Kayak on wheels

Long-distance kayak trips have become one of the most popular types of tourism in our country, and not by chance. It is hard to name another sport that combines so much that is both pleasant and useful. However, transporting kayaks weighing 25–40 kg to the water and carrying them over portages along the route is the spoon of tar that spoils the barrel of honey.

There are many home-made cart designs for transporting kayaks, but all of them are usually heavy and bulky. The option proposed here can hardly be called a cart; it is rather a… bag on wheels.

Making the “cart” is not difficult if you have a folding fishing stool and two wheels, for example from a child’s bicycle. You will also need a piece of steel tube for the axle on which the wheels are fixed with cotter pins, and two connecting sleeves — flattened pieces of duralumin tube with holes.

When transporting a packed kayak, the U‑shaped tubes of the stool are threaded through wide canvas loops sewn to the kayak cover. The connecting sleeves are put onto the tubes and secured with cotter pins.

When you need to move from one body of water to another or bypass rapids over land, the kayaks can be transported fully assembled. In this case the “cart” is tied under the bottom of the kayak. There is no need to unload the gear from the kayak. The design is used to transport two three‑seat “Salyut” kayaks and a “Salyut‑2” motor mounted on the axle. To reduce the lateral overturning moment, a simple modification is recommended: increasing the track width of the cart.

The advantages of the design are its simplicity of manufacture, quick assembly and disassembly, and low weight. And during a rest stop the stool once again becomes just a stool.

The cart has been tested for four seasons. On long weekend trips it proved indispensable. We are sure that the main charm of tourism is by no means carrying heavy loads. The lighter your backpack, the more impressions you will bring back from the trip.

“M-K” 8’73, V. Stroganov, chief project engineer of the VISTI test department