Repurposed Kayak Cart

Many of us have bought one of the popular inexpensive kayak carts only to be disappointed in their functionality and finding alternatives too heavy or expensive to be practical. After some close examination I was able to come up with a simple way to use the parts to create a functional cart.

In addition to a kayak cart similar to the one pictured, note not all of these type carts are designed the same, you will need:

Materials:

2- 18" pieces of 2" x 4" wood

4- rigid pipe sized conduit clamps

4- 1-1/4" wood screws

4- 3" 10/32 round head machine screws, nuts, and lock washers

2- 1/14" machine screws and nuts

Tools:

Tape measure

Drill

3/16" drill bit

7/32" drill bit

7/8" spade type wood drill bit

Hammer

Set punch

Phillips screw driver

Pliers

Taking the kayak cart apart is fairly straight forward using pliers for the bolts. Harder is removing the rubber cushions. They may require a bit of soapy water to slip off easily. On my cart also had to drill out a rivet holding a wheel stop to remove the cushions hence the 3/16" drill bit.

Before proceeding make sure you have 2 smaller u shaped pieces of the same height.

There are two measurements you'll need.

The first is easy, the distance between the open ends of the 2 smaller u shaped pieces of the old cart.

The second is how wide apart you want the uprights to be apart. In my case this being important as my kayak has large grooves that I wanted to slot into.

I first drilled the 7/8" holes for the uprights, centered on the 2x4s front to back. Width wise they are located at a distance determined by where I needed to locate them on my kayak. The holes are 1" deep. You can put a piece of masking tape on your drill bit to help measure the depth.

I then mounted the 2x4s to the larger part of the frame with the wheel axels using the 4- 1/2" rigid size conduit clamps. The axels are centered on the 2x4.

Put the rubber bumpers on the 2 upright pieces, you may need to use the soapy water again. Then slot them into the 7/8" holes in the 2x4s. If you removed the wheel stop attach it using the 1-1/4" 10/32 machine screw and nut. Then install the wheels.

Trial fit the cart to your boat.

Adjust the position of the uprights to fit your boat by moving the clamps. Then secure them with the 4 10/32 3" machine screws. With the frame on top use the punch to locate the screws and drill holes using the 7/32" drill bit. Tighten with pliers and screw driver.