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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:22 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
I agree with most of what you have said OWF, however my experience with the new hard wheels+sidewinders has shown that they are useless in sand.
I would love to see a proper sand wheel developed. There is no way you could launch through some of the sandy beaches I have launched from (using balloon wheels), with the Sidewinders, which are supposed to be a balloon wheel alternative. They are not. In fact I doubt any 'hard' wheel can handle sand.
For the test above I used an unloaded TI without mast and drives. Any more weight would have compounded the digging in.
I think the C-Tug is the best designed and made cart out there but the Sidewinders do not do what they claim when used with a TI.
They may work with a much lighter kayak?
To their credit Railblaza have offered me a full refund on the Sidewinders.
If they could come up with a balloon wheel option for sand they would be on a winner.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:43 pm 
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Good comments, and the main thing to note is that the TI is at the top-end of the use (even could in some circumstances be beyond the use of the wheels).
I am certain your comments will be valuable in the next stages of development, lets see what comes next.

Where I live the sand is medium soft, so it could depend on the makeup of the sand itself.

Compared to all of the others I have used, I personally feel it is a better 'all around cart, and have had no damage to my hull from using it.
I have tested 2 carts to destruction, doing things which are not recommended, such as towing on the road, and hauling a fully loaded kayak up a stoney (stones of about 3 inch dia) boat ramp.
(towed behind a car that is).
Given the circumstances of this, if i was using a scupper cart, instead of replacing a cart, I would be replacing the hull of my kayak. (kind of a good tradeoff).

I am certain the manufacturer does not support this and I wouldnt recommend it.
My recommendation is, if you cant pull it by hand dont pull it.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 11:33 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
oldwetfish wrote:
Given the circumstances of this, if i was using a scupper cart, instead of replacing a cart, I would be replacing the hull of my kayak.

Agreed again with most of your post OWF with the exception of the quote above.
For the last 5+ years I have been using a scupper cart in my twice weekly commute (on hard surfaces) using the AI hull only. I wheel the kayak about 400km/year and have had no scupper problems at all. The welds have broken on the cart (I have strengthened them with added reinforcing) and I have worn out 8 sets of wheels but the scuppers remain strong. Adding tennis balls as suspension on the cart posts has helped a lot.
The new Wheeleez tough wheels are amazing. After about 800km they still have plenty of tread and flats are a thing of the past.
The C-Tug cart excels in being really cleverly designed, easy to stow, light and strong. I have never really liked the large flat pads which can cause hull deformation, though that has stopped now I'm using Hobies TI cradle support. The greatest difficulty with a scupper cart is getting it back in when retrieving the kayak. The C-Tug on the other hand makes retrieving a simple job. It is so easy to slide it in place. I will try reversing the feeding of the strap through the buckle, though I only had a problem with the strap undoing when the cart got stuck in sand.
The Sidewinder measures 6" across which looks to be the maximum width wheel the C-Tug cart could take. It would be great if C-Tug could develop a proper sand wheel, maybe in conjunction with Wheeleez the experts in sand tyres. All that really needs to be developed is a wheel that fits the shorter C-Tug axle, yet can take a 6" wide balloon tyre. The latest balloon tyres are much more puncture resistant. I have had no punctures with the Trax2 tyres.


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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:10 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:52 pm
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Location: South Florida (Coral Springs)
Quote:
The only negative so far is that if the cart gets hung up on an obstacle it can rock slightly until the wide base support hits the hull. Some foam to raise the height either side of the cradle should eliminate that. :)

Stringy - I finally got the TI cradle to use on my C-Tug. However, I'm having difficulty visualizing what you mean by the above quoted statement. How does the cradle rocking cause the boat to come into contact with the support pads of the C-Tug? Is the TI cradle flattening out, and the extra support of the aluminum bars you've added is keeping the cradle in its proper form? Just trying to understand so I can apply the solution correctly.
Also, where did you find the clips that hold the aluminum bars in place on the C-Tug pads? I've looked around the hardware store for something similar to no success.


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PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:35 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
Flaneur,
The hobie cradle lifts the hull above the C-Tugs flat pads. As the cradle is much narrower than the pads the C-Tug can rock a bit under the hull until the hull contacts the ends of the C-Tugs pads.
The tube prevents this.
The clips are known here as "tube clips" or "tube holders" and can be got from any chandlery. You want the 25mm 'wide base' version where the base is wider than the clip:
Image
You will also need cable ties wrapped right around the tube holder and through the base holes to lock it in place. :)


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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:16 pm 
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Location: South Florida (Coral Springs)
Thanks Stringy. Here is what I ended up doing. I just used some PVC I had laying around the house and some zip ties. Not quite as sophisticated, but it seems to work. The only issue I noticed was that the cart would slide backwards along the hull slightly even with the straps very tight. So I applied 5 coats of Plasti Dip. This gives it a rubberized type coating to give it some grip. I haven't tested it to see how it works, but I believe it will be successful.

