cheap carry handles for my Hobie

The floppy carry handles on Hobies have a metal embedded inside the plastic. Incredibly, it's not stainless, and on my AI, they had rusted badly, and I was thinking they were going to break. Hobie sells replacements for $20 each, while Old Town has some for about half that price that look pretty good. I decided to make my own, and they only cost a little over $2 each.

I used PVC, the 3/4" gray conduit, 45 degree, which cost $1.68 each at my local Home Depot (the gray conduit is supposed to be more UV resistant than PVC pipe). I also used a fender washer, bent into a taco shape, and some high-quality sailing rope. Nothing especially original, but I like the curved handle better than straight PVC.

More pictures...

Love these inexpensive diy solutions. A wise man also told me to install two handles so you can use both hands to tow your kayak. He never broke a sweat lugging his AI around.

Proper way:

Proper way:

Must be a Hobie PA !!

Love these inexpensive diy solutions. A wise man also told me to install two handles so you can use both hands to tow your kayak. He never broke a sweat lugging his AI around.

You might need 4 handles and 4 people if you want to make it easy to manage an AI...