Help with a canoe cart

[Seeker]

As I age, I'm trying to figure out how to use a canoe cart to maximum benefit. After renting one and finding it somewhat useful, I bought a nice 15'-no-air-all-terrain Suspenz cart. It handles flat terrain like a champ, and I've done several 1-1.5 mile long portages with it. It handles a gravel trail (like the portage into Boreas Ponds) very well. It handles the portage from Little Clear to St Regis to Fish Pond (with its roots and washouts) fairly well. Where I run into trouble is on rough patches, where the cart bounces and hits off-angle washouts and drainage channels (usually angled across the path). In those cases, the canoe tips sideways, or shifts sideways to the way you're walking (Roll and Yaw, if you're familiar with those terms).

The gear I carry in the canoe isn't really all that heavy... I use 2 packs. One is about 20lbs of personal gear (hammock, over and underquilt, clothes, odds and ends, saw/hatchet. It's the bright green one in the picture below.) The other is about 30lbs of camp gear (tarp, cooking gear, foodbag, fuel, stove, camp chair. It's the darker OD green one in the picture.) I also have a 2-piece paddle, a PFD, fishing rod, and a thwart bag with rain gear, tackle, and lunch/water. Maybe 60-65 lbs total. The canoe is a Hemlock Nessmuk II, 22lbs, 12' long, 30?" wide.

The straps consist of two sets of plain straps that larks-head into the frame (both on one side, front and rear, according to the instructions), and two sets of locking clamps that larks-head into the other side of the frame. You run one strap over to the opposite side, run the end through the clamp, and cinch it down. Pretty simple, but when you hit anything at an angle, it all goes haywire. I've tried looping the straps through the gunwales and thwarts in an attempt to keep it more rigidly in place, to no avail... it keeps shifting.

This afternoon, at home, I tried a different approach. The locking clamp strap cannot be both larks-headed to the frame and pass through the drainage holes in the thwarts the way the regular strap can... so I un-larks-headed them and used an S-hook on the frame instead... this allowed me to pass their narrow end through the holes and then hook into the frame, with the buckle end still up on top. This SEEMS to have helped, but my yard is a bit smoother than an actual trail. I tried two methods of running the straps; straight up from the frame, and at an angle from frame to a spot about 2' off center. The off-center method seems to be a bit more rigid.

One thing I'm considering is making my own set of straps... I would basically take one normal strap and sew a hook into it, to clip into the gunwale at one of the drainage slots. I would then shorten the locking clamp strap to about 4" long so it was between the frame and gunwale, enabling me to cinch it there. However, I would need to buy two more locking clamps (no issue).

Does anyone understand what I'm experiencing, and have a better way to load?

Here's a picture of it this past weekend... hadn't slipped too badly in the picture, but it sure wasn't solid. You can see my straps wrapped around both thwarts in an attempt to keep it in place.


Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[Seeker]

The cam buckles look like this.

 

[Gamma1214]

I've never used a cart but I helped a buddy of mine build one (a couple of tries) for his SOT fishing yak. What we found worked the best was to use jogging stoller wheels, pvc pipe & bungee cord. There's not much that bungee cords are really good for but they seemed to work here because they allowed the boat to move on the axle (think walking side-to-side) but could stretch and contract to pull it back into position.

We also found that it worked better to offset the axle rearward instead of placing it in the center. By moving it to the rear, he had more weight on his arm when pulling it (not insignificant as that beast weighed nearly 80 lbs) but the axle seemed to right itself better than when centered.

You already own the cart and the wheels look big enough to roll over the terrain as well as the jogging stoller wheels but you might try moving the wheels forward or back and see it it helps. Also, strapping it rigidly may not be the way to go. Bungees can stretch & contract which may help keep it in alignment.

 

[stripperguy]

I've used my Rolleez (now called Wheeleez) cart on and off for the last 20 years or so.
The low pressure polyurethane tires absorb most any ADK lumps and bumps. If my pack is not too heavy I wear it while pulling the canoe and cart.
I've tugged that combo over 5 miles into Cedar Lakes without issue, back when I was still using my 32 lb DY Special stripper.
Straps just loop over gunwales, but I tighten the snot out of them...
Here's a pic with my 25 lb carbon copy Kite.





And here's the same cart under my DY Special, back in 2011

 

[gumpus]

I have a suspenz cart too. I use 1.5 inch wide NRS straps (not sure there's any benefit over 1 inch) and short sections of clear plumbing tubing to add friction between boat and straps (100% sure that helps quite a bit). 1 1/4 inch tubing would fit your gunewales.

