Short distance transportation suggestions?

Hi. I'm close to getting a TI. I'll fill you in on the details when I do.

Still working through some things, one being transportation. Lots of threads here about trailers. I'll get a decent one at some point (something like a Trailex). But, as I'm shelling out some $$$ now on the purchase, I'm wondering if there's something that could get me through the end of this season, another month or so? The lake where I'll be sailing is 3 miles (5 minutes) from my house. Wondering if there's a cheap way of getting a TI back-and-forth for such a short distance.

Maybe I'll find a used one.

Thanks!

I had a similar issue, we live near the water and try to get out most weekends when we can. Car topping is a bit of a pain, not so much lifting the kayak hull up and down from the roof, thats actually not hard or time consuming and the TI hull alone is no more difficult to lift up and down than our old Oasis was ( we are long time kayakers and only ever use tandem kayaks anyway, so we are used to the extra girth, rigging one tandem has always been way easier for us to rig vs two complete boats with all the sail rigging and extras). Plus my wifes and my abilities differ greatly, when we would go out on singles I would typically need to tow her back the last five miles or so, with tandems we just take turns pedaling, giving each other a rest.
The time consuming part about car topping is it takes about an hour to unload everything from the car, and set everything up, where with a trailer it's ten minutes.
If your fairly handy you can buy a cheap Harbor Freight utility trailer and adapt it to fit your TI, thats what I did, I bought a cheap $140 dollar 4x4 utility trailer, then just hacked at it in the garage with a hack saw and power drill in the garage one weekend to make it work with the TI, I ended spending an additional $150 bucks in aluminum and stainless screws to get it to all work. It's not pretty by any means but it's functional and I've been using it for a couple years now mostly in salt water (which is 100 times more difficult vs fresh water).
The whole trick to success (and saving a boat load of money (lol)), instead of buying the Hobie cradles (which are like $500 bucks), just go to Home depot and buy about ten bucks worth of 1 1/4" pvc tubing and mount that to the trailer on 11 inch centers mounted lengthwise with the boat (about 8 ft long). We store out TI in the garage on the trailer, they support the boat very well. I'm not knocking Hobies trailers or their cradles in any way shape or form, they are of the highest quality and well worth what you pay for them, my problem is I don't have much money and must make do, so I build most of my own stuff because I can (I'm an engineer/tool maker (my day job), and have always designed all my own race boats/ cars, airplanes, helicopters, etc as part of my hobbies (it's actually the most fun part for me).
There are quite a few threads on this forum about home built or modified trailers. There are a zillian laws and regulations regulating trailers, this is why it's always better to buy a trailer that already has all the neccessary certifications for title and licensing, get it all registered and titled as a utility trailer, then take it home and have at it with your mods, obviously it needs to be road safe so there is a little knowhow involved, obviously if you don't have the knowledge you might approach a custom trailer shop and discuss with them before buying the HF trailer, I have a friend who ownes one of these shops, and offered to do all the mods needed for around $600 bucks ( they already have all the aluminum, saws and welders anyway so they can do in a couple hours what took me a whole weekend to do in my garage with a hacksaw and drill, also I bought all my aluminum at Lowes, which cost me 4x the real material costs because it was handy (we live in Florida, there is no industry or material supply here like we had in Chicago).
Hope this helps
FE

I also bought the Harbour Freight utility trailer, but I purchased the 4' x 8' one($250 on sale usually $299) and added (2) 10' lengths 1 1/2" PVC pipes at 11" on center. The trailer is 14' long as it is, so I added a 3' extension I got from Red Trailers. I added a section of SuperStrut (same as UniStrut) I got from Granger supply, to reinforce the 3' Tongue extension, I took it to a welder to have it fitted. I also added a rubber roller to the back I got from West Marine. I back my boat down the boat ramp and stop the tires at the waters edge, but I don't submerge the trailer. I travel about 3 miles to the boat ramp too. Added a Trailer Jack with swing up kickstand from Harbour Freight $25, well worth it. I can fold my trailer to store in the garage during the winter, and lift the TI to the ceiling (using 2" straps) with a garage gator, cost approx. $200(not convenient to do each time I take it out). Not as good as the more expensive trailers as mentioned, but I would do it the same if I had to do it all over again. If I were traveling much further, 50 plus miles, I would look at more expensive options. I see a lot of people talking about the cheap bearings, but I can purchase improved new bearings from Red Trailer at little cost, so not an issue to me. I don't go out alone on the TI so not backing into the water isn't a problem, easy to get on and off with 2.