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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2014 5:39 pm 
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Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:26 pm
Posts: 3
Hello everybody, this is my first post in this forum.

I am going to buy a cart for my AI, I have read many posts but I am still uncertain.
In the first place I am looking at the wheeleez carts because I need the balloon wheels for soft sand.

The point is: I would like to store the cart in /on the AI: do not like the idea of travelling back to the car and leave it there...
Does anybody know if the 30 cm wheeleez can be stored in the AI front hatch?
Otherwise the 20 cm wheeleez should fit, BUT aren't these too small?

THank you

Stefano


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PostPosted: Fri May 16, 2014 8:56 am 
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Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:26 pm
Posts: 3
As it seems, nobody is pretty sure about what to recommend ...

I think I will order the regular size wheeleez cart, the one with 30 cm wheels. Hope I will not regret it, compared with the convenience of storing the wheel in the AI front hatch ?


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PostPosted: Fri May 16, 2014 12:42 pm 
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Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 8:47 pm
Posts: 3
Location: San Diego Ca.
Hello,

I have an Adventure Island. I started out with a heavy duty cart which was pretty decent for rolling the hull on harder surfaces but, I found it really sucked for launches from a beach (read that in the sand). I upgraded to a Trax 2-30 cart which is a mixed bag. I find it much easier to pull my lightly loaded AI up the sand at the end of the day and moving the main hull by itself is a piece of cake. The rolling resistance is harder than the heavy duty cart but still acceptable.

I do have a few gripes with the 2-30 cart.

1) The wheels are big; too big to put upside down in the scuppers behind the seat (they hit your back). I take the wheels off and stow them (they barely fit) in the front hatch, then I bungee the frame across the rear storage area. A bonus is that they add floatation to the hull.

2) The axle is thin (weak) and the mechanism on the hubs that allow you to remove the wheels from the axles is wonky. There's a thread elsewhere on this blog that addresses Trax 2-30 hub failures which I can totally see happening. I have incorporated the zip tie fix on my hubs and they seem to be working OK but, IMO it's a poor design.

3) In addition to being big, those wheels are buoyant. I have yet to come up with a decent method for getting them under the hull while its in the water. You end up having to roll the hull 90 degrees on the beach which is a PITA. Some people put water in their wheels to reduce buoyancy but I'm unwilling to do that. Hopefully, somebody will come up with a better wheel design that works the same with less buoyancy.

All in all, for hard surfaces, go with the heavy duty cart. For the soft stuff or a mixture of both, I think the Trax 2-30 cart is currently your best option for wheels that you can take with you.

Scott


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PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2014 9:22 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:18 am
Posts: 3058
Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
You can always order the wheeleez cart then buy an extra set of tires ( the HD foam tires), that's what we did. We never use the grey air filled tires though, they just sit in the garage collecting dust. We beach launch mostly but the sand at the beaches here is the finest sand in the world, about the same as sugar and really soft and very deep. What we do is make a couple trips, one with the kayak hull only, then we hand carry the AMA's separately. The sand is so soft I find it easier to just drag the hull across the sand ( no cart) or have two people (one on each side) carry/drag the hull the half mile or so to the water at lido beach. The rest of the time I prefer the HD wheels.
We beach launch quite often.
Hope this helps
Bob


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PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2014 1:55 am 
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Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 5:06 am
Posts: 1701
Location: Lake Macquarie NSW AUSTRALIA
Hi Stephano. I know exactly your predicament. There doesn't seem to be one cart that suits all conditions. The pneumatic tyres are the best tyre for all surfaces however, as you and others pointed out, there are some issues. That's why I came up with the following solution.

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=50774&p=231742&hilit=sandtrax#p231742

Really happy with its performance so far but still in the testing stage.

_________________
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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.


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PostPosted: Mon May 26, 2014 2:55 pm 
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Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:26 pm
Posts: 3
Thank you for your suggestions and replies, very helpful.

I like the "slaughter design", I will have to find the right materials to assemble it, althoughI will not use an hobie scupper cart.

Actually, I usually launch from beaches of soft sand and until now I am dragging the kayak hull across the sand withoout the cart. But I wish I could find a more relaxing way to start the trip !
This is why I am very glad to learn from SDN that the 30 wheels can be stowed into the front hatch: I decided to buy a wheeleez cart with the 30 wheels, which I can use as is at first.

I am not impressed by the hobie cart 2-30 design, so in the next future I will have to find a way to fit the "30" wheeleez on the "Egalis" kayak cart which I am using at present with its pneumatic tyres.
This cart is my favourite, small, lightweight, can be easily disassembled and stored and it fits the AI hull quite well.

However I am also going to try and build a different cart design. Will keep you updated.

Thank you very much to you all. :)

Stefano


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PostPosted: Mon May 26, 2014 7:16 pm 
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Joined: Sun May 04, 2014 3:19 pm
Posts: 31
Location: Chattanooga, TN
I used the Trax 2-30 cart in my recent trip to the beach, during which I had to pull it up and down a couple steep dunes. Good workout regardless of the tires. Stowing the cart behind me upside-down in the scuppers worked fine for me, although the wheels restricted my arms a little. My problem was that I nearly lost a tire out at sea when the metal retaining piece on the hub got dislocated (luckily not so far as to lose it). Fortunately, I noticed it was sliding off the axle before it slipped into the ocean, and I stowed that tire in the center hatch. I'll probably be looking at other wheels for the future, since I've also run into the buoyancy issue. Not the best when you're in a hurry on a busy boat ramp. However, I'm absolutely certain I would have bottomed out on the dunes if I'd used any other tire.

Side note: This is how my cart was shipped to me from Austin Canoe & Kayak. Haha. :) Apparently they have a box recycling program, which is admirable, but a paper towel box isn't exactly rated for a heavy metal frame. They've since apologized and made note to the right people, but I thought it was funny. No damage, but it was a little alarming at first.

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