After straining my back too many times loading and carrying boats, I came up with this stern cart. The best feature is that the cart remains on the boat literally all the time unless it’s in the water. See the explanations under the pictures.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=9um0v4t.5eij8n85&Uy=-xr2uq5&Ux=0
I also wrote up detailed instructions for a friend who wanted to make one, so I can email them if anyone else wants to try it.
Very nice!
What exactly is it made from?
That’s brilliant!
Ingenious design! What is plastic trim board, and where do you get it?
there you go
Your first million. You better patent that baby.
Awesome!
And what is plastic trim board?
Just a couple of comments
For a heavy boat, mounting near the center of gravity saves you a lot of elbow grease for a long distance walk. In order to mount it near the center of gravity, you may not be able to mount with one hand. It would be nice to have a kick stand to hold it upright.
Nice innovation!
Plastic trim board from Home Depot
There’s a whole section at Home Depot with various plastic trim. This “board” is about 6" wide by 3/8" thick, and 8 ft long. The label says “FLTTRM 8”. It’s lightweight, easy to cut and form, and if you heat it in the oven for a few minutes, you can mold it. You can also make bends in it by passing a heat gun back and forth over a specific line where you want to bend.
There’s all kinds of neat stuff you can easily make from plastics. Paddlers have posted about things made from PVC pipe glued together with joints. You don’t even need joints – just take a piece of pipe and turn it under a heat gun, and you can make any bend you want.
Other cool stuff: get a section of vinyl gutter from Home Depot, and with some shears and a little heat, you can make lots of kayak parts and accessories. If you look closely at the pictures, you’ll see a “skid plate” glued onto the very stern of my Tempest so that I can drag it up the beach. That’s just a section of gutter heated and stretched over the stern, and trimmed to size. I’ve made fixed skegs, whose base is molded to the hull shape. Home made backbands are easy from a section of gutter shaped around a water heater.
For a material a little thicker and stiffer than the gutter, use PVC sewer pipe. Heated and flattened, it’s also good for skeg fins.
wow
You should change your name to MacGyver!
Plastic seems easier than wood or glass
Some might disagree, but I always felt I would mess up anything I tried to make from wood or fiberglass. But the plastic is so easy and fast to work with, and if you screw up, just cut off another section and try it again.
And now from the
K.I.S.S. school; I have the simplest method for a cart. We recently had a new floor covering installed in our kitchen. The installers used slides made from thin sheet plastic, polyethylene most likely, to put under the fridge and stove to move them out of the room. Seems like this would be the simplest way to drag a kayak or canoe to the waters edge. It also would be very easy to roll up and stow in the craft. Just a thought($0.02)
Wao… better than many I’ve seen 
I have been checking carts out for the same reason you metioned (back protection). I ended up buying one from Seattle something for $75!.
Could I have the instructions you mentioned?
But you really have a unique design in a unique material… you should patent it!.. or I would not be surprised seeing it in a few months somewhere.
Thanks
Rique
looks great!
Can I sign up to buy one?
Really!
Here’s mine
I’ve built 3 carts, the last one being the best overall design and the most compact, it fits into the day hatch of my Elaho. made so i wheel the kayak on and off the ferries. http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/dmitrioguz/?action=view¤t=cart3.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch20 and apart http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/dmitrioguz/?action=view¤t=cart2.jpg&refPage=20&imgAnch=imgAnch21
cost something like 35$ canadian to build
Thanks for the look
your photo album has a lot of great pictures! Thanks again for letting us take a peek.
totally cool!
Amazingly simple and effective. I’m sure glad that you smart folks are willing to share your ideas with the rest of us. I e-mailed you a request for the instructions.
Please email me the instructions.
I’ve been looking into my options for a stern mount kayak cart for my Sea Lion and your design looks like it may work just fine.
Thanks for sharing.
Great idea! And now
I’m wondering if you have an easy idea to make an invention that will help get the canoe from the ground and up ON the roof of the car. Any ideas? Some rolling device made with plastic, but how? Just mulling outloud here…
You should mass market that device.
It is a winner.