DIY KAYAK CART or CANOE CART // Never Carry Your Boat on a Portage Again 

Thanks, it is a life saver on portages. You can load up your boat without worrying about carrying it.

Cool! Glad it worked out. Good idea with reinforcing.

Thanks for the comment. This setup fits in to the front of a sea kayak (narrow hull) with no problem. It is no bigger than the wheels stacked. Good luck with the build out!

Thanks, still works great!

Thanks for the feedback, glad it works for you!

Very cool, great idea with your bike. It should work really good. You might want to have 2 cam straps, one on each side of the upright. This will keep it straighter over bumps, etc. Thanks for watching and the comment.

My pleasure, hope it works out well for you.

Thanks for watching!

Cool, good luck with the build.

I am pretty sure it is 3’, I can check for you on Saturday. Remember you need room for the tires, washers, and nuts/pins. I do not think 2’ was enough.

@@OutsideChronicles thank you. Yes please look. It just does not look right to me.

@@danielkatcher The housing is 18.5". The axel is cut to 28". The 28" accommodates the washers, nuts, wheels, and pins. Hope this helps. So 2' is not enough using the design I have. You might be able to reduce the width, but that will also reduce the stability.

@@OutsideChronicles thank you for checking. Were you able to buy a 28 inch axle or did you cut it? I have everything built except for this part and it seems great. Thank you

@@danielkatcher definitely cut one end. I am sorry if it was not clear in the video.

Thanks, yes, there are definitely ways to improve on this design. It has worked well for me, but would tweak it a bit. I usually use the connected strap and then another cam strap. Not sure if the issue is the strap or slippery noodles, but sometimes if terrain is bumpy, it slides. Thanks for the comment, see you outside!

Good question and not an easy one to answer. I can tell you my typical load using the cart. The heaviest boat I used was 58lbs and had probably another 30lbs of gear. So it easily carried 90lbs over pretty rugged carries. The two weak points will be the axle and the uprights. If I was worried about the load, one easy modification would be to put a crossbar, glued between the uprights. This would prevent them from pulling horizontally. You could also double up crossbars on the base, then you could have a solid piece of PVC for the axel. In my design, there is a joint for the handle. I cannot find the strength of the 5/8" rod at 3ft. I can only find thread capacities. But I would think it could hold 140lbs. The wheels have a working load of 300lbs. Finally, you could beef it up by going with 1.25" PVC. Hope this helps, or at least gives you some ideas.

@@OutsideChronicles Thank you very much for your reply. It does give me some ideas. I really appreciate your time!

@@louisevanpolanen6380 you will have to let me know if you make any mods and how it works out. Good luck and happy paddling!

I do not see why not, they are not very heavy just cumbersome. You may have to make the whole thing wider or maybe just put something on the uprights that make it a bit wider.

@@OutsideChronicles Thanks for your reply and tips, yes agreed. I'm most certainly going to give it a go. 👍

@@markweatherall7437 cool, send me a pic!

Thanks, misspoke. It’s a wire lock pin or hitch pin as reflected in the description.

Mark, I think there are a couple of things working against us here. Let's first address the wheels not moving correctly. #1 ditch the locking washers and only use regular washers. For the nuts and washers against the PVC, you can hand tighten them. Then the washers and nuts on the outside of the wheels should be loosely tightened. I originally used two nuts on the outside and tightened them against each other. I found this worked for short distances. Over longer distances, one side would tighten up. This is why I moved to the Hitch Pins. They do not tighten and are much quicker to put in and break down. I suspect you might have just tighten the nuts too much. So for issue #2, did you put a cam strap on the PVC body? Did you put a cam strap around the kayak and the tubes it rests on? The noodles help, but you need to strap the kayak to the cart. I also agree that the width should not matter all that much as long as the cart is on the flatter parts of the kayak bottom. In the video, I have a tandem about as heavy as yours. I also pulled a 17ft heavy sea kayak weighted with a week's worth of gear, so I know the design should hold it. But you want to make sure the weight of the kayak is mostly vertical and not pushing horizontal on the top "T's". Let me know, happy to troubleshoot this.

