I’ve used a version of this portage cart for many years. It was known as the “Canadian Walker” when I bought mine, but it has gone by several names over the years. It is commonly used by many paddlers on the Adirondack 90 mile canoe race, and others. the 90-miler has a total of 5 miles of portages during the race and this cart does well, even with long heavy voyageur canoes on the rougher trails. If you at other times paddle, as some of us do, the more complete traditional route of the 90 (the unofficial “Cannonball-90”), there is a total of 10 miles of portages.
A cart in good shape is a good cart to have for several reasons. I most like that It does not have a straight through axle connecting the wheels, which on other types of carts can get caught when going over high logs and rocks on a trail or through the woods. With pre-placed cam straps it is fast to load and fast to run with. A kick-stand is a necessity to load a canoe or guide boat solo, but can be a nuisance otherwise (I tape my stand up in place when using the cart other than solo with fellow paddlers).
Quickly removing the wheel cart from a 32 foot long voyageur canoe at 6th Lake during the 90 mile canoe race.
I’ve never used one of these, but I wonder if you couldn’t attach it to the canoe first (wheels up, hull down) then roll it over onto the wheels. To avoid sideways pressure on the wheels, lift the boat high enough that you can pivot it on the bow or stern deck. It’s worth a try if all else fails.
@kayamedic said:
It will be hard to get the milk crates out with a lot of weight bearing down on it. The purpose of the kickstand is to keep the cart from rolling away while you adjust the balance of the canoe on it… I would get some wheel chocks first.
You’re quite the wet blanket aren’t you.
All you need is a square or rectangular support that is about half an inch or an inch shorter than the actual cart so the cart will be able to tilt a little bit fore or aft as you load it. Once the boat is loaded you can just tilt the boat a little and kick out the support. One could make something out of wood or just use a milk crate and shim it.
Personally I have no trouble with the standard kickstand but I’ve used the cart many times so have had some practice. It reminds me of putting a motorcycle on its center stand…it’s all technique.
@Sparky961 said:
I’ve never used one of these, but I wonder if you couldn’t attach it to the canoe first (wheels up, hull down) then roll it over onto the wheels. To avoid sideways pressure on the wheels, lift the boat high enough that you can pivot it on the bow or stern deck. It’s worth a try if all else fails.
Try it, but I don’t think it is a very practical method, especially for a larger boat (as in my photo). You can’t leave anything in the canoe that way (paddles, water, or other gear). The kickstand works to keep the canoe rest part from rotating to the ground as it will surely do when you let go of it without the stand (or a paddling paddler) preventing this from happening. When solo this will cause grief unless you figure out a way to keep it upright. Normally one person lifts bow or stern while another (or two) centers the cart and throws the straps over.
Chocks may keep the wheels from rolling on a sloped surface, but will do nothing to keep the upper part of the cart from rotating to the ground, making it impossible to load the canoe on the carrier pads.
We had lots of fun on the Bowron Circuit. Our cart had some issues with potholes. The canoe would get twisted or off center. Some of the potholes were two feet deep
As the canoe was loaded with 65 lbs of gear lifting it up to engage the stand was not fun. The total of canoe and gear was 110 lbs
The chock principle worked well
We would endure until a suitable pothole came along
And we thought carting was easy. That 7000 meter day did us in!
Was it worth it! Heck yea. Canoeing in the Canadian Rockies!
Of course with a lightweight boat this is not an issue but when we cart its cause we have two solos gear and a tote road
The load is around 200 lbs
The nice thing about the cart was rolling it in the water to unload and loading in the water
Then you dont need to worry about the load rolling for at least that part
Experiment with all the suggestions for dry land loading and find what works for you
@kayamedic said:
We had lots of fun on the Bowron Circuit. Our cart had some issues with potholes. The canoe would get twisted or off center.
If the tie cam straps are not sufficiently tight, the canoe will twist off center when one wheel or the other strikes an obstacle. This can be a real problem when speeding along on a narrow trail and may happen regardless of cart type. For use with my voyageur canoe, I install extra long supports to minimize twisting. Easily fixed by pre-planning and tying the hold-down straps on each side to a foreward thwart so that twisting does not happen.
I checked the height and it’s perfect. It’s just a little lower than my trailer, so the canoe will slide right off and on to the dolly. Now, loading back up again at the launch may be a whole different exercise.
Hopefully before spring, I’ll get a chance to address the rust and peeled powder coating.