 

[tketcham]

We bought one of those Suspenz carts on sale at REI for a good price, otherwise I was going to make a DIY cart using a kids bicycle frame and wheels. What you're experiencing highlights the flaws in using that cart with a canoe, especially carrying gear on a rough trail. We've used it a couple of times on easy carries but right from the start it seemed that the cart was really designed with kayaks in mind. The main problems are that those side-hull pads allow the canoe to roll in the frame and the two long straps are intended to hold down a more cylindrical kayak hull, not the open and thus flat-topped form of a canoe. If you think about it, a canoe should sit upside down on that cart, like a roof rack, so the gunnels and stops would provide stability side to side and the long straps would then work well over the rounded hull.

Your strap idea is on the right track; securely cinching down the canoe at two locations along each side helps to stabilize it between the pads. I use the front thwart and seat drops on a solo canoe. The things I'm going to try this season are:

Stop the pads from rolling - perhaps by gluing them down or cinching them with cord. You'd want to make sure not to compress the pads to avoid having the canoe hull hit against the corners of the bars on a rough trail. I've thought about adding extra padding (maybe dense leather) so the corners aren't exposed.

Add foam blocks on the cross frame - this should help stabilize the canoe. I have a set of blocks but use them for another purpose so may purchase a set:

Kayak Block, 4 X 4.75 X 12

 ONE YEAR WARRANTY The 12

maloneautoracks.com

Modify the strap system - Use four short cam straps to help with stabilization and get rid of those long straps. I already tried this using temporary straps and it made a big difference. I'm going to be lazy and just purchase two sets of the straps linked. I like the lime green color for visibility in the woods in case the straps get separated as I don't plan on using lark heads. And those straps should be plenty strong enough, they have a 250 lb breaking strength. If I'm worried about them failing, I'm carrying WAY too much gear.

NRS 5/8" Micro Straps

The world-famous NRS cam strap, only smaller. The NRS 5/8" Micro Straps are perfect for securing smaller items to your boat or board or any of the 867 #StrapHacks that would benefit from a narrower strap.

www.nrs.com

Below is a photo of foam blocks on the cross frame. I just popped them on to see if they have potential. The one hassle I can see is now we'll have to keep track of two foam blocks. Not sure, but I may be able to eliminate the side bars. We'll see.

 

[MrPoling]

I have the same cart, and use it frequently. I put the cart between the yoke and rear thwart on tandem canoes.

For long or rough portages at least the shortest straps need to be separate for each side. This prevents sliding side to side. I can't tell for sure from your picture, are there separate straps through the gunnels on each side?

You might try moving the straps farther inboard on the cart. I can't tell if it will be better or not.

 

[Seeker]

Folks, can't thank all of you enough for the prompt responses.

I'm only currently using 2 straps, one front/one back. But I have wrapped them through the gunwale slots and the thwarts in an attempt to 'brace' them diagonally from cart to canoe. I have tried center and off-center placement... back of center/heavy front seems to work best (just like on a car trailer).

I think what I'm going to do is use 4x cam locks (due in a couple days). I will larks-head one to each corner of the frame with about 3-4" of strap left (I'm a fair sewing machine runner, and can easily make the loops required). I will then make 4x other straps (with a loop at one end) roughly 4' long, and larks-head them through the gunwale slots roughly 2-3' off center. I can then leave those permanently attached during the entire series of portages, just flipping them in for paddling and out for portaging, and they'll clip right into the cam locks.

Just for giggles, I also did some mods to the clevis pin retainers on my cart. They're made of thin, plastic-coated cable, and don't close up like string or cordage would, the cable being kinda springy like it is.... theoretically (and it happened when I was messing with it), they could come loose on their own and you'd lose a pin. I took some tiny zip ties and used them to hold the loops closer-in, so they can't come undone themselves now. I also bought a spare clevis and have zip tied it to the frame. I need to find some hot pink spray paint for the axle knobs and clevises themselves, and I'll be done.

When I finish it all, I'll add some photos for posterity.

Again, you lot rock... thank you so much for your responses.

 

[MrPoling]

Not addressing your original question, but the biggest problem I had with my cart was the axle nuts coming loose. They were just simple machine nuts with no locking mechanism.

I use threadlock on them because I don't disassemble the cart. But if I was gonna disassemble the cart, I'd use lock nuts.

 

[Packrat]

I had an awful time with the boat shifting on the cart during the Bowron Lake portages until I watched another canoeist set up his cart for a portage. Solved the problem. The next time I canoe, I'll take couple of photos because I couldn't describe it so it would make sense. (Suspenz cart)