PVC Kayak Cart: How to Build Your Own

Suppose you are an avid kayaker who spends a lot of time going to and from the water and need a little assistance moving your 'yak around as you're finding that getting everything down to the water has become a bit more challenging. If this is the case, our newest addition to our PVC Plans Library might be the best solution to keep you in the hobby.

If you combine the kayak, maybe a fish finder, battery, some fishing gear, the oars, and other personal accouterments, some may find themselves hauling in excess of 100 lb. of equipment. Having something that makes it easy to load all those items into the kayak itself and roll it around on a smooth set of heavy-duty wheels, might just be the back and knee saver you've been looking for.

There are several plans out there for a DIY Kayak Cart, and while many elements of this cart may look familiar, we've taken the best bits of each one and combined them into a single, durable cart that should last for years. The kayak dolly has jumbo foam pool noodles to keep the yak bottom from scratching and heavy-duty, pneumatic tires for quickly getting over small rocks and other things in the path to the water. It makes carting a heavy kayak a manageable process.

This particular PVC project is relatively easy to build once you have all of the components in-hand of the axle and wheels. It goes together in less than an hour as just a handful of PVC fittings are required to put this cart together, and the construction is incredibly straightforward.

Two support beams take the brunt of the kayak's weight, and there is a front handle/beam can act as a kickstand, which can also be used as a handle of sorts to position everything in place. This kickstand/handle combo also has a foam noodle mounted on it, letting you put the kayak weight towards the front as you load it. We saw many comments in kayaking forums that the boat doesn't always go on straight on other kayak carts and can scratch the bottom of some longer and heavier kayaks in the loading process, so kayakers should welcome this particular addition.

Breakdown capability is one thing we don't identify in the plan and leave up to the end user. Many kayakers like to make the cart easy to break down, which may work to store the cart inside the kayak in the off-season. You can create breakdown points below the main supports and off of the kickstand section by using FORMUFIT Quick Release pins at these points. You can then use the ratcheting tie-down to bind everything together and stow the whole thing in the kayak's cockpit.

This plan can be viewed from the direct link to the PVC Kayak Cart plan here, of you can locate it by browsing out PVC plans library. An entire SketchUp file has also been provided on the PVC plan page, so you can modify the plan and make personalized adjustments to suit this kayak dolly to your needs.