Wheels for beach wheels

That seems to be the gist of things.

Yup - read through the thread again. People are innovative and have come up with home-build solutions that didn't work as well and didn't last as long... most then bought Trax.

Please don't be offended, we're trying to help. Most of us think that home-builts are a bigger waste of money in the long run. To me, that speaks volumes, because cat sailors are notoriously cheap.

Your best bet in the short term may be to sail with a fleet, borrow Cat Trax from others (this is never an issue), and save cash until you can afford to buy some.

Hope this helps.

Mike

PS: To all others, you have a good point about Wave Trax. But, one might get lucky and find a Wave that comes with full size Cat Trax. One won't know unless one tries...

Mike's tip is a good one - keep shopping craigslist in a 100-mile radius. Last month, I saw a painted Hobie 16 on a Zieman trailer with a fiberglass catbox, two sets of sails and a set of Trax for $600.

I made my first set and they were engineered exactly like

Cat Trax

made hubs and bearing races . Cut Delrin rods for bearings. It was a rather large pain in the butt sourcing and ordering all the materials and when it was all said and done I may have come out $150 cheaper than a new set, not counting my time(which I had much more of then).Not worth it.
I got the aluminum from an Aircraft supply comp. and the Delrin from

plywood and plastics

. Hubs were made of fiberglassed wood w/ Stainless bolts for lugs.I used PVC reducers for bearing retainers.

I guess you are not understanding what we are saying.
1. there are no such parts to buy off the shelf, you have to fabricate everything yourself . All these are just a guess but you get the idea.
a.wheels and rims 100
b. axle 60
c. bearings plastic 25
d.hubs/welding 75
e.misc hardware 30
f.cradles home made 40
total 330

2. buy the time you invest in trying to make a set and the parts you will be better off just trying to find a used or new set of wheels unless you have access to a machine shop and welder.
3. If you do make a set they more than likely won't work very well or last very long and you will have just wasted time and money that you could have invested in a good set of wheels. How many home built wheels do you see at Regattas that actually work?
4. You can buy the wheels and bearings from FSC and buy you own axle and make you own cradles and save some.
I hope this helps. Most of the people on here have been sailing for a long time and if we could find a cheaper way it would have been posted.

BTW, if you find a cheap package like John did, you have a good chance of getting the seller to split out the Cat Trax alone, and it shouldn't affect his sale price on the rest of the package. This would be far better than buying the whole boat yourself, then having to sell an old boat that no one wants.

It's a win/win, the seller (in theory) would make more money in the long run, and at the very least gets cash in his hands quicker (most of the really old 16s and 18s sit unsold for quite a while).

Mike

I tried hard to build some cat-tracks myself and every way I crunched the numbers, the $250 used set was a much better deal. When I finally accepted that, I put a wanted add on beach cats and picked up a set of euro tracks for $100!

I have a spare set of cat traxs cradles and an axle, I am looking to buy used tires and rims for it.

I have a background in mechanical design (and I'm a miser...bad combo) Trouble is, when dollars go down the weight goes up. If looking to make a set for a 250 pound boat you move yourself, you may be able to come up with a decent combo. I came up with a design that uses electrical conduit & fittings and golf cart wheels/tires. Largest expense being finding larger diameter tires.

The bearing surface is the key, a H16 or heavier boat is hard to move without

nice

bearings.

ps Where's Doug Snell when you need him? He must have posted that ho-made set made with the blue barrel at least 1,500 times on every cat forum ever known to man. ps

I just read this whole string and agree with that the best thing to do is buy Cat Trax. John thanks for the update on the old Cat Trax. I have two sets now and one set of the Euro Trax which I like because of the adjustability. I recognize that some people have to learn from experience so here is a link for some inexpensive wheels that might work well enough: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dock-Boat-l... -Gate-Wheel-NEW-/330451540876#vi-content

I once had a homemade set that came with my formerly owned
P18-2.

It had a galvanized steel pipe for an axle.
It had standard wheelbarrow wheels; the bearings where taken out and the axle fit thru the hubs. NO bearings, just rubbed on the pipes. Held in place by hose clamps around the axle.

Did they work? Why yes they did.
Did it rust some? Why yes they did.
Where they as good as Trax? Why no.
They had some trouble in the loose sand, but they did work, and I used them fot years.

And fot craddles?
Jig saw cut pieces of PVC pipe, contact cement some carpet on them, viola!

My last boat a owned, a N6.0, came with Trax.

Didn't someone use a 55gal barrel for a wheel?

I don't think it was 55 gal. but, yeh. Actually I've seen a few examples. If you're not trailering they seem to work okay. Saw one made of pt lumber, must have weighed 500 lbs! Looked like a small deck.

I think that I saw a pic of that too! Had to weigh more than the boat.

