beach dolly info sought

M

Morris

New Member
Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and I am looking for any info about using a dolly on the beach. I'll be going there 7/30 and it is a 6 hour drive. Once I get there I've got to get the Sunfish from the parking lot to the shore, about 500-1000 yards (?). I no longer feel I am up to carrying the boat, even with the help of my well-meaning but also aging family.

Seems there are 3 available commercially : Seitech (the Cadillac?), the Trailex (looks awfully good to me), and the Garelick (another post indicated this was good only on hard surfaces). There is also the Trailex combination trailer and dolly (how hard/easy to use is this as a beach dolly?) Any experience with these (or others/homebuilts) on the beach which I should consider?

Heare are my concerns:
-I will need to transport it in addition to my existing trailer
-I most likely will have to load/operate it alone
-I am considering building something, any suggestions?
-seems to me that a relatively narrow distance between the wheels would aid in
transporting to the beach using "paths" without rolling over too much foliage.
-if it would "breakdown" and reassemble easily this would aid traveling with it
-what about good wheel size and type for use on the beach?

Any information will be appreciated. TIA.
 
Morris,

Check out the Voodoo Dollies at Wind Line Sails ( http://www.windline.net/Dolly.htm). Both the Seitech and VooDoo dollies break down to store in the trunk or back end of your vehicle. They may cost a few bucks, but they seem to be worth it. I have no personal experiance with either, just a home made dollie.
 
I was looking for a dolly last year- although not for the beach. Like Supercub- I went the homemade route. I spent about $45 - $60 at the Home Depot on galvanized pipe, lawn mower wheels, an axel and a few peices of angle iron.

Other materials that I already had were - a piece of 4X4, pieces of 2X6, some carpet and some bolts.

It came out very well in the end. The only change I would make for the sand is larger tires (wheelbarrow) rather than lawn mower wheels.
I can pull the boat up the hill from the back yard with one hand. Loading it in the back of the SUV is a whole other story. Looking towards the trailer...

I wouldn't mind taking photos next week if it would help.
 
I'm not going to make any specific recommendations just a few observations from experience.
Tires/wheels, wider is better when it comes to loose ground/sand. Also taller is better. with short tires/wheels the boat ends up low to the ground and when either pushing or pulling means you lose a lot of force that could go into moving the boat. Also taller is better on rougher ground as well. Taller tires negotiate rougher ground better than shorter tires.
Small under boat dollies that require you to use the bow handle to pull/push do work, but are a real pain when the boats not on them to move around. Most are to heavy to carry and no real way to push/pull them when empty and also if short your back in the pulling/pushing the boat at an angle and ground clearance come into play at the low end.
If you have to travel then the smaller ones or ones that disasemble have a real advantage.
 
more observations

I have used a low homebuilt PVC truck. It's light enough to toss over my shoulder and carry back to the car. I doubled up on 10" wheels after seeing a note about doing that. Works pretty well on sand, great on gravel and a bumpy dirt trail I have to negotiate. I pull the boat using a webbing strap through the bow handle without any trouble.

Once I had one of those suppository dollys, it buggered up the dagger-board slot going over the bumps.

I think I saw where the seitech and voodoo will break down for transport. I strap my PVC dolly to the deck or toss it in the trunk.

Sunfish Sailor has a web page of do it yourself ideas and some plans and links to plans.
 
Seitech is the schnizzle, but you will pay $$$ for them. i saw one on EBay very recently. I've seen a lot of home builds and some a OK (not revolutionary) and most are not so great.
 
Thanks for all of the input, this has been helpful. At the moment I am considering making one using the adapt-a-hand-truck method, using my old one. I may use some pneumatic (10" diameter) tires which I have, may buy some wheelbarrow tires ($22 ea., 13") which are taller, or if I want to really want to do it right I found some Roleeze beach tires (wide, smooth, soft, low pressure 2-4 lbs. psi, 12", $50 ea., www.roleez-wheels.com) which look pretty schnizzly (what is a schnizzle anyway? I don't know, but I thinki I like it). I have some square aluminum tubing which may work for extending the "tongue/handle" portion. If any of you homebuilders have any guidance on things that worked well or did not work well please feel free to share these helpful hints. Otherwise, I really appreciate the info. Thanks.
 
I've never priced it out, but Seitech does sell its plastic joints, separately, as replacement parts. Perhaps your own aluminum plus their connectors would be a solution. If you explore this, I'd love to know if it makes fiscal sense.

Kevin
 
Good idea. this site http://www.apsltd.com/Tree/d3000/e1954.asp lists the connectors at roughly $30 ea., as is the sling. I am having fun trying to concock a method of quickly breaking it down for travel, such as folding or using pins to connect together. We'll see what emerges. I haven't checked the Voodoo site but I think I will try that too.
 
I use a Wheel-Aweigh sold by Davis instruments. It used to be Happy's Wheel Aweigh.
Very reasonable ( 1/3 the Seitech price) and simple to use, transport and store.
It's in an ad in the latest "Sailing" mag.

Fred P.
 
One advantage of the Seitech is that with the big knobby tires, it floats! You can float the whole dolly under your boat and then haul it out with no yanking the boat onto the dolly.
 
Fred - how are you attaching the Wheel-a-weigh? I use a similar attachment on a row boat. It hooks on the transom with the boat upside down. If this is the same thing where do you hook it?

I don't like to have to carry most of the boat weight either. I much prefer the dolly's that carry at the mid point.
 
The Wheel-Aweigh consists of two wheels and two rubber (?) and plastic supports on an axle. You simply lift the rear of the boat onto the supports a little aft of the cockpit. Two straps secure the dolly to the boat. If you place it correctly, when you lift the bow to roll the boat most of the weight is on the dolly and very little on the bow. You must roll the boat backward to keep the dolly from slipping because the straps are then pushed against a wider part of the boat and stay there. The wheels are not very large baloon types so deep sand may be a problem. I have used this for many years on Cape Cod beach sand with no problem. Check out the Davis Instruments site, maybe they have a picture of it.

Fred
 
I Found the Davis site instead of the fishing boat dealer where I got my Wheel-a-Weigh.

My rowboat uses the model 1487. Looks like you have the model 1465 or 1471.

Those are similar to the PVC truck I built for my Sunfish.
 
The dolly I use is the 01471 which is listed as a kayak dolly. Mine is older, has different wheels and inflatable tires.

Fred
 
Fred - I just bought one of the wheel a weigh small boat dollys by davis instruments; I have yet to try it but my thought is maybe I will not need the straps; won't the weight of the boat be sufficient? thanks

Mike
 
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