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PVC Kayak Dolly
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Author:  ronbo613 [ Fri Sep 02, 2005 7:13 pm ]
Post subject:  PVC Kayak Dolly

Hello everyone-Because I have to haul my kayak across deep sand, rocky beaches and up hills, I made a dolly out of PVC for my Quest. The Hobie dollies are fine, I just needed a heavy duty model with pneumatic tires. Click on the link below if you want to check it out. It might get you out in the garage with a saw and some glue.

http://www.photosupportsystems.com/Hobi ... kDolly.htm

Author:  Apalach [ Sun Sep 04, 2005 6:51 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hey ron,
Very nice job! I may have to give this a try myself. Thanks.
Dick

Author:  dueitt2s [ Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:19 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hey Apalach, Been wondering this for a while after seeing the roleez cart at the beach. The Hobie cart wheels don't fair well at all on the powdery beaches of the Emerald coast. Haven't been able to get the dimensions for the cart and see if something like these: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... =200172274 would work.

Nice cart. Haven't thought to raise the height for up/down hill ease. Thanks for the tip Ronbo613.

Author:  Apalach [ Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:59 am ]
Post subject: 

Hey dueitt,
I looked at something like that myself at one time, but these are fairly pricey. You might as well go with the Roleez that definitely works well in soft sand based on all the reports I have seen, for that kind of money.

The other thing to consider would be an inexpensive, fairly wide pneumatic tire that you could let the air out to increase the footprint in really soft stuff. That is what works best if you have a 4WD vehicle and often drive in soft sand. The Roleez wheels can be purchased individually as I recall, so check one of the kayak/canoe mags for ads.

Also check the DIY forum on KFS--there are several guys who have built their own carts, and some have gone with Roleez wheels, as I recall.

Also check out this site for some good ideas on how to build your own cart:

http://oakpwrd.tripod.com/kayakcart.html

Also--remember the "Big Wheel" kids tricycles? They had really wide plastic wheels, and although not pneumatic, they work well in soft sand also because of the huge footprint. You might look around your neighborhood to see if anyone has one of these babies sitting around. Or check out your local Goodwill store or thrift shop to see if they have a Big Wheel, or maybe even the wheels by themselves. Good luck.

Author:  ronbo613 [ Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:19 am ]
Post subject: 

I checked out the Roleez wheels, nice, but too expensive. I've seen them on wheelchairs people use at the beach.
If I let the air out of those cheapo Harbor Freight to about 10 psi, they work pretty good in deep beach sand.
If you make a dolly like this, make sure the outside diameter of the tube that goes through the scupper hole is almost the same size as the scupper. You don't want those tubes to be "cocked" or go in the holes at an angle, which might damage the scuppers. That was one of the reasons for the more heavy duty construction. The scupper dollies that are made of thin diameter metal tubing can rock back and forth inside the scupper holes as you drag it across rough terrain and damage the hull. If you have a metal Hobie dolly, you can slip some larger diameter PVC pipe over the metal tubes, that should help in the rougher situations.

Author:  Noalias [ Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:39 am ]
Post subject: 

Good advice on the scupper tube vertical support pipe diameters. A loose fit is bound to cause stresses at the top and bottoms of the channels and eventually result in cracking or splitting where the tubes join at the hull. Hauling a fully loaded yak over rough terrain is likely to exacerbate the issue if there is any excessive play in the fit.

Author:  ronbo613 [ Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:44 pm ]
Post subject: 

On the homemade model, the weight of the kayak rests on the padded crossbar of the dolly. I usually insert the dolly with the kayak empty, then load in all my gear.
I'm aware of the damage than can occur with scupper dollies. I haven't seen any damage on my kayak, I'll keep checking as I go. I even make sure that there is no sand on the tubes that go through the scuppers so the inside of the holes don't get "sanded down".

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