Kayak carts

3wt asked:” Do you still have the factory Hobie cart?  I've been thinking about beefing mine up with some pneumatic wheels from Harbor Freight tools.”

Your cart should be fine although pneumatic wheels sure would not hurt especially in the sand. But I’m not crazy about the Harbor Freight wheels. Nothing wrong them with per se, they are just really heavy.

Never had the Hobie cart. Mine is a PVC scupper cart that Hobie copied! (actually, I got the idea from Barrel on the east coast). For wheels I’ve been using kid-sized Barbie 4x4 wheels and they have been doing fine for me. They don’t offer any cushioning effect and that has been the only problem with my cart (cart goes over rough surfaces, starts bouncing along and shakes out or breaks the uprights) But the wheels are plenty strong and durable (and cheap!) That’s a 10’ Creek Boat on top of a 15’ plastic canoe, on top of my Cobra XL.


I used the axle from the barbie truck. Drilled holes in the ends of the axle to accept hitch pins and drilled holes in pvc caps to run the axle through. Here's a pic with the poorly cut pipe pieces. The removable uprights that go through the scuppers are not pictured (they go where the wheels are in the pic).




Goodwill is a great place to find cast off kids 4X4's or other electric cars (sometimes they'll still have a good battery for the fishfinder as lagniappe)

 One of these days I’m going pop a mold off the Harbor Freight wheels to make fiberglass hubs and make some pneumatic tires. But that would require finding one of those round tuits.

Check this link for a good discussion of various wheels and carts.

http://kfs.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/220603834/m/3606023644/p/1

I've been meaning to look into upgrading the kayak cart that came with my Hobie Outback.  I've used it a number of times, and each time I load the kayak up and start wheeling it down the hill I have had visions of the flimsy plastic wheels, with the foam "tire", cracking and sending all my gear rolling down into the drink.

So given this discussion, today I was inspired to stop by Harbor Freight on the way home and see what I could do on the cheap.  The bad news -- they had a 10" wheel with a wide, solid rubber tire and plastic rim that would be PERFECT.  Light weight, rugged, rated for up to $150 pounds... and they only had one left.  Oh well.  Now the good news... they currently have 10" pneumatic tires (with metal rims) on sale for $5 bucks each.  So I bought two.

Here are some photos from my project:

The "stock" Hobie wheels


The new wheels


Unfortunately, the hubs are pretty hard to get off the stock Hobie wheels, so I was not able to re-use them in my thrifty project.  May be just as well, as they are flimsy plastic as well.

So I set about scrounging in my garage for alternatives... I used some 1/4" copper pipe to make "bushings" that adapt the new wheels to fit the axle of the Hobie frame.  Then I cut 4 1" circular spacers out of a cutting board I had left over from my fish-finder install.  Found some left-over washers from a previous project, and I was in business.

The kit

The finished project


For now I'm just using bent nails to pin the whole set up to the axle... in time I'll invest in some cotter pins or something similar.

Grand total for the project - about $11.00.

Nice looking upgrade.

I've seen so many of those Hobie carts explode that it is not even funny.

I've been looking to upgrade to the Wheeleez ballon tires.  I tell myself that every time I go over sand (like I did last weekend), but never seem to pull the trigger.  Course they're not exactly cheep, which leads to my hesitation.

-Allen

That is a nice looking cart. I have a cart I made about 5 years ago from scratch out of aluminum stock and thread bar using the harbor frieght tool 10"tires too. I still have it and it is in need of a make over. I like the scupper hole idea I might try to work with that. The only thing about the pneumatic tires is that they go flat all the time. The tubes seem to be pretty cheap. Or maybe I am just to rough with them, I don't know. ThreeWeight how much was that solid 10"tire from HFT. I like that Idea too.

The 10" solid "dream tire" was quite a saga at my local harbor freight.  The guys in the store could not even figure out the right part # for it, let alone check in the back and see if they had an extra.  My guess is it was in the 5$ to 10$ range (based on the price of their other wheels.)

It looked a lot like this one:



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=38963

I've always wondered if there is a concern about using the scupper carts.  Scupper holes are traditionally a weak point in the kayak.  And if you spring a leak there, it is very difficult to patch.  Since I don't use a scupper hole cart, it's not something I've paid attention to.  You all might want to check around.  I'm going to guess that if Hobie sells the carts, they think it's ok for Hobie yaks.  It might not be ok for other brands.

