Cheap Yak Cart Instructions

When I bought my new house, I was lucky enough to find one with private lake access, but our ramp was a few blocks away in the neighborhood.  I certainly did not want to carry a 60 pound yak that far.  I began looking into carts, and quickly found out that they were great, but very expensive.  Next resource was the internet.  There were several plans for nice looking carts, but they looked way too involved to be worthwhile.  So, I decided to run down to my local Lowes (sorry Mike it’s closer!).  I had an idea in my head of what I wanted the cart to look like, I just didn’t know how to put it all together.  After finding some various materials that should work, I was on my way home.  Here’s what I ended up with:

The materials tools needed for the job.

Basically, the list is as follows:

          2-10” lawn mower wheels (preferably with built in bearings)

          1 – 2” x 10’ PVC tube

          1 – 1/2'” x 5’ PVC tube

          4 – 2” PVC 90 degree pieces

          2 – PVC T pieces

          2 – plug adaptors

          2 – plugs

          1pk universal wheel bolts for lawn mower

On with the assembly!!

Step 1.

Cut two equal length pieces of the 2” PVC about 2” wider than the width of the kayak at the point that you will be attaching the cart.

Step 2.

Attach the 90 degree pieces and the T-pieces of PVC together as shown in the picture below, and connect the two end pieces to the PVC tubes.

Step 3.

Use a level to make sure the pieces are connected properly.

Step 4.

The mounting of the wheel was the toughest part of the “figuring out” process when I was trying to picture this and draw it up in my head.  Here is a picture of the PVC fittings I used for mounting the wheels.  And one of  how they fit into the T-fittings.

Here is a layout of the wheel hardware and how they fit together.

The wheels mount to the plugs like this.  Drill a hole in the center of the plug and slide the bolt through the wheel, then trough the plug, attaching the nut inside the plug.

Step 5.

After the you have the base all put together, you will need to install some through bolts to keep the separate pieces securely attached.  I installed one at each joint, with a total of 8 bolts being used.

Perhaps the most difficult part of this is installing the vertical posts.  To do this, you need to put your yak on top of the cart (now with wheels installed).  The vertical posts are made with the ½” PVC and are designed to pass through the scupper holes in the seat area of the yak.  You may need to mount them in the scupper holes in your tankwell if the holes in your seat are too far forward.  Mark the distance between the scupper holes on the 2” PVC used as cross members and cut holes into them.  You may need to file the holes to make them larger after you cut them.

Once they are done, so are you!!

Here is the finished product.  I believe the entire project cost less than $30, and only took an hour or so to put together.  I was worried originally about how to carry the yak while it was on the cart, but using the factory installed handles works out perfectly.

The cart comes apart and fits in either my hatch or my tankwell.  Since I won’t need much tackle or gear with me when I walk down to the lake, I just store the cart in the tankwell while on the water.

Hopefully this little cart will help someone else in the same bind that I was in.  A few things to think about when buying the components for this project would be to buy the best wheels you can find.  The bigger they are, the more rugged the terrain the cart will be able to handle.  There were larger diameter wheels, but they didn’t have bearings, so I chose to go with the largest wheel with a bearing that I could find.  They wheels were the most expensive part of the project, but they were only about $9 each, so replacing one or both is no big deal.