I know if I made the legs from a solid piece of conduit, that would solve the stress problem. However, I tried to find a solution other than this because I wanted the ability to have two different lengths for the pinning location of the legs and one piece of conduit would eliminate this option. If the legs were one solid piece I would have to have one pivot point and therefore one length to make the up and down position work. By keeping the legs separate from each other I can have one pinned location that keeps the wheel really close to the boat when stowed away. Then another pinned location where I can move the wheel out and be pinned about 3" away from the boat.
I would add a wooden filler to the inside of the conduit at the top where it pivots, drill through it and seal with some furniture oil, then leave the rest open so it can drain. As well place a sleeve at the base where the axle nut is, so that the tube does not collapse so easily. Yes larger wheels are a must, though they can be very light as well, not much mass to carry and also low duty cycle. Inside the kayak as well you really need a spreader plate so there is less stress on the GRP laminate, you can use thin plywood, and then use flexible sealer ( marine rated type of course) to bond it in place so the hull does not crack around there, as the top is not really a load bearing surface there without extra support inside.
Hey April. Pygmy and CLC kayaks have plans and kits for Wooden kayaks. Some as light as 30-40 pound range. CLC even has one called Shearwater Sport Sectional that allows you to separate the kayak into three pieces. If you really enjoy kayaking which it looks like you do, you'll find these marine plywood stitch and glue boats a dream to paddle compared to a huge plastic and extremely heavy boat. You guys have a great summer.
I love watching your videos. I love your workshop, i can hear your echo! I love watching your way, everyone does things differently. I love how quickly you learn, design, tools and add the "play by play description. Your video's are perfect for me, you can articulate and enunciate without your favorite music. Keep up the great work April Wilkerson! I promise your truly one in a million..
If you made the legs from one U shaped piece of conduit, you would have to make different wood bracket mounts, but you could also set it up so you only need one locking pin or even a spring loaded detent button instead of a locking pin.
Not everything has to be some perfectly and precisely engineered master piece. You had a problem and found a simple solution (the simple one's are often the best). Thanks for showing us the trials and errors. I think it's encouraging to see the process and know that not everything works out right the first time.
Rather late to the party, but if you haven't already, I suggest you use "fender washers" under the nuts securing your mounts to the hull. This'll spread the twisting force on the hull. Should beef it up and prevent those nuts from tearing through the hull.
Very creative design. The major flaw I see is that the deck of the kayak won't take having the weight 'hung' from those mounts, especially if there is any gear in the kayak. After a few uses, especially over rough ground, you will find the mount screws ripping through the deck. You can have one set of holes in the legs and instead put two sets of holes in the mounts for down and spread out, another set for up and tight.
Try swapping the wheels out with a pair from a golf pull cart maybe? I’ve been toying with different ideas for something like what you made but while watching your video it hit me. Wheels from an old golf pull cart! I shall commence to tinkering! Love your videos!
Funny, I was just thinking of making something like this the other day and here it is! Love your ingenuity and tenacity with trying different things. It’s refreshing that you share the goods, the bads and the uglies with us so we can determine our courses of action relative to yours. Thanks April and keep them coming. You’re amazing.
I used three different yard sale/trash picked golf carts and three different configurations before I got an assembly that worked well on all types of terrain. The secret to durability turned out to be an old heavy duty cast aluminum cart for 5 bucks from a yard sale, some PVC pipe, a pool noodle, screw eyes, and ratchet cords. I'm no engineer either, but that's part of the fun and satisfaction, solving problems on the fly. Nice work April.
Guys April is not a engineer, she’s primarily a woodworker, with many many tricks up her sleeve. She said she wants to make improvements at the end of the video. In the end she made something that functions great for her and was kind enough to share it with all of us, for free. I don’t even have a kayak, but I enjoy April’s craftiness so I watched. Good work, always a joy to watch.
You are amazing and I can't wait to see the collab with you and your bestie!! Safe travels! I learn so much from you and to think I found you a few months ago when I was trying to convince my husband that he should build me a patio cover. I found your video you did on your old house and we both watched, and now we are hooked! We are so inspired by you!! Thanks so much for all your videos and just for helping us to see that we can do it and it's not too late to learn. He and I just finished building a coffee table together thanks to your inspiration!
