I have a 3.5mtr sib for sea fishing, its got transom wheels and weighs around 46kilo with the air floor.
I found that once I had loaded my sib for fishing the front end became pretty darn heavy, even redistributing the heavy stuff like 20+ ltr of fuel, anchor, rope, fishing tackle & safety gear it was still pretty heavy to lift and pull from the one small D handle.
I looked at purchasing a dolly, about the only suitable one was a Trem swiveling one but its an import, so 160Euro plus UK taxes, too much for me so I thought I would make one.
Thats the Trem one.
£50 will buy you a caravan moving dolly which modified would do the job but if you want more than just to hook onto the D handle its more difficult.
I had just finished building my russian outboard trolley, so still had plenty of material in the workshop. I had hoped to make the outboard trolley dual purpose and adapt it to lift and steer the bow but it was just not suitable, so I made a complete new one.
The axle and vertical would be fairly easy, but it would need to swivel for easy steering and would need to come apart to transport in the car without taking up too much space, yet go back together easily.
I started with the bow support and D handle attachment keeping close to the Trem design.
So onto the axle & vertical sections, more use of my purchased office table steel box. I made the axle identical to my engine trolley one so wheels and axle tubes are interchangeable if need be.
Once the sizes and height were set I worked on how the handle would fit and how it would strip down for transport.
So the handle is done and telescopic & I designed a tube within a tube for the removable swivel section.
A paint up and its almost complete, it has quick remove black knobs for the 2 handle parts. The wheels come off in seconds and the top swivel section slides out of the vertical section to pack away.
Test run, its steering towards the hedge while the frame holds the bow in the direct forward alignment.
Last pictures show the pipe insulation fitted to give best protection to the sib underside, I also changed the wheels for some smaller ones more suited to the dolly size.
So to follow on from this project, it was recently mentioned to me that when on your own its very hard pulling the dinghy up a concrete slip, so I wondered if I could somehow use the car to very slowly tow the boat up. Now I dont have a tow bar fitted but that shouldnt stop me should it!
I found the 2 rear most cargo tie down points in my car and using them and a ratchet strap I made an internal tow point to fix the dolly handle to. I think I should call it a trolley now ;)
By undoing the quick fix telescopic handle and reversing the handle end so the bend kicks down instead of upwards I can get a good secure fix to the car to gently pull the dinghy on its transom wheels up to level ground to pack away.
When I do this for real I will use the rug under the handle to protect the bumper, just in case. The tie down of the handle will be with more subtle means should it be suitable for continual use, I have some spare eye bolts, one through the handle center would do the job securely.
Small update October 2021
I have now fitted an eyebolt and carabina to the trolley handle which means I can do away with the blue strap and clip the carabina directly to the tailgate lock staple.
