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Kayak cart ideas?


Kudzu

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Two heads are better than one, so several should be genius! ;)  I am looking at doing more shows in future. Even though they are lightweight, at the end of the day carrying 4+ boats back to the trailer is very tiring. Especially if you are a long ways from your vehicle.

 

So I have been thinking I would like to design and build a cart that I can put 2 boats on and pull the boats out to the car. It must be small and easy to store in booth say under a table. Past that I really don't have much else in mind. I am thinking something along the line of the current commerciat carts, where the boat is just strapped to a set of wheels. That seems like the best idea but as I said, I am open to anything as long as it is small and lightweight. Oh, and easy to use!

 

So toss some ideas out there and lets see what we can design.

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Ha..Ha.. We are on the same basic wavelength..Imagine that....You feel like a fish out-of-water when you can't be kayaking to?

I made mine a few years ago, it comes apart and packs into the Pirogue I used....

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For a second kayak, I would add T's and make 2 U shaped supports that could be added after the first kayak is strapped on....

 

 

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I made mine a few years ago, it comes apart and packs into the Pirogue I used....

attachicon.giftn_100_1864.JPG

 

That is pretty cleaver and will be hard to beat. Nice and lighweight too.

I could make one a little wider and add a center post then place two boats on edge.

Hummmm......

 

I used to have a boat trailer for my bike. It was a sort of long dolly made with conduit.

I think a dolly type with the bunk bed approach would be best.

The kids and I will break out the model boats and play cart designer. It is too smoky outside...

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I was waiting for some instructions for building a small Kudzu cart including typical parts (plywood sides with part of the Kudzu logo, stringers, lashing, ...)  :rolleyes:

 

OK. I Like that idea but lashing it togethere and then taking it apart to stow is would be a pain. :blink:

 

Seriously though. with an axle it would be simple make one out of scraps laying around in the shop and it would look cool carting boats around on one lashed together. Just that pesky storage issue.

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I made mine a few years ago, it comes apart and packs into the Pirogue I used....

attachicon.giftn_100_1864.JPG

 

That is pretty cleaver and will be hard to beat. Nice and lighweight too.

I could make one a little wider and add a center post then place two boats on edge.

Hummmm......

 

 

 

Just have to strap both bow handles together and take off....

 

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I have not had time to sit down and sketch anything but I like the looks of that a lot! Just needs a "kickstand" to park it while loading a boat.  I like that is it made of wood too. I could whip out something like that pretty quickly. I have some nice hardwood scraps that I make it look nice and varnish the wood. But it is just a tool so I probably wouldn't.

 

And it just occured to me that it would be pretty easy to make it convertable from single and double wide version too.

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image.jpgGood idea....Let me throw in my 2 pennies worth,colapsabel version:

 

Between the forms: You have the axel with a pvc spacer keeping the forms spread appart...The 2 at the top could be pvc foam wraped spacers with removal rods also so it could be taken apart, colapsabel ...The top two rods would probably need to be threaded to stiffen up the structure...For two boats add a center form..

 

For wheels I used old push lawn mower tires, I can slide a 1/2'' rod through them....

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Do you think it is important that these are "frame" boats with flexible skin? (vs. the solid wood stich&glue / wood strip kayaks)

Some of the commercial lightweight carts are very short, not useful here.

Maybe a stupid newbie question, but where would I strap the cart? You have to hit frames, using the two with 1 foot spacing behind the cockpit?

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Woodman, that IS the collapsible version. Pegged mortise and tenons. 

And the whole point was to make it look like a Kudzu boat, not a PVC cart...

Henrike, you don't need to crank down the straps. I was thinking the extended tenons would make good tie down points.

 Cool idea, didn't see it....

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Thanks!! especially for posting pictures:

-> it's been so much fun building my kayak: first of all, this forum is so useful! Spending hours and hours for reading older posts. 80% of the time I had to transform the "oz and foot and inch" and so on to our metric system before each step and seaching for material, and now I have to translate almost all of the special english words... should start a small thread "tips&tricks for non-woodworking european newbies" :)

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Here's an idea I've had stored on my hard drive for a couple of years. Never made it, but it looks really simple, collapses to a small size, and has the added advantage of looking like a Kudzu fuselage component. Looks like Baltic Birch plywood to my untrained eye.

 

von

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:wacko:  Never did I image so many good ideas would come from asking! I sketched up something last night in my CAD software with a couple of boats on their side to work out what dimensions I would need. Seeing the one Von posted gives me some new ideas too.  I am leaving next week for my class and will work on this some more.

 

Adding freon to the Suburban yesterday and found that my compressor is going out. So now I have rebuild they system as well as put a new axle under my kayak trailer. Going to be very busy next few days!

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