"Nose Wheel" for Boat Dolly?

Last year I got rid of my windsurfing gear and got something called a "Hobie Adventure Island": basically a kayak with outriggers optimized for sailing.

About 220# beach-ready.

Hobie sells a set of beach wheels that work fairly well:

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But the holes they mount into are so far back that the nose becomes about a 50# lift. Not un-doable by any means, but it's not what I would call easy on the back - and it has it's problems when a slope has to be negotiated and something closer to the boat's balance point would be a beeeeeg improvement.

To that end, I've been fooling around with a frame that holds the boat, slides on-and-off the trailer, and has beach wheels mounted on it, but it is flying in the face of the KISS principle and it seems like embracing the existing wheels is the sensible thing to do.

That being the case, I started off thinking about a pack wheel/game cart (as in

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but, once again, I think I am going overboard on the complexity - not to mention the price

The Bottom Line: Can anybody think of something off-the-shelf that could function as a "Nose Wheel" for this thing?

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)
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How about some pipe fitted into the intended holes -- but, swept forward (to the balance point) to a cross member on which the beach wheels are actually mounted?

A risk, here, is the stresses that would be placed on the "holes" would differ from what they were designed to expect. I assume this would crack some bit of plastic (?)

To be clear, you're thinking of making a tricycle out of the thing?

Can you leave the existing wheels "plugged into" the holes (that are too far astern). Then, make a fork that clips onto the cross member of those wheels and extends forward to a point at which a "pivoting wheel" is mounted.

I.e., the fork is triangular in shape (like an old wooden "crutch"). At the tip, a pivoting beach wheel is mounted facing downwards. On the *top* surface of that point, a carpetted pad insulates the fork from the underside of the boat. (The boat *rests* on this tip of the fork with the pivot wheel beneath).

On level surfaces, the boat sits "flat" on the trike and is pulled along (perhaps a rope that straddles the boat at the front wheel and connects to that wheel -- this allows you to tug on the wheel and, indirectly, the rear wheels as well as holding the wheel *up* against the underside of the boat).

If you lift the front of the boat, the wheel can come up with it turning the boat+wheels into a sort of handtruck (dolly) that you are dragging along behind you.

You might be able to experiment with SCH 40 PVC as a cheap frame (for this "fork"). Or, EMT (or even RMC)

Idea for wheel pivot:

Could you also use a (wide) "ski" in the front?

Reply to
Don Y

Neither of these are off-the-shelf solutions, but maybe they will give you some other ideas. Maybe a combination of these would work:

1 - What about building a "hinged clamp" that locks around the hull at your desired wheel location? Basically a supersized version of this:

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If built so that it's foam-lined interior surface "mirrors" the shape of the hull, almost like a mold, it would clamp down tight and not slide forward or back when in use.

2 - How about a frame that mounts in the existing holes but with the wheels mounted forward of where they are now?

Hull Holes |_______Wheels

The frame could be secured to the hull with ratchet straps at the mounting holes and near the wheels to keep it firmly attached.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Per Don Y:

Good catch....

I put something like that to a Hobie rep a few weeks ago and his reply contained the phrase "...think breaker bar...." so I dropped the idea of messing with anything that goes into those holes.... the downside is just too severe.

That is pretty much what I had in mind - but was looking for some off-the-shelf source for the pivoting wheel.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

Start with DerbyDads idea of something that mirrors the shape of the boat. Use somthing like this to wheel it around? What do they use to wheel small airplanes around?

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

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