​@@OutsideChronicles Sorry for the slow response. Been a little crazy and my ADHD got in the way of focusing here. :-) Yeah, the locking washers are toast. I was hesitant to do the pin because you and others scared me on the idea of drilling w/o a drill press. But I'm gonna go to Lowes and sort through their drawers for the 5/8" pins. Do you think locking washers for the 2 nuts against the PVC would be a problem? You said, "Then the washers and nuts on the outside of the wheels should be loosely tightened." I'm a tad confused. I think on yours, the only nuts are inside the wheels, against the PVC. How much play did you leave between the pin and the outside of the wheel? Issue #2, I had cam straps around the cart and the kayak. I'm gonna test it first on my kids' lighter singles to test my methodology. My guess is two things worked against me - I probably had the cart too far back and it should be closer to the cockpit given the weight of my kayak. I think a problem with further back is as the kayak is more tapered, it was easy for the straps to suddenly become looser and thus the kayak pulling off the cart. I think I also probably didn't have the strap as wrapped around the cart as well as it should be. I also might try taking the strap and cutting it and attaching it to the cart like you did. A friend also thought, again, because of the weight 2 straps - one like yours, and a 2nd that goes under the "front" resting tube, over the kayak, and under the "back" resting tube. Kind of like how I do the roof rack. A friend looked at it and thought given the weight of the kayak, it might make sense to have a 2nd set of wheels closer to being under the cockpit and attaching the 2 carts via another rod. That seems overkill but was intriguing. But given your 2 kayaks, and design, I think that is overkill and I know what you have works. I am gonna turn the kayak over and see if I'm truly in the middle of the bottom. When you say, "But you want to make sure the weight of the kayak is mostly vertical and not pushing horizontal on the top "T's", can you clarify that? BTW, since pool noodles seem to disentegrate and I can never find ones with wider holes, I bought the foam PVC insulation at Home Depot. $3 for 6'. It might be more durable but we'll see. Thanks!!

@@MarkEzrin Locking washers against the PVC will be fine, not a bad idea since I leave the axel in place when collapsed. I made the comment about "loose nuts" is only if you are not going the hitch pin route on the outside of the wheel hub. I have maybe a 1/4", just enough to be able to get the pins out. Drill one side and then see how much you are comfortable with and plan the other side accordingly. If you do not attach the cam strap, I would suggest two, one for the front of the T and one on the back of the T. On easy terrain, one strap is enough, but I found on really gnarly carries in ADK, I felt more confident with two straps. I would not worry about more wheels. The commercial ones are rated at a decent weight and I thought mine was more heavy duty than my friends commercial ones. I hope this explanation of horizontal vs vertical makes sense. If the T's are too far apart, the kayak may fit slightly inside the T's, thus putting outward pressure horizontally toward the wheels. If the T's are narrow enough and the kayak sits fully on the top, the force of the kayak is now vertically to the ground.

@@OutsideChronicles Thanks. Definitely need straps. My friend's idea for 2 wheels was not about the ability to handle the weight as much as to elevate the kayak and have it more balanced so it wouldn't slip off the cart. Yeah, it all makes sense. Thanks.

Quick question - what length pin did you buy for the wheels. Lowe's had a ton and the guy there said if we knew the optimal size it would listen any issues getting in give the area of the wheel/hub. BTW, he said thumbs up. He asked what I was building and loved it.

Also, what size drill bit did you use to drill the holes in the threaded rod?

If you look at about 1:27 you will see the 2 T’s, guide stick and main body. All of those are glued.

Jen Ben I used a 5/8 bit, it fits fairly snug. I do not recall if I used a paddle bit or normal. I have both.

Thank you so much for your quick response and great cart directions!

@@jenben9646 Good luck with the build. Are you going to be using it for a portage somewhere cool?

Thanks for the input. Do you have any weight specs between a 5/8” aluminum vs 5/8” threaded rod in the lengths used? I am still using the threaded rod with great success. I have not been able to find a 5/8” pipe of any material

​@@OutsideChronicles steel and aluminum properties depend greatly on type of aluminum or steel. Once you find a table for shear and bending strength, you would not use the OD of your threaded rod, but instead look up the inner diameter of your threads (minor diameter). The threads are mostly air with thin weak fin all the way around, and is only meant to be loaded axially, nod radially as bearing surface. A better idea would be for the wheel hub to run on a smooth surface for better spinning, reduced wear on hubs, and eliminate deformation of threads