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Does any one know where I can get a fat tyre beach trolly from of if there are conversion kits for standared trollies also tips on cost wiuld be appreciated
many thanks
If you put "fat" in to the search engine on the chat page you'll get a load of responses, obviously many of them discussing the merits, or otherwise, of being able to keep the boat flat in big winds... but you'll also get some useful results too !!
Don't spend loads of money! Have a look at my message #3146 posted on 6th April 2005. The conversion was really easy and cheap. I sail (occasionally!) and park my 15 at Pwllheli Sailing Club (although cannot make the Nationals) and can tell you that the sand on the beach is very soft...wider launching trolley wheels than standard will make life a whole lot easier.
Has anyone tried doubling up on the 8" dia standard trolley wheels, so that there are 2 at each end?
I've not done it but was looking this afternoon. My only worry is that it leaves a relatively short stub to go in to the larger dia main part of the axel. But for a cheap fix (the wheels can be got for between ?10 to ?15 each) for the occasional use of soft ground....
I doubled the wheels on my trolley about 8 years ago.
Cons.
1 It is only marginally better on soft sand (eg Pentewan, low tide at Instow). I suspect that fitting 6 inch / 150 mm wide wheels is a better solution.... I've even thought seriously about this.
2 Is surprisingly heavier (bad news if the tide is out at Saundersfoot, Instow etc).
3 I had to replace the 1 inch / 25mm aluminium axles about 2 years ago, but this was due to wear rather than problems with the remaining short stub that goes into the shorter cross beam - I did use longer replacement tubing.
4 Floats higher, so a bit more effort to push under cat when it is on the water, but this is true of "balloon tyred trolleys.
Pros
1 Does help on shingle (even if fine)
2 If 3 or more people get the cat moving fast on soft sand, it will stay "on top" and is then easier. I can't get it moving fast enough on my own, but 2 big strong guys might...
Looking back, I think I'd have been better to have got the wheels with 6 inch wide treads - not always that much more expensive than the usual wheels.
If you do go for doubling wheels, remember that the tyres bulge out over the rims. You have to put one wheel on top of another and measure through the top axle hole to find how much to cut off (each end, or double off one end) of the crossbeam. You'll also have to drill new holes in the axles.
I hope this rather long reply provides some assistance in your decision making.
We tried double wheels on our D18 for a couple of years. All problems as George Stephen says - I also tried putting a spacer between the two wheels to keep them straight for a while. I have now converted it back to single wheel and we have left our Sprints as single wheel.
However two things of note - I replaced the wheels with new ones because the plastic hubs were worn and the wheels were leaning over - much greater friction on both the shaft and possibly by the wheels touching the cradle. Secondly I made the mistake of greasing one set as a trial - all that did was collect sand and act as sandpaper on the axle. Now I have had to reverse the bars under the cradles to use a clean area of the tube as the bearing surface.
Of the 20 D18s and Sprints in the club only one D18 has wide wheels - and we have a very mixed beach, mounded pebbles and sand - replacing the wheels seems to be the solution for most people ( I use Towsure for new ones - they have a web shop). The major problem with the big wheels is their high buoyancy as George noted this makes it difficult getting the wheels under the boat. Keeping a high pressure in the normal single wheels does seem to help considerably, and make sure you keep dust caps on the valves!!
We stock the Eurotrax trollies, they are ?349.00 including VAT and postage and are in stock.Alternativeley eurotrax do a slightly smaller wheeled trolley which we do not stock but we could get for you which would probably solve the problem of the bouyancy of tyres, these are ?325.00, you can view them on the german cad-kat website at http://s86486983.einsundeinsshop.de/ses ... shopscript
