Carriers

The only known commercially available transport carrier is from T-Kits. However, due to the variables of modules, home, vehicle, and personal body strength; a custom made solution is often required. The first question to answer is what modules (types) do you intend to carry in your rack? In other words, do you want a general purpose rack or do you want a rack for specific modules. That will dictate the construction to a degree (shelf width, depth, and shelf spacing). Also, make sure that the width of the carrier will fit through the doors in your home, generally a 30" opening.

Carrier1.jpg

I have built two different transport carriers and use them both. The first rack is my general purpose rack. It weighs 9 pounds empty and uses 1/4 x 20 all thread for the shelves (2 each). It is 33 1/2 inches tall and just fits in through the back hatch of my Honda CRV. It has four shelves. I used 1x2's for the horizontal shelf brackets and angle aluminum for the four vertical supports (2 on each end). The horizontal shelf supports are C shaped (open side on the front). The end pieces are 15" each and cap the spine piece which is 27 1/2" long. This makes the outer dimension of the C shaped horizontal shelf 29" wide (inner dimension 27 1/2"). Measuring from the back of the C shaped horizontal shelf brackets I drilled holes at the 4" and 12" points (all thread rods are 8" apart) about 2/3 down from the top of the 1x2 as opposed to centered. I built four pieces identical to this, one for each shelf. The shelves are 8" apart from the bottom of one to the bottom of the shelf above. I also built a square frame for the top with the same dimensions (15" end pieces that cap two 27 1/2" pieces). I sandwiched the 1x2 with nuts on each side where the rod went through. The rod also went through each of the vertical supports. I used washers only on the wood side. The original intent was to make the rack wide enough to carry an end cap but the inner dimension of the shelf is a bit too narrow.

Carrier2.jpg

The other rack is just for the Mantua set so it is built specifically for doubles and only has supports for modules on each side. It weighs 10 pounds empty. Horizontal support shelves are built with 1x2s in a similar C shaped manner however the end pieces are 14 3/4" long (to accommodate the 14" deep module) and the spine piece is 24 1/2" (just a wee bit wider than 620mm. For the shelf support I glued 1/4 x 2" slats the entire depth (14 3/4") of each side piece to make an L shaped shelf. Naturally, there are four such shelves and the square frame top which I added a center bar to use as a carry handle. The shelf spacing is 7" on this rack for a total height of 29". For the vertical support pieces I used the same 1/4 x 2" slats (2 on each side and 4 on the back).

I use a small folding hand truck to wheel them into the venue if the terrain permits.

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