Finally a Cart for my Yak on Sand and Gravel.

[Oldbayrunner]

This review is for the Malone Beach Hauler. I have tried several carts on sand and gravel without any easy solution for traveling over these types of terrain. The closest has been my C-Tug. I bought it with both sets of wheels, the standard and sandwheelze. The sandwheelze work on hard sand but when it came to soft sand it's still hard to pull a loaded yak on. On loose gravel forget it , I have had the cart literally come apart twice. I was at the May meet n greet in Perryville, while my cart literally came apart again, I watched one of the members with a Hobie, using the Hobie sand scupper cart, easily roll his down an embankment to the water. Right then and there I knew I wanted to find something that would work with my Yak. The scupper type of cart is not an option for my yak so research lead me to basically what I thought for my purpose was narrowed down to 3 options.

Option 1 was to by the Tug Miller conversion kit and Wheeleze wheels for my C-tug. I didn't want to do that because I really Like using my C-tug on hard ground, ramps and the ability to break it down and store it in my front hatch.

Option 2 was to spend the money for a Wheeleze cart. For the price I just didn't like the way the build of the frame looked for $249.00. It may be a great cart but that is just my thoughts.

Option 3 turned out to be the Malone Beach Hauler. I saw this cart and immediately felt this was what I was looking for. When I received it I was more than please with the build quality. Then using it I knew I had made the right decision. It does have horizontal bunkers that can fit a hull but I don't use them for my yak since it cradles the hull perfectly without them and I felt their use made it just a tad too tall. It is a wide cart so it is made to accommodate wider or narrower yaks easily. The dual strap system holds the cart firmly to the cart. The wheels traverse over loose sand and gravel extremely well, better than anything I have tried to date. it is on the expensive side at $197.00 but to me at my age I don't mind spending more if it is going to be easier on me hauling. The only downside is unlike my C-tug I semi lose the ease of floating my kayak on and off my cart. Plus I can't store it on my yak and have to walk it back to my car, then go get it when I am done but I can live with that.

[DanMarino]

Cool. Malone makes some great products.

[mchottie]

Great Review - Not many people know about the Malone products.

One item of note, my only concern would be if you have to travel significant distance from the launch back to your car (or even short distance without line of sight to the yak) that in questionable neighborhoods, items may go missing if you don't keep a keen eye on your boat.

The photo looks like heavy duty build quality, and I 'feel your pain' my PA14 has the HD wheelset which is less than worthless on any type of sand. Just picked up an Outback for the GF which came with the pneumatic beach tires like your picture, albeit her yak is sigificantlu lighter than the PA but with the air wheels it feels like it just glides over the sand.

is the malone an inflatable tire, or hard molded plastic? if hard molded, you may be able to strengthen the tread with something like gorilla tape or the like, and use it on hardpack gravel or asphalt with less wear and tear on the actual tires themselves. i also back the kitchen sink in my PA so its probably 185 lbs fully loaded, yours may be significantly less which would reduce the wear.