Thursday August 15, 2013 Guerneville, CA.
Making a Kayak carrier
My intentions for the day were to go help a friend with his computer for a bit in Monte Rio, then head on down to the river to kayak.
He had several computers to work on, which we did for most of the day, until about four PM. He said we got about 97 percent of the stuff he needed some help with figuring out, so we didn’t do too bad.
I thought about the kayaking and thought about something to eat and a nap instead, so I went on home and took care of those things and mostly just sat around and enjoyed the day when I wasn’t napping. :O)
While sitting around I thought it might be a good time to show how I made a kayak cart or carrier, since it was all made and all I had to do was get some photos to show how it’s made.
They do have manufactured carts, but most of them have a big problem. They are heavy and just too darn big to deal with once you get to the water.
It goes like this. You use your cart to get your kayak to the water, then you have to do something with that big old cart while you are kayaking. Too big to put it in a hatch. You could lock it to a tree or leave it somewhere, but it might not be there when you get back, and then what? Maybe you could put that big bulky thing on top of the kayak, but that can get caught in a tree, or just get in the way.
So, I thought about this for awhile and decided this is the way to go and it costs almost nothing to make and doesn’t have all the drawbacks of the manufactured carts that I’ve seen on he market.
First off, I needed smaller diameter wheels so they could be stuffed into a hatch and I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on buying some either.
I thought the back wheels on a plastic tricycle would be just about right. They are about six inches in diameter and wide to get though sand and gravel and very light too. All I’d have to do is find someone that had an old broken plastic bike or someone that wanted to get rid of one.
Instead I found a plastic wagon that had two sets of wheels, one set for a friend? I asked the owner about using them and they said you bet, glad to get rid of that old wagon, I was up in Oregon at the time.
I used two wheels and one of the axles to do the job. The rest of the cart unit was made out of schedule 40 PVC pipe, half inch size.
This is the finished cart, which would be tied to the kayak bottom with straps or ropes.
This picture shows the two pieces. I kept it real small for a reason, weight and storage.
I used a clip on one end of the axle so I can take it apart and make it even smaller to be stuffed into a hatch if need be. It also carries well on the top of a kayak.
This photo shows some of the detail.
I used two tees, eight elbows and a few feet of half inch PVC pipe for the job. All joints are glued with PVC cement. If you mess this up making it, it doesn’t cost much to redo it.
Just another angle to view it from.
This is the pipe section. I would suggest if you construct one of these, you put it together without glue until you are satisfied you have it right, then mark each piece with a felt pin and put lines at each joint to show where it is aligned right for gluing.
Another angle of it. I put a little piece of pipe in the axle tees to make the hole a bit smaller for the axle. The whole thing doesn’t have to be made that precise.
It’s a fairly easy project to make, once you find some suitable wheels and an axle. That’s all there is to it.
Nice day loafing around.