Hobie HD Cart Frame compatible with Trax 2-30 or Trax 2

Hello all. I was wondering if the HD Cart can fit either the Trax 2-30 or the trax 2 balloon wheels? Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

My info is not current, the last HD cart I bought was back in 2012. At least at that time you could buy the traxII cart with the balloon tires, then as a second purchase buy the black foam filled tires, both would fit. But you couldn't buy the HD cart, then buy the air filled grey tires and make them work (the axles are too short).
I have no idea if the same still applies. I've had both the HD and the Trax 2 cart with the air filled tires, I much prefer the HD cart and wheels, they hold up forever and you can easily walk across a parking lot and gravel with the hard foam filled tires, It takes a tremendous amount of extra effort to roll the air filled tires even on hard pavement.

Of course we live in South Florida with pure white sugar sand that is very soft and deep (the best sand on the entire planet). I don't care what scupper cart you have your not going to cross the 1/2 mile walk thru the soft sand to get to the water no matter what cart you have or what model Hobie you have. With our TI, I take the AMA's off and just drag it over the sand (way easier) with no cart at all. It only gets hard it you try to put a scupper cart under the boat.
In other words if you live in SO FLorida, forget about the air filled tires, their not going to get you across the soft sand anyway so why bother.

One other thing that I have noticed that may not be apparent to most Hobie owners. Hobie is the only kayak I have ever seen that everyone uses the scupper carts, Most other brands nobody uses anything at all. Just go to a kayak launch sometimes and watch what others are doing.
FE

thanks for your response.

I have the hobie hd cart as well as the wheeleez beach wheel. I like the scupper wheel cart better since its easy to put on and off. The wheeleez I have to strap down but love the beach wheel to go through sand and up and over rocks. The wheeleez just take a tad longer to strap down.

hope someone can confirm or not. For now I'll just use the wheeleez beach cart for sand and the hd cart for everything else

I don't agree. I have a Trax cart and it is so much better on sand than the standard or HD wheels. My kayak is smaller though.

Get a dolly with the larger sand wheels for an island. Sweet as... Islands are pushing the capacity of the plug in carts. You need bigger tires. I can pull a fully rigged island easily by myself using the appropriate sized cart.

Trax wheels are wider, so not compatible with the HD frame.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Ok I agree with Matt on the trax II cart and sand vs the HD cart (with reservations on the TI, it's really really heavy fully loaded).

My statement that Matt quoted sounds a little too harsh, I should have added ' fully loaded TI', and 'super soft Florida sand' to the sentence.
Here is why:

Our sand here in Florida is really really soft and deep when it's dry, When walking thru it your feet sink in about 3-4 inches, and our beaches are typically really big, it's a half mile walk to the water thru soft sand to the water at both Siesta Key beach (#1 beach in the world most years), and at Lido beach (where us locals like to go (because Siesta is a zoo, overcrowded).
I have tried to walk my fully rigged TI across both those beaches on both an HD and a Trax II cart, forget it. However if you remove the AMA's and walk the AMA's down to the beach separately (one in each hand), it's not so bad with the trax II wheels, however it's really tough in soft sand with the HD wheels, if I don't have my trax 2 cart along I just remove the scupper cart and drag the empty hull by itself, or carry the hull without the scupper cart in (with help of course). Actually pulling the TI hull alone is no more difficult that it used to be with our Oasis (our previous boat (yea we are tandem people), it's only when I have the AMA's on when it's too much for me (any cart).
It's only when the boat is fully rigged that it gets very hard.
I used to live in California, near where Hobie is, the sand here in Florida is way softer and harder to cross pulling a kayak especially when it's very dry (almost like talcum powder or sugar).
I also agree if you don't want to break your TI down and carry the pieces separately ( like I typically do), the Hobie dolly with the biggest wheels possible is your best option, though I haven't tried it, I'm imagining with the Hobie dolly and the big wheels I could even get my loaded TI across even our sand (might need a little help though).

We have our TI out pretty much every weekend, 95% of the time we are not at really soft sand beaches trying to get the boat across so our 'go to scupper cart' is the HD cart, it easily stores upside down in the back in the rear scupper holes and doesn't take up a lot of space, and it's easy to install and remove in waste deep water. Our trax 2 cart takes up a lot more room in the boat, and floats a little too well, it's really hard for me anyway to get under the boat and into the scupper holes while standing in waste deep water. I never try to pull the fully loaded boat anywhere anyway, it's just too heavy for me ( I always take the AMA's off).
Yes the big Hobie dolly with the giant wheels would be nice to have, but I have no idea where I would store it on the boat, and in practice, I have a feeling we would seldom use it ourselves. We are pretty set and happy with our HD cart and always carrying the boat down to the water in several trips, just being honest here based on our own experience in Florida, I'm sure other places can be quite different.
FE

I bought the newer HD plug in cart then start offshore fishing. Needed the Trax wheels so I bought those thinking I could just interchange them using the HD cart. I asked Austin Kayak before I bought and they told me it would work but it didn't. I had to buy an additional cart but def makes life easier pulling across powdery Florida sand.

_________________
2016 Hobie Pro Angler
2016 Hobie Outback
2014 Hobie Outback

Ha Ha. We made the same exact mistake, we bought the HD cart first, then had to buy a second trax 2 cart later. If we had bought the trax 2 cart first, I could have just bought a pair of the tuff foam filled tires separately, and switched back and forth as needed. Live and learn.
FE

I just received my Trax 2 cart today. I frequent Pensacola where the sand is soft and deep. Hope this will help. But why would you need to change tires. Wont the big tires get it done anywhere?

Yes, you can use over all surfaces, but there is a bit more resistance when pulling soft tires on hard ground compared to harder tires. I only have Trax.

Same as a vehicle... you need properly inflated tires. Better milage when inflated more, but you would need to let out most of the pressure to drive in sand.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Ha ha. You will figure that out yourself in time. Pulling a rigged TI any distance thru a paved lot with the trax 2 cart is a lot more pulling effort. It's do-able and not a big deal with either cart. But in our experience the Tuff tires are inexpensive, zero maint, way easier to get under the boat when in waste deep water, and take up much less space when stored upside down in the rear scupper holes while underway. I don't recall how much the tuff tires were (i'm thinking they were around $20 ea, but I really don't recall, I bought them like 5-6 yrs ago and their still going strong), If you ever have to replace the trax 2 tires (I have had to replace several), they are way more expensive (again I don't recall for sure, but I'm thinking they were 3-4x the price.
Thats the first thing I do anymore is get the Trax 2 cart, put the tuff tires on, and store the trax tires in the garage for when We plan to do soft beaches, which is around ten percent of the time, our goto cart ( the one I prefer the most), is the one with the black tuff tires. It's nice to have both because the tuff tires realy are useless in deep dry sand like we have here in Florida (pure white sugar soft sand that when dry you feet sink into 3-4 inches). I've been told it's the finest sand anywhere on the planet, all I know for sure it gets in your shorts, shoes, all over you car interior, then in turn all over your groceries, and all over your house (lol).
Nothin wrong with the trax2 cart, it works well on both dry ground and deep sand, if you launch from beaches a lot, and you can only have one, thats the one to get IMO.
Actually I will likely be buying the trax 2-30 cart, I suspect it will work even better in our super soft sand, and actually pull easier even on dry pavement.
You do know that you can't buy the HD cart than add trax 2 tires to it right (they don't fit the cart), you can only buy the trax 2, then if you desire, you can run either hd or trax 2 tires on that cart only.
If you have the Trax 2 already, it's not a big deal to add the hd wheels. ( just my opinions)
FE