Someone on this board was experimenting with PVC ribs for a SOF boat. That got me thinking about a kayak cart built of PVC tubing after attempts to shape aluminum tubing with a pipe bender proved less than satisfying.

I have taken 3/4" electrical PVC conduit (it has thicker walls than PVC for water lines), filled it with sand to help it hold its tubular shape in the curves, and heated it with a heat gun until it becomes pliable (only 3 or 4 minutes)to make the bends. The finished piece looks like an "M" stretched sideways. The top piece of the M (the piece on top of the "legs") I bent to fit the approximate shape of the bottom half of form 11 or 12 of my G17. Then it's a simple matter of bending the ends down to form the legs. The length of the legs is a matter of personnal preference, but if you want to store the rig in the hatch without removing the axle, they cannot be longer than the hatch width.

To make the second part of the frame, make a second "M" the same shape as the first but sized so it fits inside the first piece (i.e. the top piece will be a couple of inches shorter as will the legs.) That way it all folds flat.

At this point you could lay the two M's on a flat surface (one nested inside the other), and with a straight edge about one inch from the bottom of the legs mark for the axle and drill. For a light boat that might be strong enough, but I strengthen the axle area by gluing (PVC cement)a slip coupling on each leg before drilling. (A slip coupling is normally used to join to pieces of conduit. The coupling usually has an internal rim at the centre that you must remove first (about 2 minutes with a rat tail file or a dremel tool)so it can slip all the way on.

I use 1/2" solid aluminum rod for an axle. The best looking wheels I have seen are the 8" plastic spoked wheels they put on some jogging baby strollers, but short of buying a stroller I haven't found a source and I'm making do with the large plastic-centred lawn mower replacement wheels most hardware stores carry.

Fasten a strap in the valley of the top pieces to fix how "open" you want the cart to be for your boat. Afix straps on one shoulder of the M, which will pass over the hull and secure to the opposite M to secure the boat to the cradle.

For protection of the hull you can add lengths of 3/4" foam pipe insulation, or, if you want to minimise volume, you could glue on strips of something like the 1/8" closed cell foam craft stores are selling in 1'x2' sheets for hobbyists.

I'm amazed at how strong this rig is. A couple of final notes: remember to take the thickness of the foam padding and the thicknes of the slip fittings into account before you bend the second piece so it nests properly. You want the feet, with couplings on,to be touching to make lining up and drilling for the axle easier. The length of the legs depends on how much ground clearance you want, which is dictated in part by the size of the wheels you use and also your hatch opening.

Finally, as you make each bend, lay it on a flat surface to make sure you are not adding a twist and hold the bend for a couple of minutes until it cools sufficiently to hold the shape. I used 45 inch piece initially for the outer M with the leg bend about 10 inches from either end. But that didn't fit through the hatch unless I removed the axle, which is simple enough. For the second cart I reduced the leg length to about 6 inches, which fits the hatch better but trades off ground clearance. Experiment.

All the parts are available at any typicaly Home Depot style oufit.

Cheers.