DIY Sea Kayak Trolley for £12.98!^

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dom_edward
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DIY Sea Kayak Trolley for £12.98!^

Post by dom_edward »

Just thought I would share this as a relatively easy kayak trolley to make at home. Went into B&Q and found they are selling these for just £12.98...

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not much to lose so thought I would see if I could turn it into a kayak trolley. First of all cutting off the handles...

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and then the base plate...

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which didn't take too long just using a hacksaw. Then padded out the sides with a bit of old sleeping mat, cable ties and of course duck tape...

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and I ended up with a fairly respectable trolley that partially dismantles...

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When dismantled the metal frame has dimensions of 48x30x18cm. Probably not small enough to fit in a hatch but would tie down on a deck without much difficulty. The two pneumatic wheels are each 26cm diameter and 8cm width which shouldn't be too difficult to stow.

So far I have only tried it out around the garden, but it works quite well, needing only a single strap to hold the boat on. Will hopefully give it a proper test soon.

A couple of drawbacks though - it isn't the lightest trolley, being made of steel rather than aluminium. I reckon between 5 and 6 kilos. There may also be a corrosion issue in the future. But for £12.98!

Anyone else with the right tools may be able to make even more of it, I would say the wheels alone are worth the money even i you were to build a whole new trolley around them.

Anyway, hope this may be of use to some people.
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soundoftheseagull
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MARK 1

Post by soundoftheseagull »

For the price it’s worth giving it a go.
Currently looking at trolleys and utterly amazed how they can justify between £60 to £100 and also £80 for a moulded plastic type thing.
I’m sure your post will get some interest and more modifications.
Good luck with the Mark 1.
Dave

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geyrfugl
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Post by geyrfugl »

There's been a whole load of innovative home-made kayak trolley ideas featured on the Kayak Builders Bulletin Board at

[url]http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Build ... .cgi/index[/url]

You can search the archive of old posts. I particularly like the ones
designed for towing behind a bike !

Andy
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councildog
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Post by councildog »

Quite a good one for the price
how the shops come up with prices like £50 plus god knows.
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Carl M
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Post by Carl M »

They charge £50+ because people will pay it. If it costs £10 to make ship etc and you can either sell 100 for £50 or 200 for £20 I guess the price is £50 until someone comes onto the market at a lower price.
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capsized8
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Kayak Trolley

Post by capsized8 »

councildog wrote:Quite a good one for the price
how the shops come up with prices like £50 plus god knows.
This is not a difficult concept. The materials have cost you £12.98 you have spent time and money to search and collect your materials. Probably the best part of 1 to 2 hours spent measuring and cutting and time taken to fit to boat and smile as you think you have saved yourself a lot of money.

Trusting that you are employed, I wonder what your hourly rate is? Let us assume a mere £8.00/hr that your employer has to pay you in direct labour costs. For the sake of the argument we will call it £16.00 for 2hrs for you to make this item. The employer/manufacturer is not making any profit until a small percentage is added to both material costs and labour costs. This will help to cover Business rates, water rates, gas and electricity, telephone, stationary, accountants charges, insurance, waste disposal, PAYE plus several more costs that are incurred in the day to day running of a business.

So to continue, in this rough example, your £12.98 material cost plus £16.00 labour cost = £28.98 plus say 25% = £36.22. You then sell it to a retailer who wil probably put 100% onto his purchase price which will bring your £36.22 up to £72.44.

Now what was the question?

Pete
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dom_edward
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Post by dom_edward »

Given that B&Q were able to make and sell the original trolley for £12.98 this would suggest it can be done cheaply - if B&Q had decided to make a kayak trolley instead of the trolley they were selling then it could theoretically be done just as cheaply - except of course there isn't such a big market for kayak trolleys!

Which incidentally is only made smaller by people making DIY trolleys - so sorry to those people who do buy them off the shelf.

In the end it just needs to be recognised that with a lot of kayaking products the market is small so prices are going to be higher than for other high demand goods. Not an issue to me, just the way things are.
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soundoftheseagull
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Post by soundoftheseagull »

Peter

Agreed and I would imagine peoples moans and groans are not reflected to manufactures and likewise guys like yourself (get out of jail card?) and also no one can compete with such like B&Q, its what appears to be the mark up after.
OK wages, rent, advertising we love to moan.
Dave

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ChrisS
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Post by ChrisS »

For a really solid attachment at either end of the cockpit I have not cut the frame down so much.
Image
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applejack
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Post by applejack »

Tried Shrewsbury and Wrexham B & Q's in the last few days and they've sold out.
Obviously sea paddlers are buying them up in droves !
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Post by Chris C »

Dom, you have to remember that B&Q probably made or bought these by the lorry load to distrubute to the whole uk, so will get the materials cheaper. If you bought the metal tubing, sheeting etc your self it would cost alot more.
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Post by NickB »

Steel + brine = Ferrous oxide
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dom_edward
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Post by dom_edward »

Chris C wrote:Dom, you have to remember that B&Q probably made or bought these by the lorry load to distrubute to the whole uk, so will get the materials cheaper. If you bought the metal tubing, sheeting etc your self it would cost alot more.
Perhaps you would like to re-read my post! I was saying that if there was the same market for kayak trolleys as there is for the hand trolleys then B&Q should be able to make kayak trolleys just as cheap. I didn't suggest buying up the materials - I can't weld anyway!
Tried Shrewsbury and Wrexham B & Q's in the last few days and they've sold out.
Obviously sea paddlers are buying them up in droves !
Saw loads left in Stirling B&Q the other day - perhaps its that the Scots just don't need trolleys to move heavy boxes - must be something in the porridge!
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a boy named sue
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Re: DIY Sea Kayak Trolley for £12.98!^

Post by a boy named sue »

Lets not forget canoe trollies are made from ali which is atleast 3 times more expensive. The frame work is more complex and has to match up every time so you can fold it up or take it apart. Also its the numbers game in manufacturing, those B&Q trollies will be made in china in mass volume going out to lots of companies around the world, 100% margins for shops, now that would be nice!!
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pby5a
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Re: DIY Sea Kayak Trolley for £12.98!^

Post by pby5a »

It does have to carry a laden boat, boats starting at 20kg, with loads up to another 30k, that's 50 on a trolley.

You can buy the Eckla lookalike for 20 to 30 on ebay, but you get what you pay. I've seen enough products from China to know I rather spend double (yes I bought the eckla atlantic 200 for 60q) and use it all my life. I like sustainable products.

I did find it cheeky that Eckla doesn't provide straps. Manual says, you can use your roofrack straps. But I think you don't buy a boat because you have a roofrack. You buy a boat that you want to paddle. Not appreciated. But the trolley is superb.

edit
ps, wauw look at those view numbers.... :-) missed how old this one was.....
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Re: DIY Sea Kayak Trolley for £12.98!^

Post by Tourer »

There is something about German vehicles of all kinds, exports to China now exceed those to the US.

I've used the big Eckla for the sea boat and strapped the folding frame to the deck, it carried a loaded open boat as well but it was stolen when I left it in the bushes just going for rolling in a bay...

http://www.zoelzer.de/content.php?Produ ... rubrik=127

they tend to be a bit pricey, though.

http://www.kajakwagen.de/indexe.htm

but are certainly sustainable, this one floats and won't suffer from salt water I believe.

12,98 plus a camping mat, duck tape and a hack saw is definitely the best value for money
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