Lower back p. - ScubaCaddy (wheels for tank)

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I leave commenting about taking the cart underwater with you to others, and make a point about the first thing that alerts me when I look at the product as a diver with fairly serious back issues. I have never seen this particular cart but I would never buy it. It looks nifty and could work for somebody - who was under 5 f tall!

If you have back problems one of the worst things is to drag heavy items with you back hunched. I do not even need to ask if the product has great wheels and will easily roll over whatever terrain I am planning to drag it over - because you can't walk with your back straight with this, no way. Look at the marketing pictures! They are deceiving, they even placed the tank on slope or rock every time so it would not be immediately obvious how you would need to bend over to pull the thing. Ouch! (A huge strain for my lower back at least).

You'd be better off getting something like these:

Hand Trucks & Dollies | Hand Trucks-Folding | Wesco Multi Use Folding Portable Hand Carts - GlobalIndustrial.com

Hand Trucks & Dollies | Hand Trucks-Folding | Folding Portable Hand Carts - Best Value - GlobalIndustrial.com

Very popular with divers. I have one that takes 250 lbs but still collapses nicely for travel in car, and the handle will come up nice and high for pulling tanks comfortably. There are several makes, I think I paid $75 for mine and it's holding on nicely after 3 yrs. Good investment.
 
I agree with piikki, Lowes carries one of the folding types that I have.

Best Wheel Products at Lowe's: Folding Hand Truck

Just wish it had wheels a bit wider, but works well on anything but sand.
 
The best one I've ever seen was the one we used in the USAF in Okinawa in 1968 to haul our dive gear to planes. It consisted of a bucket-type enclosure which we could fill with dive gear, and had bicycle wheels on either side. These were undoubtedly locally made at the time, but worked very well on the tarmac. Thinking about it now, there are bicycle trailers which may work pretty well. Take a look at what Burley makes:

http://www.burley.com/products/adventure/nomad.cfm

If you look at the kits and accessories, you can see that they make a "jogger's kit" which would allow for easy pushing.

http://www.burley.com/products/accessories/index.cfm

The problem I have with any of these is that I regularly go over uneven terraine (boulders, cliffs, etc.) at my dive site. I find that wearing a single 72, that I put on at my vehicle (a Honda Pilot) while sitting seems to help. Here's what my dive site looks like:

LoneRockLifeguardStand.jpg


SeaRat
 
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The only bad thing about Diving for me is to haul all the heavy gear (is bad if you have back problems). Have anyone try this ScubaCaddy?

Strap Wheels on your Scuba Gear to Easily Roll it to the Dive Site

Or made one similar that is cheaper?

I was given one last year and it is worth every penny I paid for it. On the plus side, the trapped air at the bottom of the tank helped keep me heads down while working. That is about everything good I have to say about them.

The wheel base is too narrow to be stable. The wheels themselves only work well on very smooth ground.

If you want mine to try out, I will gladly give it to you for the cost of shipping.
 
I think asking people (and possibly tipping them a few bucks) would work just as well. All the places we dive here has soft sand or fairly large rocks. I think getting a person (better yet a curious kid) to HELP you carry your tanks to the shore would help both your back and the dive industry. I know the beach I used to go to had the occasional diver and I hardly ever talked to them when I was snorkeling there. I would've lugged doubles up just to find out what was going on in the deeper areas that I couldn't get to due to currents and depth. Granted it won't work in a lot of places, but neither will most dive carts. And even if a cart will go over sand or larger rocks it's going to be so positively buoyant that the lead required would be absurd. Or you have to leave it onshore and worry about theft. I think that most of the time asking a passerby for a little help and being nice to them can both help you get in and out of the water and do a public service for diving in general. If you have to indulge some basic questions to laymen, well why not?

And if you run into me at Wetherill or Pt Judith light, I'll lug your whole kit into the water and help you with a buddy check. Just bring me back a bug.

Eric
 
How about one of those kayak / canoe carriers? You might be able to use it as a base to mod from if your handy. The one I have for my yak has big inflatable tires that work in the sand and rocks. This picture isn't that great but it's all I could find quickly. That yak was probably around 100lbs total weight and I pulled it up a sandy hill, a tank and weight belt would be a breeze.
 

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Or you have to leave it onshore and worry about theft. I think that most of the time asking a passerby for a little help and being nice to them can both help you get in and out of the water and do a public service for diving in general. If you have to indulge some basic questions to laymen, well why not?

And if you run into me at Wetherill or Pt Judith light, I'll lug your whole kit into the water and help you with a buddy check. Just bring me back a bug.

Ok, I looked at your profile so I would know how you look like if I ever needed someone in your neighbourhood :) You need to out a pic of your mug there, so I know who is willing!

It really is worth mentioning that one should ask for help but also reminding that there are a lot of people who for one reason or another aren't willing or able to help out either. Mostly in my own case it's question of availability and not wanting to bother, especially if I have a lot of gear on me. Couple of times my eyes have also widened when non-diver has offered to help, and they have had no idea how heavy the gear is nor any idea how to lift it safely (mostly for them, secondary worry for the gear).

I also want to mention that theft should not be a worry with the carts. Most shore divers need to lock up remainder of their gear back into car anyway. That is where my cart goes too. (That is also why I got collapsible one, I've seen some white-van serious divers having the robust big wheelers too).

The unfortunate fact is that a lot of us boonie-divers do not have the helpful passers-by or fellow divers around to ask for help and sometimes we dive with same buddies who need need to save their backs too (from constantly having to carry more than one set to water in rough terrain).
 

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