Boat Cart or Wagon-like Tote

Hey guys. I'm looking for ideas, drawings, plans or a product that will allow me to get my boat overland for a couple hundred yards. My dilemma is this: There is a really great afternoon float on the Boise River that terminates at a bridge about a half mile from my house. There is a boat ramp at the bridge but it is closed off to vehicles. The closest you can a vehicle is a couple hundred yards. I'd like to find (or build) a cart or hand-pulled trailer of some sort that I could strap my boat to and pull it to my vehicle. Something like this: http://www.canoekayak.com/canoe/five-sets-portage-wheels/#VJKrMK3H4...

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Permalink Reply by Bennett Yarbrough on March 12, 2017 at 4:00pm

I'd imagine something built with bicycle wheels would be the way to go.  I built a canoe cart for some offroadish access a few years ago and I thought 13inch harbor freight rubber tires would work. They were okay until a few 4inch high roots stopped them cold.  For something as heavy as a drift boat I'd vote for bicycle tires.  I think it'd be easy to make a folding cart that you could tuck into the rear of the boat during the float.

Permalink Reply by Bennett Yarbrough on March 12, 2017 at 7:52pm

sorry ive been trailer shopping too long, the tires I bought were i think 8 or 9 maybe 10 inches.  Whatever they put on sale for 5 bucks every once in a while 

Permalink Reply by CWarmouth on March 13, 2017 at 3:34pm

Thanks for the input. Can you describe how you made the axles and/or attached the wheels to the frame?

Permalink Reply by Bennett Yarbrough on March 13, 2017 at 6:13pm

It was a pvc canoe cart.  They're all over the internet for people with those really heavy fishing kayaks to use at boat ramps and beaches.  I bought a 5/8's rod and ran it through the bottom tube with a hole drilled into two pvc caps on either side to keep it centered.  Drilled a hole in each end of the rod for a cotter pin to hold the wheel on while making it easy to disassemble the whole deal for storage in the canoe.  It worked well carrying a 45 lb canoe plus rods, cooler etc on flattish terrain.  But when I'd access by running trails at the hooch or local ponds it just wasnt stout enough and the wheels were too small as I mentioned

Permalink Reply by Bennett Yarbrough on March 13, 2017 at 6:17pm

For a drift boat I'm picturing something like a radio flyer with bicycle tires.  But without brakes it'd probably be interesting when a 300 lb boat gets away from you

Permalink Reply by Bill Kirkpatrick on March 14, 2017 at 3:28pm

How about three strong friends and a six pack of beer?

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on March 16, 2017 at 6:18pm

CW,

Years ago I fished with a friend who had a 14 Ft. Aluminum Boat.  He always fished the coffer dam on one of the better trout/salmon rivers here in Michigan.  He made an Aluminum frame with three pieces. Two side frames and a single aluminum bar what went from one side to the other and was clamped to the Gunnels.  the long bar across the top had a vertical plate attached that hung over the side to attach the wheel assemblies.

The two side frames each bolted to the plates on the end of the cross bar.  Each had 18 or 21 inch bicycle wheel attached.  He mounted this rig just aft of the mid point of the boat and we wheeled it down to the river and up hill toward the coffer dam.  One of us could handle it by lifting the bow and pushing it like you do a wheel barrel cart.

It took only 2-3 minutes to assemble this rig and was removed in the same amount of time.  It was really a pretty simple set-up.

Google 80-20 aluminum Extrusions.  it's what he used, it's an erector set kind of material, not too cheap but you can cut it and it bolts together easily.

G'Luck,

Dorf

Permalink Reply by CWarmouth on March 16, 2017 at 6:53pm

Wow, that's an interesting and ingenious setup.

The 80-20 looks really cool. 

So I am trying to visualize this. How long are the vertical side plates? And what was the purpose of the two side frames? Couldn't the wheels just be bolted to the plate?

Thanks, Dorf. 

CW

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on March 16, 2017 at 8:30pm

CW,

The side plates were a 2 x 2 inch x ~18 long square extrusion with the wheels mounted at the lower end. Just a long bolt through the wheel and through the extrusion, maybe a spacer to allow clearance for the rubber tire.  The  cross piece was another  2 x 2 by ~ 4 ft. (A guess on length) which was c-clamped to the gunnels.  The end plates were a 3 or 4 inch wide x 1/4" thick wide plate about 8" long to which the vertical legs were bolted.  There was an angle bracket of some sort to stiffen the vertical plate to the cross beam.  It was tore down into three pieces to save space in the boat for storage when the boat was in the water.

The 80-20 catalog has a bazillion different pieces to make almost anything.  If you spend some time getting familiar with the catalog you can come up with a neat design.  You are only limited by your wallet.

It's been more than 10 years since I last saw this set-up, so this is my best guess as to it's construction.  It was really slick once the correct position fore and aft was determined to almost balance the boat on the wheels.  It didn't take much effort to push the loaded boat to the river.

Hope this helps,

Dorf

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