Malone Traverse Heavy Duty Kayak/Canoe Cart with Flat-Free Tires - Bunk Style - 250 lbs

Video Transcript for Malone Traverse Heavy Duty Kayak/Canoe Cart Review

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline, and today we're gonna go on a kayaking adventure where we will talk about the Malone Traverse heavy duty kayak cart. This being a heavy duty cart means that it can carry your heavier fishing kayaks and your smaller boats. Now, for every kayaking adventure, it doesn't start on the water, it starts right here in the parking lot where you still have to figure out how are you gonna get this heavy boat to the creek. So we're gonna put together our cart and make that all happen. This is what our kayak cart looks like taken apart. This is how we're gonna transport it in your vehicle, and sometimes on your kayak.

We have our strap, we have our mast, we have our bunks or cradles, then we have our tires. Now there's two versions of the Malone Traverse. One has these off-road tires, the other has the balloon wheels for sandier locations. Since we're going off-road, this is what we have. Start by attaching your tires.

So you're gonna want that mast to have the name Malone facing the right way. You're gonna get your tire, and then you're going to easily insert it into the side posts. Just push these down in order to push the wheels through. They'll pop right back up, securing the wheels and preventing them from coming back off. Next, you have these pins and clips on the top post.

So we're gonna take these out so that we can put our bunk onto the post. So notice how there's gonna be holes on the bunk, and that's gonna fit over the holes that are on the post. You can adjust for height as well as for width. So we're gonna go to our top setting for now, and I'll give you some measurements real quick. So the bunks can sit either 16 inches off the ground, 17 inches, or all the way up to 18 inches off the ground.

Secure both bunks with your pin and your clip, and clips are pretty important to make sure this doesn't back right back out, and now we're going to adjust for the bunk width. Now this can go from three and a half inches apart to 16 inches apart. So if you find any of them closer together, further apart, you just loosen the knob, and then tighten back down at your desired width. Final step is to get your cam buckle straps. This is gonna have two parts to it. Just feed it around one of the posts and pull it tight, and this is what you're going to use to secure your kayak to your cart. Very quick, very easy to get this all set up. This is a bunk style designed to fit within the bottom bunks of your kayak. Now this is also a good time to set our cart to this specific width needed for this kayak. So we're gonna adjust this a little bit like that. Gonna move this one up, and then we're going to tighten it into place right there. Notice as well how we have our little scupper holes on this boat. So if I really wanted to, I could get the Malone cart for that specific method of carrying around. But once this is secured, we can either tilt the kayak up and over onto this cart or roll it up and over, whichever is more comfortable for you. So those bunks are pretty grippy. So sliding the boat onto the bunks and getting it up to the two third mark might be a little tricky to do all by yourself, but practice makes perfect as well. I personally like to find a little anchor point on the kayak that I could utilize just to hold the strap in place and secured to the kayak before I tighten down on this cam buckle strap. But again, with this being a cam buckle strap, this does provide a good amount of grip and tension on that strap, so you make sure that everything stays together as you cart this away. Now for the trek, so from our point in the parking lot to the creek, it's gonna be about a hundred yards or over a hundred meters. So let's grab this and go. So rolling through the parking lot, nice and smooth, especially since we have the smooth parking lot. The kayak is still heavy, but I can't carry it all by myself, but with a cart I can. And now on our trail. So even with the rockier ground, pretty good performance from our kayak cart and it still feels about the same amount of difficulty to pull the kayak through. Oh, we're going up a little hill there. going a little off-roading. When I was here last time, you see where that bend in the trail is That's actually where I had to stop to take a break, and I was only carrying a 10-foot kayak by myself that time. So being able to get past that point and still not be super tired is awesome. Like my arm muscles are getting tired, but I feel like I'm only carrying about 40% of the weight of the kayak compared to its full weight. Maneuvering around the trees has been pretty okay, although I do have to muscle it over some logs. Let's make the sharp turn down towards the bank. If I get the tip of the kayak up and over, I can line up the cart wheels, maneuvering that terrain, and it's all holding on. That's awesome. We got it up and over here. Let's take this down to close to the water. I don't like getting to straps wet. It's fine if this whole system gets wet. It's just not as easy to maneuver. So right here on the bank is a perfect spot to take this apart. Here's a little tip I've picked up and this comes purely from, I like to take this apart and put it back together as little as possible. So I just secure the entire cart fully set up to the kayak. You can utilize the straps on the cart if you want to, you can utilize the little storage bungees. This sits pretty well right here, and I'm not expecting anything crazy unless I tip over. Now you can take it apart. You saw how it looked like in the parking lot. It does come apart into smaller pieces if you don't have much space, but this makes things a lot easier. So personal thoughts about our Malone Traverse kayak cart. I really like it. I genuinely enjoy the whole experience of carrying the kayak from the parking lot to this spot because when you wanna go on a big kayaking adventure, the last thing you want to do is spend all your energy before you even get into the water. So yes, I still had to muscle through some things, but this was a lot easier than lifting the kayak all by myself. A thing that really impressed me are these large never flat wheels. They really we're off-roading there when they went over those tree roots and the trail logs. With these being the larger heavier duty version, they're gonna be wider as well as thicker compared to your other TRX never flat wheels. So I would prefer these anytime, even with lighter kayaks. Yes, they do take up more room, but I think it's worth it. These large off-road wheels are very versatile, but if you're in a situation where expecting mostly sand, you're at the beach, and you're not hitting this kind of terrain at any point of your kayaking life, then getting the balloon wheels might be preferable. They do keep your heavier kayak afloat up off the sand rather than sinking too much into it. But if you're expecting a mixture of both sands and a terrain, then this might work out better for you for versatility. My name is Evangeline and I hope you enjoyed this look at the Malone Traverse heavy duty kayak cart right here at etrailer.com.