DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

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Graybalz85
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by Graybalz85 »

mingle wrote:I have the Trax 2-30 cart (with the 30cm Wheeleez inflatable wheels) and I regularly haul a fully-loaded A.I. (weight around 75kgs)
over 50m of soft sand, 150m of dirt road and 200m of sealed road. I had a plain Trax 2 cart at first, but found it struggled a bit on
the soft sand, so upgraded to the Trax 2-30 (that's the bottom one in the attached pic):
IMG_00241.JPG
The wheels fit inside the front hatch of the A.I. and the frame either goes in the rear well, or gets strapped onto the front
of the yak, just infront of the mast.

The cart wasn't cheap (it cost around $250), but it's rock-solid, top quality. I figured that if I'm hauling a $3.5K yak around it
makes sense to have a cart that's not going to fail or collapse until the weigh of the A.I. lump.

Cheers,

Mike.
Ive also got those wheels and are fantastic for my pa cant complain at all, were a little pricey but makes light work on soft sand
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Yako
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by Yako »

I picked up a set of drifta wheels today from Kmart as suggested by Shane and also I picked up a gym/yoga mat from Kmart too which I cut up and glued to the wheels (chucked the red hubs away don't see the point of them???)
I've just finished knocking it all together (pics to come tomorrow) and hopefully get out onto the beach Sunday (spending the next few days including Saturday putting up a new Colorbond fence) :roll: and I thought I was born to fish :lol:
John 3.16/17
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Yako
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by Yako »

Beach Trolley photo (I may ned to make some adjustments)
Hopefully I can get out and try it in the next week or so.
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John 3.16/17
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shane
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by shane »

Yako wrote:Beach Trolley photo (I may ned to make some adjustments)
Hopefully I can get out and try it in the next week or so.
Make sure you put some padding on the cross bar or the keel will develop a nasty dent. If you find it doesn't roll well over sand you may need to just add another layer of foam to increase the diameter. :up:
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Yako
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by Yako »

shane wrote:
Yako wrote:Beach Trolley photo (I may ned to make some adjustments)
Hopefully I can get out and try it in the next week or so.
Make sure you put some padding on the cross bar or the keel will develop a nasty dent. If you find it doesn't roll well over sand you may need to just add another layer of foam to increase the diameter. :up:
Good points. I have a solid pool noodle I'll fit on the cross bar. I may also have a piece of 50mm clear polyurethane tubing I could slide over the noodle to give durability.
I'm not 100% convinced on the foam. I'm thinking of nipping down to Clark rubber to get a bit more & slightly denser to put over the blue foam mat material I used.
John 3.16/17
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shane
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by shane »

Yako wrote: I'm not 100% convinced on the foam. I'm thinking of nipping down to Clark rubber to get a bit more & slightly denser to put over the blue foam mat material I used.
I'd actually go with less dense, I was a bit concerned the matting foam may be too hard. Something like the expansion seal foam theat I and others have used compresses nicely under load while still giving some durability. With sand you want the bottom surface of the wheel to compress to increase the surface area in contact with the sand for smoother travel. This is the same principal where 4WD's reduce their tire pressure when driving over sand.
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yakhangger
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by yakhangger »

Yako wrote:I picked up a set of drifta wheels today from Kmart as suggested by Shane and also I picked up a gym/yoga mat from Kmart too which I cut up and glued to the wheels (chucked the red hubs away don't see the point of them???)
I've just finished knocking it all together (pics to come tomorrow) and hopefully get out onto the beach Sunday (spending the next few days including Saturday putting up a new Colorbond fence) :roll: and I thought I was born to fish :lol:
What sort of glue did you use Yako :?: :?:
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Yako
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by Yako »

yakhangger wrote:
Yako wrote:I picked up a set of drifta wheels today from Kmart as suggested by Shane and also I picked up a gym/yoga mat from Kmart too which I cut up and glued to the wheels (chucked the red hubs away don't see the point of them???)
I've just finished knocking it all together (pics to come tomorrow) and hopefully get out onto the beach Sunday (spending the next few days including Saturday putting up a new Colorbond fence) :roll: and I thought I was born to fish :lol:
What sort of glue did you use Yako :?: :?:
A can of 3M spray on contact adhesive I had around (I'm sure normal contact in a tin applied with a paddle/scraper would work just as well)
I first roughed up the plastic wheels with 60grit sandpaper as well for better bonding.
John 3.16/17
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CrazyChenski
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by CrazyChenski »

I just bought the same wheels and expansion joint foam to make beach wheels.

Int terms of using PVC pipes and fitting for the frame of the cart, I am curious if it is really strong enough to hold PA+fittings ??

Anthony wrote: The wheels measured 16cm wide and 24cm in diameter and can be had for $8 each. The axle hole on the wheels is 11.8mm which is a bit of a pain because it's a odd size so I drilled out the holes with a 31/64" (~12.3mm) drill bit so I could use some M12 threaded rod as the axle. At bunnings I got a roll of 150mm x 10mm x 6m expansion joint foam for $17 along with some 20mm PVC pipe and fittings for the frame of the cart. The 150mm foam is slightly too narrow for the wheels but it works fine. 6 meters was just enough to wrap each wheel 3 times so I'm glad I didn't make any cutting mistakes like I usually do. The total cost for the whole cart was $55.8.
IMG_0025.JPG
The cart works better than I was expecting. I've used it about half a dozen times on soft sand and it rolls over it like it's on pavement. Even steep soft sand hills aren't a problem. The only real issue is that the wheel are quite bulky so there might be issues if you want to store the trolley on the kayak. I just leave take them back to the car once the kayak is next to the water though.
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shane
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Re: DIY Beach Wheels (on the cheap)

Post by shane »

My cart is aluminium tube inside reinforcing the pvc and forming the uprights. The axle definitely 8nately needs to be metal.
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