I just purchased the Hobie Heavy Duty Cart to replace my aging cart. The new cart has the post collar clamps to keep the kayak bottom from resting on the cart crossbar. On my first generation Outfitters the clamps do not sit well against the hull and place all the load stress in two small areas. I tried spinning the clamps 180 degrees, flipping them upsaide down, raising them as high as I could while still being able to use the cart keeper, but no matter what I did the clamps did not distribute the load well. The engineer in me says this is bad... See the photo below.
Are the scupper hole bottoms different on newer kayaks? Should the clamps not be used on older kayaks? Or am I just worrying about something I shouldn't be? It almost looks like the posts are too close together for the clamps to properly distribute the load.
For now I adjusted the clamps so some of the weight will still be on the crossbar, at least when heavily loaded. My old cart had no clamps and after many many trips on the cart, some quite long and over rough terrain and loose sand, there is no deformation on the hull bottom.
Is anybody else using a newer cart with post clamps on an early Outfitter? And does it look like my picture?
I did notice the following in the instructions:
"Bushings are not a net fit to scuppers. They may contact the hull near the scuppers."
Perhaps "net" was meant to be "neat" and by "not a neat fit" and the rest of that Hobie means exactly what is in my picture and all is okay?
Peter