Canoe wheels

[robkanraft]

Does anyone use the strap-on canoe wheels to lug your boat around? Did you buy them, or make something up on your own? Seems like wheels would be a good idea to drag the Buffalo tandem up the Kyles ramp.

[okieboater]

I purchased a pair that looked good on the pictures.

My deal was to get from the soccer field parking lot up to the Tulsa Wave Park and the path is paved with concrete.

Also to get from back of my back yard to the front driveway.

They did not work for me. Basically too narrow and kept tipping over. My test boat was a Blue Hole Sunburst II

I attached the wheels to a wider plywood board and that helped some but did not solve the problem.

Based on my experience, I think the concept is good. The problem is in the implementation. Maybe the hi dollar units with the wide spaced wheels and with the low axles to get the weight down close will work. (looks to me like they should).

So, before you put out a lot of money, make sure the model you buy works with your canoe and where you want to go, especially look at the roll over factor.

I'm still looking for the right answer. It may be to make your own. I can find the wheels in Hardware stores, the problem is finding a long axle with threaded ends or what ever for the wheels.

[Arthur Bowie]

Half a century ago, I used a pair of bicycle wheels in making a cart for a wooden jon boat. The goal was to make it a little easier to drag boat, decoys, and motor about a mile to access Cashe River at Penn's Bay. 200+# and rough ground was too much and the thing broke in first hundred yards.

More recently I've seen various store bought boat dollies both on Buffalo here in Arkansas and Chattooga in GA/SC that seemed to work OK.

If I wanted one now, I would buy a couple of 6 to 10" fixed casters at hardware store, fasten them to a 2x6 a little more than boat wide, and use rope to fasten to boat and to haul. For short hauls like Kyles, that would probably be adequate and inexpensive. weight wouldn't be big concern cause you could leave it in shuttle truck.... For longer haul, best solution I've found is to take several young bucks with you on those trips and let them do the heavy work....

[Crane]

The Arkansas Boathouse Club just purchased an inflatable raft/launch with a motor. As part of the deal, it came with an aluminium trailer... two good sized wheels with a wide enuf axel to load a 6' wide raft on and a pull-tongue long enuf to handle about 10' in front of the axels... and a handle in front to pull the whole thing by hand. We used it last week to roll the raft from storage, down a ramp & back up. Down was easy... back uop took two folks, for sure! But, a canoe would not be so heavy!! If interested, you can email Lynette Watts at arkansasrowing@yahoo.com. I'm sure she'd be happy to get the name of the manufacturer off the trailer for you!

[Mike Gardner]

I made my own canoe cart out of old garden cart wheels, pvc pipe, and fittings. If you are handy, old lawn mower wheels are usable. From practical experience use only schedule 80 pvc. It is much stronger than the sched 40 pipe found at Lowes and Home Depot. A specialty or contractor store should have it in your area.
Mike

[Cowper]

A google search on canoe cart led to several options, ranging from about $50 to $150. At least one had a 30 day, money back if you're not happy guarantee. Even if you make your own, you'll get some design ideas in both metal and PVC from looking at all the photos.

If you want to make your own, a seach on cart wheels led to this company http://www.wheeleez.com

Watch their video at http://www.wheeleez.com/youtube-videos.php

And you might want to get a product that uses their wheels, even if you decide not to make it yourself. They seem to really do well if you have to go over soft sand.

I love Google!

[Eric Esche]

I bought one of those green metal fold up bicycle wheel canoe carts off eBay that has worked quite well on our Mad River canoe. It even came with a tire pump, although I have never used it. The cart is not rust proof, so if you keep it outside, you will need to keep it lubed up, and the tires will need air once every 6 months, but it does do the job. Tie it at or within 6 " of the canoe's center of gravity and you have an effortless tow job.

We also have two Paddleboy Heavy Lifter carts made of Stainless Steel for our sea kayaks. Susan has said she would not want to own a sea kayak with out owning one of these carts. We have owned ours for nine years now, have had them apart over 500 times, and they still look brand new. They break down into 4 pieces that fit in the back storage compartment of the sea kayak. The pneumatic tires roll over everthing well, except for heavy loose sand, and they did better with it than most other carts we have seen. Only thing that handles super loose sand is those Rollez super wide and big carts that cost an arm and a leg and do NOT fit in the kayak. 2 bungies will hold the kayak on the Heavy lifter just fine. Only drawback today is the price. Think they were listed at $189 last time I looked, over twice what we bought ours for 9 years ago. We need a third as we just bought a third sea kayak. I have found a knockoff design also made out of stainless with the same wheels from xstreamdesigns.com for $120 if anyone wants to save a few bucks.

If anyone wants to look at any of our carts and try them out before you buy one for your self, Come on by Monte Ne and go paddleing with me. I use mine everytime I go paddle.

Oh yeah, and on those designs NOT RECOMMENDED - I include the types of wheels that strap on to the very back of the boat with a v notched piece of plastic. Designed by someone who never used it. Puts all the weight of the boat in your hands everytime you lift up one end to drag and makes you keep holding it. DUMB! Carts need to be at or near the CG so you only have the "rolling weight" to deal with, rather than a heavy "tongue weight". In sea kayaks, the ideal strap on location is almost always right at the seat or just behind it. Ask me how I know. James and I loaded 300+ pounds of vacation gear for a month into our sea kayaks and took them over on the ferry to Nantucket Island for 10 bucks, same rate as a bicycle. Ferry folks even give you a special place to park along the side in the car bay that is protected and allows you to tie your boat up to keep it from rolling. The kayaks even loaded up as heavily as they were towed just fine by hand on and off the ferry and it was a lot better than trying to lug multiple suitcases and duffle bags several blocks at each end of the trip. We took the boats to 7 different beaches and used them 24 times in one month. Nantucket in July is a wonderful place for sea kayaks!

[duckfool]

I built a home-made unit with a pair of large mower tires (the large rear spoke jobbies)... to wheel my 17ft Alum. Ouachita Square transom from the parking lot at the dam for lake conway into Bell Slough, self destructed on the third put in... granted the canoe had several shotguns, a couple dozzen decoys, stove and the like.

Second unit was a folding kayak carrier purchased at Academy I think. About a C note. this actually worked, I quickly upgraded the little tires to much larger ones.

Lately I've been using various carts to haul a fully loaded 13ft Zodiac with 15hp OB, fuel tank and gear (200lbs fully rigged) about 50 yards in soft sand from house on Dauphin Island down to the gulf. The little kayak carrier actually worked for two years (about 20 hauls in and out) before the support strap broke, unit is still functional. Year before last we built a serious cart. Made from 2x4's with tires from a lawn tractor (the more flotation on sand the better) modeled after a seitech. This survived it's purpose and more importantly was essentially bio-degradable as we took it apart and didn't have to transport the monster back to arkansas.

The best folding racks are for sure the roll-eze units with the huge balloon tires. http://www.wheeleez.com/

For the ultimate (if you don't necessarily need one that folds) the seitech units are AWESOME, but expensive. http://www.seitech.com/

IMHO.