Wheelbarrows haven’t changed much since the days of Fred Flintstone and the first ancients who invented the wheel.
When you think about it, until you get to the point in history when you can add an engine, there’s not much room for improvement. It’s a wheel with a flat platform and a couple of sticks for handles.
If we discount the Flintstone theory, the first known wheelbarrows date back to ancient Greece in about 400 BC.
My own introduction to wheelbarrows came at about age seven when Dad decided I should earn my weekly allowance helping him install drain tile around the footings of our eight-foot deep basement.
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The tools were three types of shovels and one evil wheelbarrow, which I started out hating intensely. It eventually became a challenge to see how much Red River clay I could carry without tipping. Then a little speed entered the picture and it almost became fun — almost.
Fifteen years later I bought my first house and my first wheelbarrow. Six houses later, I now have four different types of wheelbarrows, including the antique. And I’m contemplating buying one other style of wheelbarrow with more tires.
In recent years, I’ve wheelbarrowed and raked out as many as 70 yards per summer of crushed limestone plus another 20 of topsoil.
I have to confess, I am a wheelbarrow aficionado.
My steel wheeled hauler dates back to the 1930s, according to the old fellow who gave it to me.
We still use it occasionally for light duty, such as hauling straw when the other three are busy. But that steel wheel is a noisy nuisance, and it’s rough riding on hands, arms and shoulders.
At some point, the original narrow steel wheel was widened so it wouldn’t sink into the ground. It appears a blacksmith performed this modification because the two steel straps welded to the circumference of original 1.5 inch wide wheel form a perfect circle. No creases of bending bumps. The wheel is now six inches wide.
I packed the wheel bearings first thing when I got the old bucket. The hub and bearings are hefty enough they could have been from a car of that era.
Packing wheelbarrow bearings may seem like an odd thing to do, but the better quality units do have an axle and bearings like those found on the front of a bicycle or motorcycle.
Dirt and grit get in there and can wreck the bearings. It’s no big task taking them apart to clean and grease.
The next step down in quality would be the hubs with a grease zerk. A little squirt every fall before the wheelbarrow goes into storage keeps the grease fresh and pliable.
The lowest quality wheelbarrows have sealed bearings, which will need to be replaced once sand and grit work their way past the seal.
My single tire conventional wheelbarrow is just that, a basic wheelbarrow much like the ancient Greeks had, only with a rubber tire.
I don’t like it much because it’s so wobbly that it’s hard on my back, especially when it’s full with a heavy sloshy load such as concrete. However, it’s my wife Judy’s favourite. She won’t even use the other wheelbarrows in my collection.
That single tire is the one big advantage over the dual or triple tired barrows. It steers better and gets into tight spots a lot easier.
Big Blue is old enough to have greaseable bearings that I service every time I install a new tire, about once every four or five years. In contrast, I have yet to replace a tire on the dually hauler, even though it does far more work than the single.
The dual tired unit is just about the only wheelbarrow you see on construction sites anymore.
Directional stability is great, so you don’t have to concentrate too much on steering. And that factor, of course, becomes the one big drawback.
The old conventional wheelbarrow pivots on that single tire to turn. The dually forces you to walk sideways to the right if you want to turn left and walk sideways to the left if you want to turn right. It can be a problem when hauling concrete into tight spots.
Stability is the dually’s big advantage. The two tires are about a foot apart, so wobbling is eliminated, which is good news for the lower back.
Because it is so stable, you can carry a bigger load without worrying about tipping. These are generally the highest quality wheelbarrows you can find, and the only ones that come fitted with good tires.
If two tires are better than one, then three tires must be better than two. And it’s true.
The three-wheeler is the ultimate wheelbarrow, in my opinion. It totally eliminates the balancing act when moving heavy stuff around the yard. You can push a full load with one hand because you no longer have to lift the unit as you go.
It uses one normal sized tire at the front, in the normal location, and two smaller tires at the back where the resting stands once touched the ground.
The handles are in the normal position, but a new raised horizontal cross handle allows you to walk upright as you push the wheelbarrow. Upright is the position in which we’re designed to walk.
While the high handle is essential to this high tech unit, it is also the Achilles heel that pulled these wonderful machines from the market within a month of their introduction.
Canadian Tire promoted them on television for a brief time about 10 years ago. Being a wheelbarrow kind of guy, I rushed over to my nearest store, only to find a large pile of brand new broken three-wheeled wheelbarrows on the floor in the garden centre.
It didn’t take much to see that the high cross handles had all broken off where they attach to the two conventional handles.
Some had broken off because the technicians assembling them in the automotive side of the store used an impact wrench to tighten the bolts going through the normal handles into the base of the high handle. The Pacific Rim steel stripped.
Others appeared slightly scuffed, so they may have carried a load or two before the high cross handle broke. Either way, bad engineering and overall poor quality created an unusable product.
The engineering flaw was simply the lack of forward braces from the high cross handle. Without these braces, any forward pushing pressure on the handle causes it to snap off, even with a light load.
It seems nobody had thought about that. So we sorted through the pile and found enough adequate parts that I could cobble together to make a three-wheeler at home.
The department manager was glad to get rid of some the junk and sold it to me for $30 if I promised not to bring it back. In retrospect, I should have offered her $100 for the whole pile.
When I got home, the only real modification was the addition of an X-brace running from the top of the cross handle forward down to the bucket. Now, when I push hard on the handle, all force is applied to the bottom of the bucket.
Problem solved, and I’m able to push around heaping heavy loads of crushed limestone. The overall quality of the thing is bad, but it’s hung together for 10 years.
The original tires lasted one year. I replaced them with the highest quality tires I could find and have had no problems since.
Wheelbarrow tires cost from less than $10 to more than $30. It’s well worth the extra money to buy the best. They can last a decade or longer.
The drawback to the three-wheeler is it sits so high with those extra tires at the back. I’ve raised the axle and thus lowered the ride height at the back, but you still need to be careful on side slopes.
Steering while running in a straight line takes a little getting used to, but it’s manageable. Turning in tight spots is the same as a conventional single tire unit. Simply lift the conventional handles and it becomes a normal wheelbarrow again.
If it’s a really heavy load and you don’t feel like lifting, I’ve found you can steer pretty well by pushing down on the handles to take weight off the front tire.
I’ve only seen these factory built three-wheelers on the market that one time. It wouldn’t be difficult to modify a conventional single-wheeler into a three-wheeler.
But before you start buying tires and axles, consider the Tri Will Burrow Retrofit Kit from Wesley Enterprises in Missouri. For $60, you get the rear axle, rear tires and a high hoop handle that slides over your existing handles.
Looking at the photo, instinct tells me the hoop handle is a good way to break wooden handles and bend steel handles. I’d be tempted to install some sort of forward brace so the force transfers directly down to the bucket or frame.
For information on the kit, contact www.carrilitecorrals.com.