April, I have a 12' sit on top about 70 lbs. I built a PVC cart that stows in my rear compartment and my crate/cooler fits on top of it so I loose very little space and everything is self contained. My yak has gunnels under neath and the pvc cart slips in the gunnels. Unless it's very rough terrain, I don't even have to strap the kayak to the cart. Slip it off the truck like you do, slip the cart under the back and go. I'd be happy to send you pics if you want, ping me.
Cleaver idea. Next time when you bend the conduit put the longer end on the ground. It will be much easier that way. I’m interested how the Emt conduit will hold up over time. I’d think that a thicker walled conduit would work better like Ridged or stainless. But that is harder to bend and more expensive.
Why not just make a small wooden trolley that cups the underside of the kayak? You can then use bungee cords to attach the trolley to the boat (maybe use the two wooden blocks to keep the trolley firmly in place). This IMO would be a much stronger solution and would put zero stress on the boat. Also, if you place the trolley at the very end, there's no way the boat will scratch the ground. Just a suggestion. Anyway, I love your videos, April. Good luck!
0:40 "...stays permanently mounted to my boat so that I don't have to mess with attaching and detaching something and then storing it in the kayak while I'm going down the river."
A couple of suggestions! I would definitely connect the two wheel assemblies with a cross bar or better yet, make one continuous axel. It would reinforce everything and not put as much flex on the body of the Kayak and the wheel assembly. Another suggestion would be to reinforce the mounting brackets with a piece of aluminum plate or even a 3/4" wood plate on the inside of the kayak under the mounts (providing you have access). This would also prevent the shell of the kayak from flexing and possibly tearing out down the road (which would totally suck). Bigger wheels definitely! Pulling the Kayak across smooth pavement is one thing, but pulling it across rugged uneven terrain is another thing. This puts tremendous stress on the whole assembly. Overall, good job!!!!! Love seeing the Ladies get involved in DYI stuff!!!
Mount your wood blocks, then take a straight edge across both and draw a line. Drill your holes in line with the line you put on the blocks. Run your conduit with a bolt with the head cut off between the two ends. Drill and pin with a cotter pin. You won't need the board across the top.
Nice project and love to see your showing the issues and how you work through them instead of just showing a finished working project. Keep the mind working and nimble and the rest will follow.
That's two advantages of being a big fat bugger like myself. Bending conduit is quite easy and carrying a 65 pound yak is also quite easy. The downside is I can't fit in a 65 pound yak :( Nice job on the kayak improvement.
The instant I saw the wheels I thought they needed to be bigger; the larger they are, the easier it is to roll over imperfect surfaces. Somehow, boat ramps always have gravel and small rocks strewn about. Enjoy your newly found freedom and thanks for the video!
Great job! Looks quality, functional and relatively inexpensive! You built a great kayak dolly and did a superior job explaining the build! Thank you and best of luck to you always!
Hi April, Another suggestion to improve your dolly legs: stuff 'em. Get or make some dowels that you can shove/pound into the conduit where it connects to the yak mounts. Insert the dowels with a liberal slathering of waterproof glue or epoxy. THEN drill through after the adhesive has cured. The conduit is experiencing pretty high torque right there at the mounts and though it's steel, it isn't great steel and likely to tear, especially if you're putting a cooler in the boat tool. Adding the filler dowel will transfer some of the torque to the rest of the surrounding conduit material and it should hold up a lot better.
One must remember whether it be April or anyone else on RU-vid that person can’t do it all, of course unless your Jimmy Diresta LOL, and the videos that are put on are there for our entertainment and sometimes ways to copy. Yes there is a million ways to do many things, and we can only do what we think is best at the time and including finances. I respect people like April because she has started with no trade background and become a multi skilled very knowledgeable young lady that I would pay to do work around my house (even though I live in Australia)! April, don’t listen to the nay sayers they fill some hole that they have inside by pushing their negative insults onto others. You have started, learnt and achieved more in a few years than many of us have done in a lifetime! Congrats on this project! Cheers, Sean
You should try making the wheel bar one whole piece an then make your brackets in two half's a top and a bottom. Then put it all together. It will give your wheels more strength, possibly reduce the load weight.
