Canoe trailer?
 

Well, I"m acquiring my grandmother's aluminum canoe this spring and, since I'm living here by myself and wouldnt' want someone else driving my car anyway, I came up with an idea. This thing is a 16-17' double canoe that I would usually be using by myself as a fishing boat out on a river or lake. Here's my thought -

The river's nearest put-in is about 14 miles to my house, and the nearest public lake is about 9. I'm thinking that I could use a bike to pull the thing to the launch, then take the trailer and bike, stick them lying across the front (strapped on, of course) and hit the water. This way, wherever I end up, I can pull out the canoe, strap it to the trailer and be off.

Now, I'm expecting that I'm going to need a double-wheeled trailer - my question is this: could I build a conduit trailer like one of these bad boys:

http://tofu.org/drupal/node/84

that would be stretched out to cradle the front of the canoe and put the wheels at just a touch past the fulcrum point that might work? It wouldn't have to go much farther back (perhaps a foot) because the front would weight it on, and a tow strap would hold the canoe down.

I'm looking around online at different ideas, and they all have a pole strapped to the front of the canoe going to the seat post. While I appreciate it, that certainly seems like a rather mono-buttocked solution. I'm thinking that by attaching the trailer to the trailing arm, and then attaching the entire thing to the dropout that I could haul it faster and more comfortably than I could with a pole wiggling around on the top of the canoe...


As far as putting it ON the actual canoe, I'd had a thought that I could take conduit connectors, drill and tap three more holes around the circumference and use them as ghetto SKS connectors.

What do you guys think?

I think using the canoe as a structural member of the trailer is a great idea! not monobuttock at all.

I would build something similar to the trailer in your link but without the trailing arm. I wouldn't stretch it to cradle the front of the canoe, I'd shrink it so that it was only as long as the wheel diameter because that's all you need. It would act like a cradle that will sit under the middle of the canoe, just aft of the CG as you suggested.

I'd then set up a trailing arm that somehow attaches to the front of the canoe, either to your dropout or your seat post (I prefer dropout). The trailing arm could be permanently mounted on the canoe, or removable, so long as it is well secured to the canoe. It doesn't have to be on the front of the canoe it could be at the back, especially if it's a flat-back canoe (with a transom) it would be easier to mount it at the back.

I agree that using the canoe as the trailer is the way to go. Create a set of wheels that strap on to the canoe as one bit, and a hitch to connect canoe and bicycle.

CommuterRun posted about this.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ighlight=canoe

Doesn't http://www.wicycle.com have 2 versions of a canoe trailer? Maybe they won't work for your set-up, but just a thought.

I've towed my 2-man kayak (actually kind of a hybrid between a canoe and kayak) behind my bikes using a two-wheel canoe cart. The cart is basically just a frame with the wheels on the sides and the boat sits on top of the frame. I attach the bow of the boat directly to the rails of my bike saddle with some rope. That provides enough flexibility to be able to turn corners, but is tied tight enough so there's no excess sway. It tracks very nicely and I've never had any control issues.

A regular canoe has a deeper bow than my boat so you'd run into clearance issues over the rear wheel of the bike. But I'd think you could securely strap a bar that extends from the bow of the canoe and then attach that to the seat rails.

Just saw this post.
Thanks for the reference bhchdh.:)

This is what I do:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/200/4...e0e15b6d56.jpg
This photo show everything set up to hit the road; except my helmet which is on the cooler in the middle of the boat. The taillights on the boat are mounted to a PVC pipe |____| (extended U) that I made specifically for that purpose. That thing hanging down off the stern of the boat is a red rag that I use for a towing flag.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/4...4a4ecf6bf8.jpg
This photo shows everything set up to hit the river. The trailer and related items are packed in the black canoe pack which is packed in the canoe on the far side of the rear wheel of the bike. The green backpack is my tackle box/fishing related stuff.

One thing about carrying the bike this way is if windy conditions are encountered the bike acts like a sail, which can make handling the boat a real PITA.

The bike is an Electra Townie3.
I think more gears closer together would be a better choice. But this is the most inherently stable bike in my small collection, so gets the nod for towing one of the canoes or kayak. This isn't what I had in mind to be using this bike for when I bought it. If I had this to do over again I would probably go with a Townie8i, or consider a Surly Pugsley.

The trailer is a Wike Woody Wagon.
http://www.wicycle.com/canoe_woody_w...le_trailer.php
One slight modification that I made was to lengthen the top of the "T" of the drawbar to fit the with of this canoe where I like to position the drawbar.
When I got this trailer I also opted for the alloy wheels and canoe pack.
This is a very modular trailer. It breaks down to fit in the canoe pack with room to spare. The downside to this trailer being so modular is that there is no good way to lock it up and leave it where you put in.
If I were going to do this over again I would look at trailers that attach to the bike at the rear axle rather than the seatpost for stability while towing.

The canoe is an Old Town Guide 147.
http://www.oldtowncanoe.com/canoes/g...guide_147.html
This canoe weighs in at 74 lbs. With another up to 75+ lbs. of gear for one of my hunting/fishing trips; it tows fairly smoothly if I load the canoe so the trailer tows a wee little bit bow heavy. Too much weight either way will make the bike handle pretty squirrelly.
If I were going to buy another canoe specifically for this I would want the same size, or maybe a little larger, but I would consider a lighter weight boat.

My kayak is lighter weight than this canoe, so tows easier, but, not having as much room, is less versatile. When I take the kayak I have to put in somewhere I can leave the trailer without worrying about it. There just isn't room in the kayak to pack up the trailer and take it with me like I can in the canoe.

I have tried a similar rig to tow my kevlar carbon Bell Northwind canoe (50 lbs). Even that light, I would not try towing the distances the OP mentions. Also, If you want to attach at the dropout rather than the seat post you have to radically alter how you connect to the canoe, probably by going all the way back to the trailer. The depth of the canoe stem dictates a high attachment point. You can only bolt things to the deck and gunnels of canoes.

Something like this:

http://www.equinoxtrailers.com/img/c...1237566750.jpg

http://www.equinoxtrailers.com/store/item/21

Haven't tried it, but I like the looks of this trailer in so far as it attaches to the rear axle of the bike. Although I would balk at the price.

Seems like I found more a few years ago when I was researching this before I bought my Woody Wagon. I'll keep looking.

The cart part of this trailer looks a lot to me like a Burley Flatbed utility trailer. I have one of those. I could probably make a drawbar long enough for this to work.

Another thing that would probably work is to use the frame of a kiddie trailer for the cart.

This one is another seatpost mount:
http://www.paddlecart.com/biketrailer.html

Ah-ha!! This is the one I was looking for:
http://store.seattlesportsco.com/pro...&idcategory=78
I like the looks of this design, but the manufacturer only rates the carrying capacity at 75 lbs. I think that might have been why I passed on this one when I decided on the Woody Wagon.

As for the distance; I've towed my canoe up to 20 miles at a time. Not a cakewalk, but it's not impossible either. Takes me a little under two hours.

I like this setup that one of my previous co-workers had :)

http://tricolour.net/photos/2001/2001-11-03/35.html

Here is one I saw on a blog, it is apparently the Wike trailer that straps to the canoe, so the canoe is actually the trailer.

Aaron :)