I've been wanting to make a trolley for my kayak for a few years now, so that I can move my kayak around by myself more easily.
Kayak trolleys cost around $100 to buy in store, but I figured I could make my own custom designed to fit my kayak for a lot less. I made a trip to the hardware store and bought a bunch of bits, and a tiny hacksaw (because although I do have a hacksaw, this one was cute and any excuse for a new tool)
Some time ago, I salvaged a broken senior's walking frame during kerbside / hard rubbish collection. (If you live in my local area, you might think I'm talking about the annual hard rubbish collection day that was only about a month ago, but, no, I got it from the kerbside two years before! In the meantime the walking frame has been used as a handy shelf for putting stuff on in my lounge room...). I grabbed it because it has great wheels, but wasn't sure if the wheels would work out for this, so I got some small ones from the hardware store as a backup. Turns out the walker wheels are perfect (they already have bearings in them too). So I'll use those other wheels for something else, and it brings the total cost of my kayak trolley down to around $20.
On to the building...
I'm using PVC pipe and joiners. First I cut a piece to fit between the scupper holes on my kayak using my adorable new mini hacksaw.
Next I drilled holes in the T joint pieces - I'll be putting the 1/4" threaded rod through these holes to be the axle for the wheels.
Then I put the rod through the holes, and attached the first wheel using a 1/4" square nut, a washer, the wheel (with bearing already installed), another washer and finally a lock nut to keep in in place. I only put it only loosely, because I'll need to take it apart to glue all the PVC pieces together once the design is finalised.
(Aren't these wheels great?! I love repurposing stuff that would have gone to the tip)
Then I cut a bunch more pieces of PVC for the rest of the frame, and popped the end caps on the pieces sticking up at the top that go into the scupper holes. I just eyeballed everything for length. This is not a precision project.
Finally I cut the threaded rod to size, and added the other wheel.
I added a stand to one of the struts so I can put the trolley beside the kayak and simply lift the end of the kayak on. I liked this design, until I tried it out with the Kayak and realised having the joint for the stand on the top strut was a mistake - all the weight of the kayak comes down onto that piece, and it was bowing a bit under the strain
So a quick redesign / reassembly, and the stand is now smaller and attached to the middle strut (which is reinforced by the threaded rod between the wheels: Much better. I might add the leftover threaded rod with lock nuts to the top strut for extra strength.
I thought I had a rubber chair foot I could use on the stand, but it turned out to be too big, so I'll need to find a smaller one to finish the stand, and I'll glue everything together tomorrow, but I'm really happy with how this is coming together.
UPDATE: After thinking about the design some more, I redesigned the trolley a third time, to include the reinforcement on the top strut, plus a piece of pool noodle for padding, and to remove the bottom strut seeing as both struts are now reinforced by steel rod:
