Rowing Hack: The Motor Roller – Rowing Stories, Features & Interviews

This week’s Rowing Hack comes from Richard Misdom of the Dallas Rowing Club, who sent us a photo of a custom outboard cart.

Thanks to Misdom and his woodworking skills, we bring you the Motor Roller.

Of course, you can buy carts like these, but Misdom created their own cart to save a few bucks and add one more feature that’s better suited to rowing coaches. increase.

Its bottom shelf can easily carry a 3-gallon gas can, or a boat life jacket.

As we’ve seen in previous gas cart hacks, putting a gas can on something with wheels is a genius move, and programs that require the outboard to come indoors every day don’t require a bone to carry the engine. less ways to fold. A regular back-inside is an equivalent or perhaps even more convenient hack.

Misdom also gives his Motor Rollers a full 4-wheel treatment. Even his 4-wheel racks that you can buy come with small casters in the front or otherwise cost a lot (an “all-terrain” engine cart with similar wheels will get you running). I can). North $600). Those little casters work well for getting the engine running on cement floors, but the Misdom’s heavy-duty wheels roll to the dock when needed and move it without the hefty price tag.

Misdom says his four-wheel design is also a safety feature. Because the wide base and weight keep the cart from tipping over.

Misdom’s design provides a convenient surface on the side of each motor roller to sport the logo of the school each motor roller belongs to. This helps keep the engines straight with the five different youth sculling programs that call the DRC home.

Even if you don’t need to move your outboard on a daily basis, Misdom’s carts are great for off-season storage and put your engine at the perfect repair and maintenance height for those who maintain it.

Of course, if you must keep your engine outdoors, don’t forget this classic hack to prevent outboard motor theft. Also make sure you have a sturdy lock and chain.

As you can see in the two photos above, the folks at the Dallas Rowing Club wanted a convenient outboard harness that would allow them to easily lift the engine when getting in and out of their boat (and cart)…and Both the harness and the cart keep the outboard from falling or, in the case of a 4-stroke motor, wrapping around the ground and spilling oil.

It turns out that Misdom prefers to solve most of the boathouse’s storage problems with timber.

From All Rack…

For overhead sling storage…

…for indoor slings.

There are definitely some cool hacks in Misdom’s other wood builds that should be covered in detail in future columns.

Do you have a hack to create a clever solution for what’s in the boathouse? If so, please share your tips and hacks in the comments below.

If you have any rowing hacks that would help us with future suggestions, please send them to us like Richard did. I’ll feature your ideas in future columns.