As I get older, it gets harder and harder to "toss" a canoe up on my shoulders and walk around with it. It is even harder to use ONE shoulder and traipse around with a kayak... especially across wide sloping sand beaches and up sandy hills. So I finally caved in and decided to buy a cart. I demo'ed a bunch ranging from little V-bumpers attached to axles to the awesome Toteez with the giant balloon tires. Here's what it came down to... the Toteez, the Primex, or the Heavy Lifter. These seemed to me to be the best of the lot given my uses. I needed a cart that could carry my canoe and my kayaks. It had to be able to carry the boat WITH gear inside the boat (I'm getting lazy, remember?) It had to be transportable in some way in or on the kayak without hurting the performance of the kayak.
The Toteez is expensive but nothing can touch it in the sand! It is well built and seems equal to the Primex in terms of capacity. But... it is tough to squeeze into the kayak with those balloon tires! And they are a bit much on the deck.
The Primex is a great design. Light, strong, and easy to use. Holds over 200 lbs... they even say you can use it as a chair! I didn't want to test that theory in a demo. Over time, my butt would surely win over the Primex... but I'm not buying the cart to sit on... we have some of those neat folding chairs for that. The Primex's wheels come off and you can get it into a Kodiak hatch without too much trouble. I almost bought one!
At the last moment, I discovered the Paddleboy Heavy Lifter. It is a Primex clone. But it is better! It is not made of aluminum; it is made of stainless steel. It doesn't hold 200 lbs... it holds 600 lbs!!! It is the same size yet weighs only 2 lbs more. You get triple the capacity for only 2 lbs. more weight and no increase in volume. And bonus!!! You don't take the wheels off the frame, you take the section of the frame attached to the wheels off leaving two wheels with a small part of the frame attached and two segments of the frame. All of it fits perfectly and easily into my kayak. It slides right back together in a snap and locks in with a spring-loaded nub. It is quite ingenious and really works well.
We took a canoe trip down the mighty Kishwaukee and used the Heavy Lifter. We were doing a river clean-up with some other volunteers, we tossed all our "junk" in there and it didn't flinch! Great product.
We used it on our kayaks and with the kayaks balanced in the center, it takes one finger to pull the kayak... with gear! Now that's what I'm talkin about!
Bad point... no straps. I used some heavy bungee cord at first... but then it took some long straps and everything works fine. The company ought to realize that it is pretty chincey not to include two $5 straps. The product needs them to function. I think it is stupid to rely upon dumb users like me to have to figure out stuff like that. Anyway, get a couple of long straps (NRS has real good ones) and you are good to go.
Bottom line... buy this thing. It is the best dual-purpose cart out there. CYA on the water!
