Homemade Beach Dolly?

what do you sail? boats over 350 lbs dont do well with beach trax (the hard rubber tires with deep treads in them) on sand. the best wheels are atv tires (as on cattrax)..

i have seen people try all sorts of things and in the end... not work to well..

yes they are pricey... but worth it to me.

Love to tinker, so of course I tried half a dozen contraptions. In the end I finally broke down and purchased a cattrax w/handle.
I have an earlier version....probably over 20 years old, and still working. The low flotation tires with the light weight plastic hub are the key elements in the equation. I tried ATV tires on one of my projects, but could only find steel hubs which added considerably to the weight.
And....the plastic wheeled version def does not work as well as the softer, rubber tired version.

the new cattrax use atv tires (i think thats what they are) and alum hubs. There are 10 or 12 delron bearings inside the hub.

the red plastic hubs are used on the eurotrax... which are not available in the US anymore i hear.

Know what? At $500 these things are too cheap to complain about. They are superbly engineered and the components are proprietary. You will be hard pressed to fabricate a substitute that you will be happy with or will work as well. If you take care of them they will last forever. Speaking as one who spends his weekends dragging boats up and down our beach, I am continually amazed that these things work as well as they do, day in and day out. I had to buy a set for my Nacra as I started out on a beach where I had the only big cat and the club wheels were cutting into my hulls. I was yowling in pain as well, but having owned mine for four years I've really come to see them as must have technology. Prior to this I was always impressed with this product, especially when hauling boats a quarter mile or so down to the low tide line.

I purchases mine for my for $500.. then purchased a bigger boat and had to pay about $100 to get an extender put on it.

Then i had to get cradles because my Mystere wouldn't stay put without them that was another $150... OUCH...

so if you order them... I suggest you order the ones that are pre-drilled for both 8 and 8 1/2' beams.

Hi: I would think that golf cart wheels would work equelly well.
Bill Jazz[email][/email]

WilliamJasulaitis wrote: Hi: I would think that golf cart wheels would work equelly well.
Bill Jazz[email][/email]

I am no tire expert but i dont agree. plus the rims are not anything like what is used

Agree..The tires and bearings are patented and not available from any industrial supply store. The bearings are designed to resist sand and water.

I think mine set me back close to $650 as I added cradles and a loop for a cable lock.

Beach wheels are one of those things that seem like they are simple and shouldn't cost so much, but it turns out are pretty near impossible to "do it yourself".

I've seen (and published) a lot of recipe's for home made beach wheels, and some of them work under special conditions, like just rolling on concrete or hard packed dirt. But most of them turn out to be way too heavy, not durable, won't turn, aren't strong enough, rust, not enough ground clearance... etc.

I'm sure more attempts will be made and I want to hear about them, but mostly they just convince us that the commercial models are worth the money, even if it hurts.

ok i am thinking of using these on my hobie 18 and i read that they are not very effective for a boat over 400lbs and i am not sure of a better way to move the boat? how hard is it to move the hobie 18 on these beach dollies?
thanks
Jonbrown

They work great. We move 18's, Nacra's, Tigers, all day long on em. You'll need a set of cradles with your wheels. I cannot imagine who would try to move a big cat without them.

lawrencer2003 wrote: They work great. We move 18's, Nacra's, Tigers, all day long on em. You'll need a set of cradles with your wheels. I cannot imagine who would try to move a big cat without them.

andrewscott wrote: [quote=WilliamJasulaitis]Hi: I would think that golf cart wheels would work equelly well.
Bill Jazz[email][/email]

I am no tire expert but i dont agree. plus the rims are not anything like what is used

lawrencer2003 wrote: They work great. We move 18's, Nacra's, Tigers, all day long on em. You'll need a set of cradles with your wheels. I cannot imagine who would try to move a big cat without them.

Hi:It was't clear to me that you were you suggesting that golf cart wheels/rims would work.
Bill Jazz

Hi re Larry Smith response....wasn't sure as to your response that golf cat wheels/rims do work in making a beachcat launcher.
Bill Jazz

Oh no. I was stating that the only solution from my POV is a set of commercial beach cat wheels for an 18 vs trying a home made solution. I was responding to the suggestion that they don't work on an 18 or bigger cat. See below...

"...i read that they are not very effective for a boat over 400lbs"

Just for the record, over the last decade or so I've from time to time attempted to source components from which to build my own wheels. As I used to work for a large industrial supply company, I thought it would be easy. Not so much. I never attempted the project, just broke down and bought em.

Well in the case that they can't be built..