Mike

I am a engineer and toolmaker/fabricator. I also am as cheap as they come, Dutch background. I couldn't make a pair of wheels as cheap as purchasing the Cat Trax. Wife bought them for me when we got married 20 years ago. I don't use them much and they are stored inside. I never had a problem with wheel leakage. $$ per year is cheap. Like Matt said, don't sell them with the boat, especially if you plan on getting another catamaran. I always lock them to my trailer as I know they are valuable.

When something works, the people using the product will sell the product for you.

I made a set that works great! Bill vining gave us the list of supplies. Think it came out to 200$

That being said, my boat is light (f16) and they don't work great on soft sand, but they work fine. I do, however, wish I had a set of real catrax. My tires aren't as big but the gauge of al tube I used makes them relatively heavy compared to the real trax. If my boat were the standard 400lb cat I don't think they would work

I have a Nacra 5.2 and built my own set.
I used a couple of long pressure treated garden fence posts like 5x7 cm (approx 2x3"), just pine, nothing heavy.
___________________
__|OO|_______|OO|__

They are held at the right distance by shorter bits of the same wood. Then two pairs of largish wheel-barrow wheels ,Made in China (6! Euro's a piece) are fitted to a stainless tube which is recessed into the wooden spacers to either side and held there by an alu. strip and ss screws.

The redundancy means I can still move my boat, even with one or two flat tires.
This set up is not heavier than Cat trax as far as I can tell. I must admit thet Cat trax are still better on the beach though.

People have asked to borrow mine (more than once), so they must work! But I use them most on sand, mud and grass.

The caveat is, this is my second attempt, the first was waaay more expensive and both together set me back as much as a decent set of second hand cat trax would have.

If I had to start over I would fork out the cash for some second hand cat trax. If I was really strapped for cash, I'd build the above again.

Oh yeah, the boat hulls sit on the outside, the wheels are just inside the hulls. The bits that stick out (where the boat sits) are covered in el-cheapo doormat.

We used to import the EuroTrax years ago. Have been moving our warehouse and found a bunch of cradles for them. All new and with stainless steel strap and lock knob. These are the adjustable type and move easily along the axle. Fit 2" (50mm) tube axles so will fit EuroTrax, CATTRAX etc. These used to retail for $130 a pair. Final blowout price of $60 a pair plus shipping. We have the UNI, UNI Plus, V and Asymmetrical in stock.

Follow this link to see photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/playaboule/6876140638/ . Once there click through each photo in the photostream

Or see here at the manufacturers website for all the specs. http://www.cadkat.com/Spares_Onlineshop_Cups_and_cradles.html Note: The prices shown there are per cradle and Euro75 = approx. US$105!!

We ship from Seattle and the fixed price to ship anywhere in the USA is $30.00

email sales(at)playaboule(dot)com or call 206-340-5995

That's a good deal.
Where are you shipping from?

I've gotten sets buying complete boat packages at the right price. Then sell off the parts or boat package and keep what you want. (TRAX) and you'll end up getting them free or even making money off other parts. I've done this several times and eventually sold the used sets and ended up put it toward a new set for 550 (with shipping).
Can't build a set that works for less. You want them to float in water, and be light enough to carry. They hold their value well and last forever if you keep them out of the UV.

nice grave dig <img src="<>/shocked.gif" alt="shocked" title="shocked" height="15" width="15" />

I used a pair of front ATV wheels from a Yamaha 225, because that's what I had laying around at the time !!!

I had to make my own hubs tho and that was the PITA bit, alloy weld a plate to a lump of solid bar then machine it into a

hub

.

Took me Saturday to do the job and they've done lots of trips around the place now and so far haven't done anything wrong, I do have a modification in mind and that is to fit a better

bearing

as such, using a nylon bush is ok but there's a better way <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

these work really well on sealed carparks etc & even better on sand, where they fail a bit is on a beach that's covered in sea-weed, this ia probably due to the fact that they are 'inboard' of the hulls so a lump of sea-weeed tends to

rock the boat

so to speak !!
The other 'issue' is the weight, being m/cycle related, the rims are steel so they are a tad on the fat side and then there;s the long term issue of rust.....
I could get them galv-dipped but I figure a lighter set from one of those pocket 4wheelers for kids would be the ducks-nuts, they are also alloy rimmed
<img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

<img src="http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae97/BADZX/1182/218_zps8dd12931.jpg[/img]

apologies......
don't actually have a single shot of the finished product, but you get the idea
<img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

I made a set from aluminum golf cart wheels that work just fine. Been using them all season now. I have a brand set set of cat trax as well and I haven't felt the desire to put them on the trailer instead.

They are ~10lbs heavier than the trax, but that's most because I haven't bought smooth tires for them yet.

I have one more pair of wheels that I made as well at the same time. If I did it again, I might sand cast the parts instead.