I had been considering buying a trailer to haul the boat behind my bicycle. There was a company, Paddlecart, listed in the product section of this site that looked like they had a pretty good trailer. They are gone now. Why? Did they have a problem with their product or customer service? Did they just not want to pay for a listing? There is one review of their product. Any other experience out there?
paddlecart
– Last Updated: Mar-10-08 1:55 PM EST –
http://www.paddlecart.com/index.html
I have the cart. Love it. Took great abuse on Algonqin trip and still lovely.
Thanks, rav42u
I was mostly wondering if the disappearance from p-net was related to any product problems or just random. Kinda shows the value of product endorsement on this site. Your experience sounds encouraging. I noticed they want $58 just for shipping, which pushes the price of the trailer over $300. That is 1700 to 1900 miles of fuel, which is 45 round trips to the lake I would drive to if I wasn’t peddling to the closer one. That added to $200 for 4 months access to the closer lake just about kills the economics of the equation. There would be a significant time savings going the bike method.
Paddle cart is tippy
I have one of the paddle carts and it’s nicely made and sturdy, but too narrow so it’s only useful in parking lots and smooth trails. I called and asked if the dual wheels would fit on my cart and they said no, I’d have to buy the dually frame and all for another $150 plus shipping. So I bought a $60 cart on ebay that works great with wider tires that roll easily over roots and rocks and through mud and sand.
It looks narrow
I would have about 200 meters of rough trail between concrete sidewalk and gravel access road. It should handle it with appropriate caution.
I’m happy with my Paddleboy cart
My previous cart was secured with a single thin strap, and I found that no matter how tightly I secured it, the wheels wouldn’t stay in place on anything but the smoothest, flattest surface. The bar on top of the paddleboy works better.
http://www.paddleboy.com/pages/product_pages/paddleboy_sm.html
Somewhat wider
and the shipping is only $20. That would price the two sort of competitively. It’s hard to tell from their web site whether the tongue separates from the cart for storage. Probably.
These are different designs
The PaddleCart is made to go near the center of the boat so it’s balanced. The PaddleBoy is made to go at one end of the boat and you have to lift and carry the other end.
For 200 yards of rough trail I’d choose to buy the PaddleCart and go down to Tractor Supply and buy wider wheels that are smaller diamter so the cart will be more stable and will roll over roots, rocks, sand and mud better.
Yup
I like the PaddleCart design with the exception that it is kind of narrow. Lifting and toting the end wouldn’t be an issue since I am looking at the bicycle trailer model. I think I can do the rough trail part without too much grief. My next question will be to call PaddleCart and ask if they can ship by a cheaper method. Maybe I will spend some BushBucks, and maybe not.
PaddleCart
Have yet to find an “ideal” cart.
I have a paddlecart and find it works great for my Prijon, but with my much narrower P&H it slips and is hard to get the boat set on it. I found an easy fix is to use some 1" straps around the front and rear tubes, then it works very well.
And it will break down and fit in the boat.
Gene
I liked the tony’s cart
I thought with larger diameter bicycle tires it might be more stable and less rolling resistance:
http://www.tonystrailers.com/kayak/
I’m thinking reefmonkey’s idea of modifying a toddler bike trailer might allow for some good customization.
Been considering the toddler
trailer. There is a used sporting goods store nearby that has some. I can hardly see paying so much for a ready made yak hauler.