I need to buy a set of beach wheels and would appreciate people's input on which of the available brands works best for singlehanding. I'm particulary interested in beach wheels with cradles and if it's easier to keep the cradles right side up while loading the boat on some wheels vs others. I'm sure any of them (Cat Trax, Euro Trax, or Cateez) work fine if there's a second person to help load/unload it and/or hold the boat but I suspect there may be differences in design and/or weight that may make one model better than the others if one person has to do everything unassisted. Also, the Cateez is different than the others in that the wheels are outside the hulls vs inside for the others. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad. Cateez does say they are the only ones to counterweight the cradles to keep them upright automatically. Any experience or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.
Jerry

VERY GOOD QUESTION!

I will be building my own shortly.

Cant wait to read the replies here.

The only ones I like are the original Roleez, that have four soft-rubber wheels, two on the inside of the hulls and two on the outside.

But they don't seem to make them that way any more. Now the Cateez seem to have just two wheels, on the outsides of the hulls.

But at least I like the wheels on the OUTSIDE of the hulls because when I am singlehanding, it is easier for me to keep going from side to side and kicking the wheels back farther until they get where they need to be.

Harder to do that (at least for me) when the wheels are on the inside of the hulls.

I'm not an engineer, but it must be something to do with leverage and bare feet.

I can do the same thing with the other beach wheels, but it just takes longer, and more effort.

And none of them work very well when the tires are flat, which seems to happen a lot with all of them. Maybe it is because of me kicking them too much.

My wheels turn over when loading in the water. When single handing, this is a nuisance and might scratch the carbon fiber! I have not actually done it yet, but could glue (with Goop) a 2 foot plastic wand (polyethylene tubing?)under the chocks on my A-cat beach wheels. Maybe they will stay right side up. Or a big chunk of blue foam underneath the chock?

I prefer the wheels with a substantial axle - CatTrax or the EuroTrax.

The way that I put the boat on the wheels when singlehanding is (with the boat on the ground or beach), start the wheels under the bows (this is tricky on boats with large plumb bows a not a lot of rocker - really easy on an H-16). Once the wheels are started, you can usually shove them back by pushing on the center of the axle. Once you can reach the dolphin striker, you can pull on it while continuing to push the wheels aft using a foot (or two) on the center of the axle.

I can get my Tiger up on it's wheels in about 15 seconds using this method. With no assistance.

Cattrax with the optional handle can be set up to keep the cradles upright... the handle is just a T that mounts over the axle. Bolt is solid to the axle and the cradles angle with the handle.

Hey! That sounds great! I got to get me one of those handles for my Cat Trax. It would make life a whole lot easier when using a launching ramp.

I use Cat Trax with a T-handle.

The T-handle has bearings, a T-section that goes over the axle and holds the handle assembly, the pole part of the handle, a small tube that goes through the end of the pole at 90 degrees, and a couple of grips. The instructions have you slide the T-section over the axle and capture the bearings between the axle and the T-section, allowing free rotation between the axle and the T-handle. This would be critical if the axle turned with the wheels, but it doesn’t. It does allow the cradles and axle to rotate freely relative to the handle, which I have found to be a detriment to keeping the cradles oriented so you can load the boat. This system still requires a second person to orient the cradles while getting the boat on the wheels.

The solution is to prevent the T-section from rotating around the axle. It is critical that the T-section be oriented properly so you can maneuver the boat with the hulls level. To do so, I assembled the T-handle per the manufacturer’s instructions, put the boat on the Cat Trax so that the boat was balanced with the boat level, and had the end of the handle near waist level. Then I marked the orientation of the T-section relative to the axle. This done, I took the Cat Trax and T-section and drilled through the T-section, bearings, and axle and fixed the orientation with a long bolt. Now, when everything is assembled, you can move the Cat Trax around with the cradles oriented the way you want. Just make sure the boat is balanced on the cradles to minimize the effort and the load on the T-section.

Several of the single-handers in CRAM use this type of rig and it works well. I started doing this when I had the Nacra 5.5 Uni and continued it for my I-17R. I tried this on my A-Class and the weight of the handle would rock the cradles so the hulls were resting only on the rear edge of the cradles! Now I have a lightweight T-handle and the handle remains in the air when the boat is parked on the wheels and the stearns are on foam cushions.

Thanks, Les. We are ordering the handle, but I did not realize it would not be fixed so the cradles would stay in one position. That's weird, because I would think that would be one of the big virtues of the handle, just like with monohull dinghy dollies.

Oh, well, we can hammer and drill and rivet and bolt with the best of them as far as making things work. Might not be pretty....

I'll bite, go ahead and build your wheels, and when you are done in a year or two you can buy some like I am about to after 3 seperate attempts to build them. my last set are only $150 + $300 design cost. I'll send you the plans (you can build them for $150). they are heavy (5-7 lbs more than cat trax) and no one on the beach will help me any more when I come ashore by bringing them out to me. and they do not work in deep sand. I could make a modification to make them better in the sand but I am done already, time to buy some real wheels from cat trax or sailcraft (mfg). Money well spent.

Amen brother!

I agree; just buy the darn things and get it over with. Our Fleet even bought an extra set of Cat Trax to keep on the beach in case our tractor died and we had to pull the boats above the high water mark quickly.

We set them for the TheMightyHobie18 and just about everything can be shoved on them temporarily. They should be spaced correctly for the Tigers and Nacras if you're going to use them all the time. The handle sounds interesting; I'm going to look at the cost. Right now it's a storage problem for the handle: How do you carry it if you're going to a Regatta?

Wyatt

I made my own at a total cost of about $40.00 and they work perfect. I would use a little larger wheels though if your cat is heavier then mine, I own a H-14 pretty light no problem single handling. for more pics or any constution questions let me know

more pics

I like the old roleez. The counter balanced cradles really help.

Recently I have gotten very fond of the Marstrom 4 wheeled A-Class cart. It is not as easy to use as 2 wheeled carts but you do not have to worry about dragging the sterns or hitting rocks. You just pull on the boat.

Sorry but I only need two more posts to make it to 200 and I am dying to see if my status changes.

I challenge your $40.00 claim, the rubber for the atv tires costs more than 40.00 (I understand you may not have included the cost because you had them lying around but to build your design from scratch someone would have to buy them.)

Wyatt,

The handle for Cat Trax slide into the T-section and a bolt drops through the existing holes for both. Pull the bolt out and the handle portion disconnects from the wheels. My wheels go onto my trailer (I used to carry them on top of my hulls and tied to trailer, but not with the I-17R or A-Class) and the handle goes inside my sail box.

Thanks everyone for the great input.
Anyone have experience with the Euro Trax; I'm interested in whether the handle for that can be fixed so the cradles stay upright like the Cat Trax. Also I wonder if anyone knows the rought weight of Cat Trax vs Euro Trax vs Cateez.
Jerry

I've lots of experience with Cat Trax and limited experience with EuroTrax. The latter seem a little flimsier - Plastic rims vs. Aluminium.

We wheeled a boat up the beach on EuroTrax in high wind and got the sails a little loaded up - which resulted in side load on the wheels. One of the wheels failed at the hub. Could be an isolated incident, but I would go with the sturdier Cat Trax.

Ipaid $10.00 for both wheels and rims on E-bay plenty of them for sale. You may have to be patient to win them cheap but you will get them if you keep checking. I would of bought larger wheels but I couldnt argue with the price. The rest of the cost is in inexspensive PVC pipe and fittings and a piece of galvanized pipe as a axle for strenth. OK I did have the bunk carpet to pad the homemade cradles on hand so add a dollar or two