Duck/Decoy dolly

BillS

BillS

Well-known member
After a few years of wanting, searching and designing in my head I bit the bullet this summer and had a custom dolly made. There are sloughs and areas that require significant walking and when your hunting with 2 balsa dozen decoys and other equipment, some of the longer hikes are out of the question and some are sweat dripping. In ND most people illegally drive trucks and ATV's across WPA or state school land to get to many spots. Thats not for me, so I looked at a lot of the commercial made dollys from cabelas and sailboat places but none met all the requirements. I wanted something light, high ground clearance, packable(when I take my car) and the would also serve dual purpose as a boat dolly and decoy cart(field hunting). I found this gentlemen in chicago area that built sailboat dolly's in the summer months(wind sailers and ice boats in winter). He made a standard boat dolly that put together with 5 pins was a good starting point. I had him change the design to an H shape frame to get the ground clearance I desired and then he designed a special a harness/handler bar set up to place the load on my shoulders for long walks. He normally uses 15"x8" tires but to get even more ground clearance and better tracking I opted for bike rims and tires. The rims are cheap trike rims(only ones I could find for a straight axle without a lot of conversion.) the tires are for crusier bikes from Felt and are 24" rim x 3" wide. I could have gone with special mountain bike tires and rims that are wider but it was too costly. The whole thing comes apart with 5 pins and weighs in at about 40lbs. I used the specs from my ducker as that is the main boat I use. But can have him make an extension peice to use with longer boats. I can also have him make at a later time an attachement for a bicycle or hitch for an ATV. The other use will be for field hunting and I plan on buying a rooftop cargo basket to mount on the dolly. I can then pull out the center bar so its 4ft shorter. I wanted to be able to carry roughly 200lbs(boat and gear) and so far I think it will handle that plus more. The only drawbacks so far is the trike rims had unsealed metric bearings, he replaced them with stanard 5/8" bearings but the do pop out of the hub when pulling it apart. With these rims I am not sure if I can get around this, but I will look into it this off season. The price ended up more than I wanted to spend, had I gone with his standard rims I would have cut $100 bucks off, but I felt these were a drastic improvement. The base dolly cost $430, and when you compare to other stuff I was looking at up to $300-$400 and that still didn't meet all my needs I was ok with the investment.

Here are some pics

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3 pins hold the frame and handle bars on, one pin on each axle to hold rims in place. This packs down to fit in the back of my subaru, along with one dog crate 2 dozen balsa decoys and rest of my gear.


View attachment 1-1-004.JPG

Hard to tell my the harness goes over you shoulder and the you reach down and grab the grips.

View attachment 1-007.JPG

I keep most of the weight(decoys) over the axle's, and the large diameter rims help in the native grasslands with bumps and furrows in fields.
 
Its designed to pull behind you, but no reason you could push, the harness may be a little ackward.
 
Very nice Bill. Shoud work well.

I do have a suggestion after having more than one of these types of devices. The more you can put the most weight behind the axle the easier it is going to be on you to carry the load. I have found it makes a huge difference, so much so that I made many modifications to the way I use the paddlecart and the way in which I pack gear in the boat when using the Yakima. The load carrying goes from very tough and a chore to not even knowing that I am towing a trailer with boat and all the associated gear.

I'm sure you considered this and have it all figured out. Just passing along my experiences

Mark W
 
Ditto to Mark. If you are carrying a significant amount of weight a distance that may help. So Bill, you have obviously tried it out. How is it working?
 
That is a sweet combo Bill, very nice. That will be great to have.

Hope life is treating you well.

T
 
The only drawbacks so far is the trike rims had unsealed metric bearings, he replaced them with stanard 5/8" bearings but the do pop out of the hub when pulling it apart.
Click to expand...


Bill,

You have at least two options to correct the bearing issue.

(a) Sealed metric bearing are available. Any good bearing supply house can order them.

(b) Use your present 5/8 bearings and put some locktite (for bearings, there are several types of locktite) in the bore when installing the bearing. Your metric size is .630, so you have a .005 slip fit. The below locktite is good for up to .015 slip fit. It will keep those bearings in their place. Be sure to NOT get any locktite into the actual bearing itself. That should not be a problem with them being sealed bearings.

Loctite 620 Retaining Compound

Loctite® 620™ is a high temperature (450°F), high viscosity liquid retaining compound. Provides a shear strength of over 3,800 psi on steel. Locks and secures metal cylindrical assemblies up to 0.015" diametral clearance. Prevents metal fretting and corrosion. Seals against leakage. Recommended for high temperature retaining of parts with a clearance or interference fit, i,e, retaining bushes, bearings, seals, fans and liners. Requires heat cure to achieve temperature resistance. ABS Approved.
 
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It works great so far and will try a little expereimenting with weight distribution, but the decoys are over the wheels and a little back, just like a trailer I think you want some tongue wieght. The decoys are probably heaviest part of the rig. I would imagine too far back you would get signicant bounce on the shoulders and arms. The second hunt was a 1/2 mile walk across pasture and uphill on the way back it was 1000x better than dragging the sled on those hunts last year. and this time I got the decoys out far enough from shore and on the X. Next time I hunt with someone I will try to get a little video.
 
Looks great, my shooting is very similar to yours and am getting board of pulling my decoy sledge on and upto the greens, I have been thinking about a wheeled trolly. Nicely done mate.
 
Bill

Nice rig! I wanted to build my own several years ago, but opted for a Cablela's dolly, which has done well overall, but agree there are limitations. I got to a point where I was limiting myself on going to some places due to the amount of work involved in getting there. While the Cabelas cart is not perfect, it's a heck of a lot better than doing it with no cart. I have saved in the basement two mountain bike front tires and rims with quick release skewers...someday I still plan to make my own. I like Mark have found that it is a little easier closer to balanced, and I like pushing it to keep an eye on the load and manouver it over.

Best
Chuck
 
Bill, I hunt a lot of the same kind of areas and also prefer not to drive where I'm not supposed to. My Poleboat straps to a portage cart and trails behind quit well I am thinking more about a different trailer using motorcycle wheels for high speed use AND rolling across the grassland. Mark, we need to chat about yours after seeing it in action. Very nice rig Bill, thanks for sharing with us.
 
Very nice Bill. Really like the strap option instead of bunks for the boat to sit on and then simply tie off the bow.

Great idea! Thanks for sharing the pics.
 
Hi Bill,
Love the design but only have one concern. The T where the draw bar attaches to the axle could be a future issue.
I made a simular design years ago and needed to triangulate the axle with the draw bar to stop flexing of that joint.
All I did was attach straps from the point of the pad on your draw bar to the outboard end of each axle and snug them up.
Cheap and easy to do and will keep the axle aligned the first time you pull it loaded over rough, irregular terrain.
Yours may be stronger but is easier to address while everything is still straight! John
 
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