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Help with a canoe cart

OK guys... thanks for the input. As I suspected, and as confirmed by a few of you, the four corners technique apparently works... I came home from work today, Tuesday, and my straps were already here. I got them off Amazon for about $2.25 each. I found some old webbing I had once used as a safety line under my hoisted canoes (had a hoist break once, and dropped one end of a wood canvas canoe 8' to the ground.) I cut this in half and got the black straps you'll see in the photos. I then cut all but 1' of the orange straps off those, doubled them up, sewed a box and an X, and I have success.

Here's one of the black straps larks headed to my thwart.
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This then runs down the side to the orange strap/buckle, which is larks-headed to the cart frame.
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like so...
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All four corners done looks like this.
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This is how I zip tied a spare clevis pin to the frame.
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These are my hot pink clevis pins.
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And this is how I used a tiny zip tie to close the retainer loop so it absolutely cannot fall off.
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And here's the other end of it, secured the same way. You can see the original "clamp" in that black lump, but it makes too big a loop.
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I am only slightly concerned that the canoe will still roll or yaw now... I was rough with it, stood it up on its nose with the cart attached, and it hardly moved... I MAY carry one of the Suspenz straps still, to throw over the middle and strap the canoe to the cart from yet another dimension, but it should hold with just the 4. I'll let you know.
 
Gentlemen, thanks for this discussion!
I have one of these same carts and I haven't had any significant trouble using it, but I haven't had to go any great distance over rough terrain with it. I plan to use it with the Solitude on the Bowron circuit this fall, and I hadn't yet given this any thought. Some great solutions here, and I'll be getting my setup rigged ahead of time with these in mind.
 
Just saw this thread. Hope I'm not repeating but I have same cart as OP. In user his "4 corners" method but just one suspenze cam strap on each side, and double wrap it around thwarts. Works well.

Somewhere I read carry and extra nut for the wheel. Haven't needed it yet but can see how it could be lost.
 
Somewhere I read carry and extra nut for the wheel. Haven't needed it yet but can see how it could be lost.
Years ago, shortly after the 3 mile Lows-Oswegatchie carry trail was cleared from the 1995 derecho blowdown, the downed logs were not cut with wide enough gaps for the width of my Canadian Walker wheels (the ancestor of the Suspenz style cart). one wheel or the other would climb up on or rub on the end of the cut log. It caused the left wheel nut to spin off and become lost. I think I wrapped 550 cord on the axle to hold the wheel on. Always check how tight the nuts are on and carry an extra nut and washer on rough trails.

When on rough trails with rocks, roots, and such obstacles for the wheels to bang against and crawl over, the canoe can easily become angled to the wheels, no matter how tight is the cam, as described above. Especially when running at speed in a canoe race (i.e., the 90 miler). If the thwart on some canoes is not conveniently located where a cam strap can be tightly wrapped, I have used stiff black rubber bungees hooked to a rope loop tied to a convenient forward thwart , stretched back to the frame of the cart.
 
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The way you've secured your boat trailer, it does have stabilizers at the front and back, but... the trailer completely lacks any lateral support.
To prevent the canoe from sliding sideways on the boat trailer, you'll have no choice but to use two straps to secure the entire boat.
And if you position the boat dolly more toward the center, at the level of the carrying yoke, the boat hull won't be deformed so much that the yoke can provide the necessary stability.

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I'm curious about everyone mounting the wheels in the center of the hull... Doesn't that make it far more likely to grind the stern into the dirt?

By placing the boat trolley in the middle of the boat, it’s very well balanced; this means it takes only a “minimal” amount of effort to push the boat, since I don’t have to lift it at the same time. Even when it’s fully loaded, I’m still able to push the boat.
Whether the stern scrapes the ground now and then depends, of course, on the height of the boat trailer and its wheels.

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I realized the height of the trailer would make a lot of difference, I just think it's interesting... I've literally dragged my canoes on portages but banging my stern off of the ground when it's on a trailer would bug the crap out of me.

By the way...

...it takes only a “minimal” amount of effort to push the boat...

Push? I have little trailer experience but I would have pulled.
 
I realized the height of the trailer would make a lot of difference, I just think it's interesting... I've literally dragged my canoes on portages but banging my stern off of the ground when it's on a trailer would bug the crap out of me.

By the way...



Push? I have little trailer experience but I would have pulled.
I push mine too- Pulling means you can't see where the wheels are tracking and causes you to twist your upper body because of the one arm always behind you, plus pulling means it's far easier to make immediate, major shifts in direction easily, same as any heavy equipment with rear steer like forklifts...
 
A simple tool that helps a lot is a short (6-7") length of half inch pvc coduit pipe with a rope or webbing looped through. If the loop is exactly long enough, you can loop it along with the conduit around a gunwale or the short bow and stern brace. This makes a very handy comfortable handle. Even better for C4 or longer voyageur canoes for multiple people on each side if their arms are not long enough when the boat is just a little bit too low for comforable holding while running the portage ttrail. Makes a huge diffference.
 
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or you have a good friend with you who can pull the canoe for you... ;)

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That would require a really good friend... I like solitude so they'd have to get lost until the next portage. :LOL:
This causes me to tell the story of my trip last year, which included the Racquet Falls portage. Late afternoon - when I usually try to avoid long portages - and it's isn't really very wheelable IMHO. There was an off duty ranger - I think she was from Indian Lake - and she helped me down the entire portage. She was a really good friend that day.

I plan to skip wheels this year, pack more like for backpacking than I do for BWCA, and double portage.
 
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