moving a canoe from car to water?

[yankee]

We are looking at different possibilities for moving out 16 foot Yankee Old Town canoe from our vehicle to the water. Those small bicycle tired dollies look pretty good. Does anyone know where to buy them? What do you use? We are in our late 60's and my wife is pretty small. Thanks in advance for your help and ideas, Bill

 

[Dave Osborn]

LL Bean, Cabelas, EBay.....places I've seen them. I think mine came from EBay.
Makes life a lot easier....
Dave

 

[JClearwater]

My solution

Yankee,

I made my own with $20 of PVC pipe, some hardware and two bike wheels. The pictures attached show the wheels I originally used which were too small. I replaced them with bigger bike wheels, I think they are 14". I used two front wheels from two different bikes so I didn't have to deal with the coaster brake/sprocket assembly. Wheels came free from junk day piles along the road.

Jim

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

We finally bought one last year and decided on the C-Tug. It was kind of pricey (about $150) but works very well and will pop apart and fit in a kayak hatch if desired. You can get them from various paddling shops and even from Amazon. This is their factory demo video on Youtube:

[video=youtube;rXIqKa5py3w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXIqKa5py3w[/video]

 

[Biggles]

There are some great plans online to build a simple dolly out of plumbing PVC. Inexpensive and durable, easy to cut and glue together.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Those small bicycle tired dollies look pretty good. Does anyone know where to buy them?

We got ours from LL Bean -- as Dave notes, the same thing is available elsewhere. We have been pleased. using it on our 16' OT Ideal. The larger wheels are a definite plus when going over bumpy ground.

Greg

 

[Kathryn Klos]

It would be cool (and very helpful) if someone could make a video showing how to load/unload a canoe from the top of a car. Sideways doesn't work as well as scooting the canoe off the back-- but I say that knowing it may not make sense. It would also be helpful to have a video of Fred Capanos's device for lifting a canoe from a car-top. I could make a video of "various methods" at the Assembly this summer, if there are those who'd demonstrate. Safe removal of canoes from vehicles of various heights would be the plan... I will have a camera... let's do this!

Kathy

 

[yankee]

That would be wonderful if you could make small films of different ways to on and off load a canoe from the top of a vehicle. This would be helpful for many of us. Thanks very much, Bill