PA14 Newbie

Just took out my brand new PA14 for the first time. Did some bass fishing on a local lake. Loved the Pro Angler. Had a blast and even caught a few nice size fish. Everything went great with one exception. I found that the plastic spacers on the Hobie cart had slipped down allowing the wheels to rub the hull. I now have to flat spots in the hull of my brand new PA. Rub depth is slight, don't know what the thickness of hull is but, I don't believe it is deep enough to be of concern. I see from reading stories on this forum that this is a common problem. I am going to add 1 1/4" pvc between cross bar and spacer to prevent spacers from sliding down.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume you have the black plastice wheels, yes it has been a problem and whe. You got the PA they shouldve advised you to get the inflatable grey dune tires. No problem with those.

Welcome to the PA family. Sorry to hear about your cart experience. As much as the subject has been discussed, it would have been nice for the dealer to mention the clearance issue. Glad to hear you liked the Pro Angler. Bass fishing? What area of the country are you in?

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Steve Stubbs
USAF (retired)

SeaDek Fishing Team
Unfair Lures Pro Staff
Ziptailz Ambassador

2015 Pro Angler 14 - Papaya
2018 Compass - Sea Grass

I have two sets of the Hobie dollies... haven't had an issue with tire rub, but will tell you, for the price, things could have been designed a little better. I bought the cheaper ones with the thin plastic wheels vs. the more expensive gray fat tires, ... sucked going through sand or mud because they were too narrow and bogged down...I pulled the wheels off the old one and added them to the new one with a longer axle (SS rod) to handle the second set of tires... then I stole the big, fat, wide tires off my kids old power wheels jeep and put them on the other dolly... now both sets have pretty wide tire areas and don't bog down at all...

Thanks for the welcome. Live in South Texas, near Victoria. Have a small power plant lake nearby, Coleto Creek, with some quality fish in it. Probably go out again this weekend if the weather cooperates. I see you retired from the Air Force. I was in AF from 1978-82.

Me too, USAF, 78-82 at Wichita Falls Texas.
Jim

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From 1978-1982 I was at RAF Lakenheath, Plattsburgh AFB, Keesler AFB, Homestead AFB, Goodfellow AFB, Fairchild AFB, Kadena AB and finally Offutt AFB. Started out as an avionics repair technician on F-111s. Cross trained during the timeframe above to aircrew on RC-135 aircraft. Retired in 1995 with over 5,000 hours in RC-135 aircraft.

_________________
Steve Stubbs
USAF (retired)

SeaDek Fishing Team
Unfair Lures Pro Staff
Ziptailz Ambassador

2015 Pro Angler 14 - Papaya
2018 Compass - Sea Grass

Before you cut your PVC spacers, run the existing black stops full down against the horizontal bar and insert the cart. Then measure the distance between the keeper hole on the top of the cart and the 'yak deck. Subtract a half-inch to allow insertion of the pin and its cap. The result is how tall your spacers need to be. Mine are a wee bit over an inch tall.

I found two diameters of PVC that allowed the smaller one to just fit inside the larger and glued them together. That gave me spacers with thicker walls (about 1/4 inch thick) for better support. Remove the black stops, drop the PVC spacers on and then run the black stops down against them. I now have about an inch of clearance between the wheels and the 'yak hull - and no amount of bumps can drop the hull against the wheels.

Here's a view of my cart and spacers viewed from below. Note the nested PVC.

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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
Pro Angler-14 owner

Was at Sheppard AFB in Sept/Oct 78 for aircraft maintenance school.

Stationed at England AFB all 4 years. Aircraft maintenance. Phased inspections on A7D Corsair II and then A10 Warthog.
Thing I remember about the RC-135 was how black the engine exhaust was compared to newer aircraft engines. Used to work
for a guy who logged a lot of hours in the 135, Huey McDonald.

RockyRaab, thanks for the info. Actually already did modification. Pretty much the way you did yours. Only used one piece of pvc though. Didn't think about doubling it up. I think it should hold up. Bought a 1 1/4" schedule 40 nipple and cut to 1" lengths.
Giving serious consideration to buying a small trailer. Think it will make getting the PA wet much easier. Looking at the Harbor Freight boat trailer. Can purchase for a little over $300 with coupon. Shipping is about 7 bucks. Only has 8" wheels. Probably put 12" wheels on it . Modify with 3" pvc pipe. That's what I used on my storage cart. Seems to work pretty well.
Again thanks for the tips. Really enjoying this forum. Lot of good info.

I am pretty pissed about this! I think it is completely unacceptable for Hobie to suggest you buy their completely inferior cart only to damage your expensive kayak. The cart should not cost $150 considering there may be $35 in materials on it. My brand new PA14 has nice divots burned into the bottom now. Of course I've fixed the problem but you shouldn't have to modify ANYTHING at what they charge! Completely unacceptable!

I have an old cart that I build for my first kayak years ago and have modified with each boat upgrade. I will try and get some pics tomorrow but its a little pvc with some pool noodles on the supports that are 11.5" apart and a couple of harbor freight pneumatic tires. I drop a piece of 3/4 pvc into the rear scupper holes to keep the kayak from sliding off the cart if its a little rough. Although some people preach scupper carts I just can not get past how much weight is riding there regardless of the scuppers being reinforced. I did run across a guy with the hobie dolly and that think is awesome but dang their proud of it.