-Allen

I've read a lot of discussions about scupper carts. My fall back is they have worked for me and I have not broken a scupper yet. (why did I have to say that    ) Fact is, most of the load is vertical and the scuppers "should'nt" be overly stressed. That said, all of the failures I have had with my pvc cart, were due to the uprights in the scuppers (cart failures not the boat) . On the cart that I was concerened about the scuppers, I used two, short, longitudinal supports instead of the scupper. It straped on, but slid easily out of place.  I think a combination would probably be best. I'll think add a longitudinal support to the next scupper cart.





BTW those wheels were stolen from a tricycle. They worked ok in sand and were lighter and a HECk of a lot quieter than the plastic 4x4 wheels.

I used to use a scupper dolly for my Hobie, but after seeing some damage done by the metal posts, even the PVC scupper dolly I made(with thicker posts to prevent the dolly posts from damaging the kayak) was kind of hard to use on hills and rocks, so I went with a cradle dolly. It's easier to use and can be used with nearly any kind of kayak.
Here's how I made my kayak carts.

Ronbo:

Nice page(s) and very nice carts!
But man, I don't like threaded axels! I tried that once and found that sand/mud and rust make GREAT locktite. If you don't have to disassemble them (ever), that'd work fine. But I make all my carts to go inside the boat. 

Drilling a hole in the end of the axel and adding a washer and hitch pin allows them to come apart easily for storage (plus, I'm cheap. I use the axel that comes with the wheels ) But those are really nice carts and well built! I think I'll move up a size to 2" pipe for my next one.

What do you do to keep the cart from sliding around under the boat on the non-scupper cart?

What do you do to keep the cart from sliding around under the boat on the non-scupper cart?

I used foam pipe insulation over the PVC to prevent the kayak from sliding. The nylon straps hold it on there pretty well. You can get the all the stuff, except the wheels which are from Harbor Freight, at Home Depot. The 5/8" threaded rod for the axle seemed like the easiest way to go. The two 5/8" lock nuts were kind of expensive, but easy to do. I've used the cradle dolly for more than two years in salt water and the metal parts are still in good shape.
I have seen some damage to kayaks from scupper dollies, mostly on the bottom where the kayak rests on the dolly and, not as often, serious damage to the thin material in the scupper when the metal post of the dolly does not stick out past the deck level, the thin posts wiggle around and punch a hole in the scupper. I've got a photo of this kind of damage, but it's on another computer, I'd have to look for it.

Here's the photo of the scupper dolly damage:

Nice work 3w! That's a great pimpin' upgrade! Those wheels look pretty wide so should help if you get into some sand. And just my opinion, but the inflatable wheel is the way to go. With the solid tires I had before it made the kayak jump and sometimes spill my stuff all over the place when I hit bumps. With the new inflatable ones I have (Wheelez Caddilac cart) it doesn't bounce hardly all and cruises over pretty much anything. Since they might flat out on me someday I've gone ahead with some preventative measures and added Slime.

http://www.rei.com/product/732615?vcat=REI_SEARCH

Z

Whoaa Mule! Ronbo!
Those are some scary looking pictures. That has not happend to me (yet!) and I'll have to rethink my scupper cart!
Thanks!


Zeelander,
I really hate it, but I think I'm going to have to cave in and get some fat inflatable tires. I have suffered that exact problem with things bouncing around and yesterday the 4x4 wheels were just sliding throught the sand (not rolling). Although I'm not sure the inflatable slicks would do much better. Seemed to need a tread or paddles.

 Do your rolleeze (wheelez) bog in soft sand?

Zeelander,
I really hate it, but I think I'm going to have to cave in and get some fat inflatable tires. I have suffered that exact problem with things bouncing around and yesterday the 4x4 wheels were just sliding throught the sand (not rolling). Although I'm not sure the inflatable slicks would do much better. Seemed to need a tread or paddles.
Do your rolleeze (wheelez) bog in soft sand?

I caved and paid the big bucks for this cart but so far it's getting close to paying off. The wheels (the biggest Wheelez makes) float over everything.. heck it's probably float my entire yak and cart over puddles! I can't say enough how well they do in almost any condition.. and don't get me started on sand... they rule! I wish I had this cart years ago!
Z