took me about 10 minutes to learn how to do smoothly. The bigger wheels have more floatation and take a little more practice. Walking your boat right out of the water with the wheels in is very convenient .

Carl