Wheeleez Modification

I’m tough. Or at least, I try to look the part. But after dead hauling 200kg to 300kg of Bote and cargo down 200 meters of soft beach piece by piece (and back up again 8 hours later), maybe I don’t look so tough any more. Repeat for 2 trips, and I have caved in. I’m soft.

I finally threw in the towel and went for the Wheeleez upgrade. Pricey parts, but I figured I’ll enjoy my trips more if I could cut out the dead lifting and focus on the fun bits.

PLANNING

Having decided on the upgrade, it was important to order the right parts. But that wasn’t possible until I knew what I wanted in the final set up. Inspiration came from Doug’s site (see fourth picture down), and I exchanged emails with him on how he retrofitted his beach wheels.

G’day Paul

 

It’s quite easy to do. You need a pair of 30cm polyurethane beach wheels with 19mm (3/4in) diameter bearings. Then buy a 19mm (3/4in) diameter length of aluminium tube from a hardware store. This will slip neatly over the existing short axles on the porta dolly. On recommendation from an engineer friend I just used ordinary silicon to glue the tube over the short axles – they have never come unstuck in over four years. You can buy locking pins to hold the wheels on from Wheeleze. Hope this helps.

Regards

 

Doug

Simple enough! What a great mod! Until I did some thinking

• The original wheels are 36cm, While Doug is managing with 30cm beach wheels, it seemed to me that running one size larger would be better if I didn’t want my hull scraping uneven ground.
• The maximum load of a set of 30cm beach wheels is 110kg. Doug’s craft is a 12 footer, but mine’s a 14 footer with hull and outboard alone hitting 78kg. Throw in the fuel tank, anchor, fishing gear, bimini, electronics, etc, and I definitely would have to go one size up to the 42cm beach wheels (maximum load of 160kg).
• Even with an increased diameter of 42cm, it didn’t seem to me that I would necessarily get more ground clearance. Those balloons flatten out quite a bit under pressure, and there would probably be no net gain in the end.

So I made the decision to go with the 42cm beach wheels. Unfortunately, those 42cm beach wheels only come with a 1″ (25.4mm) axle. Dang! Doug’s measurements wasn’t going to work in my situation, and I was going to have to experiment a bit.

• Given my heavy load, I needed a really strong axle, and not just any aluminum pole from the local hardware store.
• The Wheeleez website specifies their axle wall at 4mm (2 walls = 8mm), which is by far the heftiest I’ve heard off. But if I bought their axle, would it fit over the existing axle as in Doug’s case?
• Some quick calculations
  25.4mm (outer diameter of 1″) – 8mm (two 4mm walls) = 17.4mm (internal diameter of the Wheeleez 1″ axle)
• The existing axle is 15.875mm (5/8″), so we have a match! The difference of 1.525mm would be easily overcome with some silicon as Doug had originally suggested

UNPACKING AND FINAL PREPARATION

The parts came (partially) in one box. Despite the walkie-talkie packing, there was no damage to the “antenna”. I like the large print on the box stating “no blades”, as morons like me need clear instructions to prevent us from slashing our way through our presents.

The wheels came out first…

Followed by the axle. I happily removed the old wheels, slipped on the new axle, and…

….DAMN! The axle feels a lot looser than 1.525mm!!

Out comes the caliper, and

….DAMN! The axle wall isn’t 4mm!

A few choice words later, I discovered where I had gone wrong. The manufacturer specified 4mm axle wall thickness only for their wheel + axle kits, whereas their standalone axles (which I had ordered) had no specific wall measurements. One would assume that they would ship the same axle, but then again, making assumptions in life can be pretty dangerous.

The 3mm-walled axle I held in my hand was still pretty hefty. It felt more like a crowbar than an aluminum shaft, to be honest. Good enough for my applications. Now to just overcome that 3.525mm gap!

Final measurements of the original Porta Dolly axle – 5/8 inch where the wheel sits, and 1″ on the inside.

 

Oh darn! I hadn’t notice the inner diameter of 1″. Will the beach wheel slide too far in?

…..click…..click….Yes it would!

So now I have to find an internal brace to keep the wheel from sliding too close to the aluminum wall!

Wait, what if I were to offset the 1″ axle upwards? Perhaps I could get good metal-on-metal contact in the upward direction, and didn’t need to create an internal brace?

FINAL ASSEMBLY STEPS:

• Cut 2 short sections of that 1″ axle, each section just wide enough for each beach wheel
• Slide the section onto the original axle, and push it upwards just like the beach wheel would
• Secure with silicone. Given Doug’s ambitious use of silicone, I decided to try hot glue. Had some adventure with heating the metal bits over an open flame and boiling the plastic, but that’s a separate story.

As Doug had predicted, “it’s quite easy to do”. But the moron in me tends over complicates simple stuff.

END RESULT

I’m launching again tomorrow with the family, and we’ll see how these wheels perform then. I’m pretty sure the wider profile will be of great help over the sand.

Fair winds!

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