Nice boat! Good idea to get out on the water and away from all the other noises. I would epoxy the brackets first then install them with backer plates. You might consider square tubing to take advantage of the 90 indexing through your brackets. I just love messing around with boats. Bsafe
That conduit bend you did shortly after the 2:20 mark might have been easier if you'd put the bender on so the 'long side' was on the floor instead of the 'short side', which would give you a bit more leverage to complete the bend.
Some comments recommend using 1pc of conduit. That's a good idea. However, if you keep this 2 pc design, you could flip the conduit while stowed for use on the water so that the wheels are inboard instead of outboard.
Might need something on the bottom to prevent a hole being worn into it. It seemed it was rubbing just a bit on transfers/slopes. Also maybe two tubes of different size that overlap and then pinned or screwed in the middle together to relieve stress. Great idea
Pretty cool build ! I have 2 aluminum Grumman canoes and I'm always modifying them...lowering the seats for better stability, rebuilt the transom to accept a bigger motor, little corner shelves made from aluminum for holding my beer or whatever. Never once have I been able to do those modifications on the first shot, so you're not alone. Trial and error. lol I think you did a really good job for the first time, thumbs up !
While the Scotty mounts would be good to hold up under the stresses associated with fishing poles (even with a big one on the line! :) ), I fear the kayak's fiberglass shell at those 2 points (actually 8 points, since each mounting block is attached with 4 screws) may not hold up over time to bouncing the weight of the kayak over gravels, etc., especially with the added weight of a cooler. You may eventually start to see cracking around the mounting blocks. If you pinch the shell between the mounting block on the outside of the shell and a flat metal or wooden plate epoxied to the inside, attaching the mounting block through this plate with nuts and bolts, you can spread the force transmitted from the bouncing wheels over a larger area of the shell. Admittedly some extra body work involved, but it may save the shell's structural integrity. After any cracking appears, the repair would be somewhat more extensive. (EDIT: I wondered if my fiberglass assumption was correct, and it turns out these shells are actually rotomolded polyethylene, a flexible and relatively soft plastic. So the reinforcing inner plate idea might even be more valid, as cracks in this stuff couldn't even be fixed with a fiberglass repair.)
when on the water always make sure to have a buddy with you and always have pfd on. these two rules have saved my life more then i can count. ( i also paddle on river with a good flow so having a rope in a bag tethed to me and my boat has saved me from losing my yak)
I foresee a remake coming soon as you break off those legs/ the screws pull through the plastic. You're also going to scrape a hole in the stern of your boat if you don't fix the rotation/angle of your wheel legs. It's a good idea overall, but you need to take another crack at the implementation.
Drill a hole for the pen.love the texas speak. How about using bead and hole stops like you would see on canes and walkers. Rotate wheels out of way when not using , click when u rotate into position. Lengthen arms that way too.that can also raise height, stop scraping bottom.
bevel the bottom of your wooden block to match the contour of the top of the yak so that your opposite hole is straight across and on the same plane, you would have to slip your blocks on before you bend them, and in stead of larger wheels just lengthen your conduit legs.
Wow, was thinking of something like this for kayak but stuck on materials, the bending conduit idea is great! Thanks !! My kayak is bigger and heavier, a Hobie Outback, so will add a cross piece that cradles underside through the rear set of scupper holes. Also need more height.
I have two kayaks. For me I used PVC in the holes of the kayak. When we get to the water I pick them up and move the kayak to the side and put the wheels in the same holes upside down.
My parents had something that looked like a horse sulky. We used it to launch the canoe in front of our home. We guess it was a great design as some one came along and nicked it from us.
Good job April. What if the legs were extended to about a few inches of each other and use a coupling of sorts like electricians use to secure the legs. I think that would make the legs sturdier not just relying on one point if contact.
April, search for Pit pins. They have push buttons on top which push a rod down with notched in them, they allow small ball bearing type ball to fall into the notch. When you release the push pin, the balls are pushed back out.. as well, they typically come with rings to attach a small cable or braided line. Nice design,, looks tidy and fitting for your craft.
