Dinghy Wheels

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

We also are in the Caribbean. We were instant converts to the 4” bumper when we saw a couple of 80 year olds easily roll their dinghy up the sand. Bumpers don’t dig into soft sand.

Fenders are fine for moving the dinghy. They do not work well when landing in surf conditions. Something that is common in Pacific Mexico and Central America.

[Tomodore]

Agree that using a fender to get the dinghy up the beach is fine with no surf but totally bogus for surf landings. When we are going ashore on the Mexican mainland say in Tenicatita we wait outside the surf for an opportunity then gun the engine with the wheels down and as soon as the dinghy stops we pile out and pull it up the beach before(hopefully) the next big wave comes in. Perhaps the beaches you land at are calmer as we have now in the Gulf of California and large quality wheels such as Danard are unnecessary.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Fenders are fine for moving the dinghy. They do not work well when landing in surf conditions. Something that is common in Pacific Mexico and Central America.

Having a telescoping front wheel with a tiller on top is great for landing in surf conditions. Get on the front of a wave and when the wheels hit bottom you have steerage all the way into the beach then swing the tiller abeam to hold against the backwash whilst you climb out and use the tiller to haul the dingy up the beach.

However, whilst beaching in a surf provides a bit of a thrill it does not beat accelerating down a longish and steepish boat ramp, dropping the outboard and zooming off into the distance. I've been told it looks pretty cool.

[RaymondR]

And if you decide not to use them on the dingy, there's always the dog.

[Alistair242]

Originally Posted by admiralslater

I am happy with our beach master wheels . Very robust plus they are not ugly

What type of dinghy do you have? I purchased a set of Active Boat Wheels, which are similar but there is no clearance between the wheels and the hull of our Highfield CL340.
Maybe the Beach Master wheels sit lower and have more clearance when down?

[wingssail]

For anyone, but particularly for older folks (like ourselves) or anyone with a heavy RIB, dingy wheels are very helpful. For us they are essential.

Big wheels are best. You can roll a dingy on hard sand or on concrete with any wheels, but in soft sand or mud the small wheels don't roll at all. On a steep, soft sand beach it is impossible without big wheels, even then, very hard.

The big wheels are also better on rocky or broken coral beaches. (when the wheel drops into a hole or behind a rock you need to lift the dingy over that obstacle. This occurs less with big wheels.)

The Danard wheels are terrific: they are big, strong, and easy to deploy. We have "Ideal" dingy wheels which use simiar sized wheels as the Danard but are not as strong and are a pain to put down or up.

Why Strong? There are many occasions where a lot of force is applied to the dingy wheel structure, (surfing in, hitting an obstacle, etc). A broke wheel strut is not fun.

[CaptTom]

I think it was this thread which had me thinking about dinghy wheels last year. I bought these around the end of August:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085CBC8G1

I've only really had a chance to use them a couple of times, but so far they seem great. Even with the motor down, I can move the dinghy on grass, pavement and gravel. Haven't tried soft sand, I think that might be a problem.

They do look kinda stupid. I tell people they're "training wheels." And I'm not real happy with the release mechanism, it's hard to do with one hand, while moving the wheel with the other. Still, I'm already glad I have them.