I’ve been wanting to upgrade my kayak cart for quite some time. I use a home brewed PVC version that pokes into my scupper holes. That part, courtesy of my father, aka the Old Man works wonderfully. Where the cart’s limitations come into play however, are the wheels. I think most folks who build their own carts run into this issue: the sand.
Currently my wheels are of the hard plastic variety. They have a plastic “tire” and wheel is constructed of either HDPE or PVC. Combined with the PVC frame and axles they ride on, it provides for simple and rust free operation. A couple of hitch pins hold the wheels on and make for easy removal should I ever feel the need. On the road they work wonderfully, even hard packed sand is not too much of an issue. The second they hit the sugar it’s game over though. The weight of the fully rigged boat causes the wheels to dig in and I’m left struggling. It’s hard enough that usually I just ditch the wheels at that point and drag the yak through the sand or if I’m with someone, have them help me carry it. The stress this induces to the cart has warped the PVC axles. It is also terrible for the health of my scupper holes, an area that is already advised against by many for attaching carts.
So where does that leave me? It leaves me lusting after a set of Wheeleez.
These things look great. They are tough and durable and float on the sand allowing easy travel. The kicker though, is that they are CRAZY expensive. I would be looking at almost $200 JUST for the wheels. I’ve been scouring the web for cheaper alternatives but the few I see generally have less than stellar reviews and cost almost as much. It’s not that I’m opposed to spending the money, they seem to be a worthwhile investment. Right now I just have better things to spend $200 on.
Being the DIY type that I am, I began looking for options. I considered scavenging the wide plastic wheels from a kids “power wheels” car. I worried that they still wouldn’t float on the sand like I wanted and that they would be terrible loud while on any kind of hard surface. The worst of both worlds. That’s when I found the following videos:
I like these. They may not be the perfect design, but I think both of these guys have provided a great starting point. I’ve been mulling over the designs in my head and thinking of ways I could improve them. For the amount of hard surface travel I do, I worry about the durability of the exposed tube. These utility tubes always seem pretty tough though, and at the low pressure I’d be running I think they will hold up just fine. Hell, even if I only got a season out of them, at >$10 each I could still run the system for almost 10 years before I broke even on the Wheeleez.
I’m going to get these going in the next week or so. I’ll try to document my build as much as I can in order to help anyone looking to do the same. Stay tuned.
Tight lines
Hook & Spoke 
I’ve thought about using (4) Habor Freight Wheels on a single shaft. They’re on sale at $5 a piece so for 4 wheels, it would be $20. I think that it would work since you are basically creating a larger surface area when on the sand. Your thoughts?
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My apologies Tom, I know this reply is over a year late. I think your idea would work. I hope at this point you’ve tried it and found success. I never got any pictures of it, but my father pirates some wheels from an old Power Wheels Jeep and modified our carts. They actually work pretty well in the sand.
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Just poking around and saw your post above about using multiple harbor freight wheels. If you have then you probably know it does not work. At least it did not work much at all for me. I have one of those fold up beach carts with the wide plastic wheels at the back and the stroller wheels at the front. I tried doubling the plastic wheels at the back. Minor improvement at best. What worked great was to stretch a harbor freight inner tube over those wide plastic wheel. Works fantastic when I tip it up. Only drawback is that when I want to tip it back down on hard surfaces the front stroller wheels are getting all the weight because it is now jacked up like a 70’s hot rod. I 3D printed a couple of cool retaining rings that keep the tube from sliding off the wheel but you could easily use a plywood disk and some screws to do the same thing. I am planning to make a quick release front end for this same cart and I will 3D print my own full wheel hub that will also accept a harbor freight inner tube. This will make the cart easily roll and allow me to take my hands off whenever I want instead of having to balance the weight like a hand truck. Only downfall is that I estimate my 3D printed “rim” is going to cost me every bit of $15 each for the plastic. Plus the tube. So every bit of $25 per wheel. It will also take about 40 hours to print one rim, but that’s not an issue as I have the capacity for that. All this for a Sam’s club cart which has it’s limitations. Only reason I am sticking with this cart is because it quickly and easily folds up and fits in my RV compartment. If I had more space I would make a complete cart from PVC pipes.
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I like the system you are describing. I briefly tried the dual wheels and had similar results. I actually never got around to making the plywood disk/inner tube wheel. My father found an old power wheels at the dump and scavenged the wheels from it. While I’m sure some ballooned pneumatic wheels would be better, these actually work pretty well on the soft sand and the price was right. I’ve been meaning to write a follow up post about it
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