Any suggestions for a Tornado. Being that I've got a 10 foot beam, it presents it's own set of unique circumstances.
I am going to mould my own craddles with the boat upside-down, so that part is knocked out.

I sold my cat-trax with the old boat because the crossbar isn't long enough to work on my T.

We have a Supercat at our beach that sits on wheels. Two sets in fact. I believe that too has a ten foot beam.

Don't know where they got them but at least I can confirm they are out there!

Breakwater wrote: Any suggestions for a Tornado. Being that I've got a 10 foot beam, it presents it's own set of unique circumstances.

The CatTrax with cradles
http://www.floridasailcraft.com/CatProducts.htm
can be bought with an axle exttender for the Tornado.
http://www.floridasailcraft.com/CatAccesories.htm

I've also seen wide boats like the ARC catamarans using sets of wheels with seperate axles and wheels for each hull, so you don't have to deal with a 10+ foot axle. Can't find an example of those at the moment. You could probably make them with the Wheeleez wheels from
http://www.wheeleez.com/beachwheelsPU.php

my friend has a mystere with 10 beams and they use cattrax with an extender in the middle.

http://www.geocities.com/mec_coleman/tip13.htm

I saw this in the links on the menu bar, and thought of this thread...no opinion on it though.

edited by: turtlecat, Nov 03, 2008 - 06:40 PM

I once saw a dolly for a sunfish that had 1''galvanized pipe with reducers on each end down to 1/2'' pipe which had wheelburrow tires on it with a large washer and a cotter pin. I bet if one doubled up on the tires and had the 1/2'' extent out further then you could move a cat. One could also put the hulls between the two tire on each side. if i lived closer to the beach i would make a pair for my trac 14 and hobie 18

There is a guy in Wilmette that built an electrical dolly for his Getaway.
The frame is a telescoping ladder, beach wheels make a solid axle and a third beach wheel (the dolly is a trike) has an electric motor.
Where the boat sets on the beach wheels he has installed trailer rollers, and he has a winch that he uses to pull the boat onto the dolly/rollers.
It is really sweet, I want to take a picture of the thing, but feel like it would be stealing his creative juices (that and I lost the camera and have not told my wife yet).

Guess its just me but when I consider things I need to invest my time in, how little free time I actually have and the value of that time, designing / building a set of homemade beach wheels that may or may not work is much more expensive that dropping 5 Franklins on a factory made set that function perfectly. Particularly since our beach this year has a 2' "cliff" to deal with this year.

I can see however the merits of the electric dolly if one wants to single hand and has no help.

kgatesman wrote: There is a guy in Wilmette that built an electrical dolly for his Getaway.

Please, next time you see this guy ask him to contact me (use the contact form) or to just document his creation and upload pictures. If he doesn't plan on marketing this thing he probably will be glad to share, if he is like most beachcat sailors he's a hell of a guy. 🙂

Often our sailors invent/improve something and don't realize how many others would like to do something similar, they think their idea isn't "finished" or "perfect" enough to share but the ideas will inspire others.

if he is like most beachcat sailors he's a hell of a guy.

LOL! but of course

Or Woman. We have a significant # of female skippers on our beach!

He/she is a he, I have not met him, but see him every other week or so and will put the word out for you Damon.

If I find my camera, I will get a pic. He has a lot of time and money into this thing, parts include at a minimum:
1. telescoping ladder
2. beach wheels
3. third beach wheel
4. winch
5. battery
6. motor
7. folding ladder
8. boat rollers
9. control box

I was envious for a while, but the guys that work for the sailing center help me push in and out when I am alone. I can tip boatloads of teenagers for years before I have spent what this guy has on this machine.

Particularly since our beach this year has a 2' "cliff" to deal with this year.

Larry, why? is Lake Michigan levels up 2'?

Yep the snowy winter and all this rain did it. The surf has carved a 2' drop in what used to be a smooth run to the water. We lost a whole boat row to the lake and the surf has carved a cliff in our beach. All those boats in the last row are now pushing onto the swimming beach and those folks have to contend with idiots setting up chair/blankets blocking their egress. Its worse on the north end where the drop is even steeper. Lost sand too. Once you are in the water, all baby head rocks.

We keep bugging the park district to grade it out. Aint working. Just means that my 5.8 needs a few extra hands to put her away. Fortunately we have plenty helpers.

Kenny,

His machine might be a legacy from when Wilmette was less service oriented. We have a few folks who migrated north for that reason. Seems like there is more focus on the sailing beach than there used to be.