Image

Image


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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2013 11:55 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
Very nice work Flaneur! 8)


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 11:45 am 
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Location: South Florida (Coral Springs)
I finally got a chance to try out my C-Tug with Sidewinders attached. Below is a video of me demonstrating its usefulness to pull a Tandem Adventure Island through soft sand. For those of you wondering why I would bother with these after Stringy's excellent review, well I purchased these prior to his review and thought they've got to be better than what I have. I was hoping that even though they may not be the ideal solution, and may not work as well as balloon type wheels, that these would indeed work to some reasonable extent. Well it turns out I did have something that worked much better than these wheels with sidewinders attached. It's called the bottom of my hull.

I'm still searching for a commercially available beach cart that meets the following criteria:
1. Not a scupper cart.
2. Is narrow enough that I can pull it down a path not much wider than the hull.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrwerIKvnfg[/youtube]


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:38 pm 
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Location: North carolina
Just wondering if someone tried building a dolly with balloon wheels that can also be used as hakas without the need to remove the wheels.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 12:46 am 
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Location: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
stringy wrote:
Here is my review of the new C-Tug Sidewinder 'sand' tyres vs the 24cm and 30cm balloon tyres

..............................

The Sidewinders did not live up to the C-Tug marketing hype in any kind of sand. I wonder how much testing was done before product release?
There is no comparison with balloon tyres and I was very disappointed, though not surprised, by their poor performance. This sand was nowhere near as soft and dry as it can get either.

Perhaps the TI is just too heavy for these wheels in sand?
As a hard surface puncture free wheel I think they would be OK but in sand it looks like there is no substitute for low pressure balloon wheels.



Has anyone tried the new C-Tug Sandtrakz wheels? http://www.c-tug.com/products/c-tug-sandtrakz-kayak-cart Maybe weight is still an issue with the TI.

To their credit, the RailBlaza people have certainly moved on. Sidewinders have been discontinued. Gotta love an innovative company....


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 5:28 pm 
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Location: South Florida (Coral Springs)
Quote:
Has anyone tried the new C-Tug Sandtrakz wheels? http://www.c-tug.com/products/c-tug-sandtrakz-kayak-cart Maybe weight is still an issue with the TI.

To their credit, the RailBlaza people have certainly moved on. Sidewinders have been discontinued. Gotta love an innovative company....


After my experience with the sidewinders, I wouldn't try them until I've seen them in action. I like the innovation, but how much of it is marketing hype, and the fact that they need to sell a product due to their development costs? I find it interesting that the site for their new SandTrakz states, "When it comes to moving loads over soft sand, wider wheels are not necessarily better." Hmmm...I wonder if they knew this when they started selling the sidewinders? I would expect so. Their stated "bulldozer" effect with a round wheel is hard to buy. It would seem to me it's just increasing the surface area of the wheel just like the sidewinder, but in a different direction. Hopefully it works, and I like a company that's willing to try a unique solution. I'm just a little skeptical after my experience with the sidewinder.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 7:49 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
I'm with you flaneur. So much hype with the Sidewinders, yet so much disappointment.
I really hope these wheels perform as advertised this time, though I'm struggling to see how.
They have posted some impressive data on their website so I'll be very interested to verify those figures.
I'll have to get a set.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 7:51 pm 
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Location: Melbourne, Australia
I've always like the design and look of the c-tug cart...

However when I tried one with my A.I. it was clear that the weight of my setup was pushing the physical limits of the cart.

Particularly around the stub-axles - I can see that after a while they would likely fail under the pressure.

I typically drag my yak about 450m to the beach (one way) over dirt road, sealed road and soft sand.

Maybe the c-tug would be able to handle the weight better over shorter distances?

Mike.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:07 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
I've been using the C-tug with my TI regularly on hard surfaces and have had no problems Mike. It has become my preferred cart due to the ease of fitting it. It's just no good in sand.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 7:46 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
After speaking with Ross, the boss of Railblaza in NZ who assured me these Sandtrakz wheels worked much better than the now defunct Sidewinders, I ordered a set.
Yesterday was the first chance I had to test them. Problem is we have had nearly 100mm of rain in the last week so finding some very soft sand was impossible.

I did do a comparison between the old Sidewinders, the new Sandtrakz and my modded Trax 2x4 24cm balloon wheel cart on reasonably firm sand following the same up, down and across course. Using a spring scale and my Adventure kayak recorded:
Sidewinders=12 to 16kg pull force
Sandtrakz= 8 to 12kg pull force
Trax2= 7 to 11 kg pull force.
So the Sandtrakz show real promise, but I'll reserve judgement for a proper test on dry loose sand ...when I can find some!
Image

The Sandtrakz are much larger than the Sidewinders and I'm impressed with the technology.
Image

Image

More to come ...when the sand finally dries out.


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