Nifty. I fabricobbled a built-on dolly for my dad’s flat bottom fishing boat… I took two matching bicycles from the scrap yard. cut off the rear suspension, used the mounts to make two minmal brackets that I bolted to the bottom back of the boat, and mounted four eye-bolts to the top rail. one pin for each wheel, and one long cross pin through the eye bolts, and the wheels sat on the back *just* off the ground, like a moving dolly set down on it’s rails. Pick the front of the boat up six or more inches, roll it around anywhere you want. The wheels took up hardly any space when stowed, or you could leave them on in the water with little interference. Later on I put a bracket on the front and made up a single wheel with a tiller, and mounted the motor from an electric bike on it. You could sit in the boat and tool around the beach… but I wouldn’t recomend it. :)
I think she's still waiting on the electric utility; the panel cover was off her breaker panel and it looked like she was backfeeding it with a generator. But it should be any time now.....
several people have recommended a one piece axle, i disagree, the two piece allows you to move the wheels in towards the center of the boat when you flip them up. however, using a flat board across the top like that is forcing the same deforming of the top of the kayak that you had before the board was attached. i think you should have contoured the base or mounts or the top so it would not deform. also, since its multi position, you could also add outriggers (not sure thats the correct term) for more stability.
I applaud your resourcefulness!!! I great first attempt at a diy landing system! As you said at the end you already see some room for improvements. Without having read all the comments (there are a lot of them lol) here are my list of ideas. Once you got it all figured out scrap the wood idea. As a wood worker myself i love wood. But it just doesnt hold up well for this. Find something stronger than the conduct. Maybe some ss tubing. I personally went with square tubing. This allowed for a down and a up with out having all the stress placed on a pin and the holes for the pin. You still want the pins but in this case there just insure the legs dont slip out. They bear no load. You can find 2 sizes that slip into each other. And do make the larger one go full length between the 2 mounts. This is going to involve some welding. If you dont have a welder you can get a harbor freight one cheap or find a local small weld shop. The welds dont have to be pretty and basic welding is easy to learn. After seeing your skill with wood working i fully believe a person such as your self could learn the basics in a few mins. This is how i did mine and you can see some of it on my full build video. But a better example of a professional version would be to look up the blue sky boat works system. TIRES!!! as you already noticed those narrow tires are no good off pavement. I wold personally recommend the inflate ones from HF. They are only 4 bucks each. Good luck with your adventures!!!
Thank you April, a creative solution and I know you will improve on it, that's your nature. Point to ponder; conduit is not engineered to flex so watch for cracks, also you are a welder consider using two sizes of square tubing one for the axle and the other for removable wheel mounts. Using pneumatic tires will lesson shock on the attachment points and placing the wheels on the outside will clear the Yak and provide stability. Looking forward to the next VOD. Cheers...
April: Same wheels, longer legs. Be sure to put backing plates on the inside of the kayak for the through-bolts. Adds strength. Also, put the two oak pieces on the conduit before bending. You won't need the cross piece of wood, and when you raise one wheel, the other will raise at the same time. Good to keep two locking pins for extra strength. Jon
LOVE it! You are genius to come up with this! So much trial and error going into this project. Thanks for showing things don't always work the first time and how you fixed it.
I know one piece of conduit would solve the stress problem but it also eliminates the ability to have two different positions for the length of the legs. Which I think is more important and the reason I tried to find solutions that wasn't making the legs out of one piece.
April Wilkerson then hane one piece of pipe that fits inside another(a Sleve with a hole and a push pin in the middle) that way you have a solid axle then when rotating it up you can use the push pin to shorten the axle in the upright position.
Classic case of a design being sidetracked (hijacked?) by something existing, the best solutions are usually found when you start with a clean sheet of paper.
Also, I noted you just painted the wood brace in-place. Make sure to pull it off and get the bottom too. Otherwise you'll get swelling from the bottom and rot. While it's off, get inside the bolt holes too. Finally, you may want to look at some clear caulk between the brace bottoms and boat-body, around the bolts. To minimize water intrusion into the body of the kayak.
I noticed the keel scraping the ground as you were putting it in the truck. I would either lengthen the wheel leg and/ install a keel guard.....nice job
Also, if your Tarpon doesn't have a stern skid plate on the bottom close to where it almost dragged on the cement you could get one or maybe try to make one.
Redo the wooden blocks so the hole where the axle slides through is straight across to the other one . Then make the axle out of one piece that should fix every thing.
Should consider using a single piece of conduit rather than two, although the bends will get trickier. Also, larger wheels will roll over smaller obstacles (like stones or sticks) without skidding.
