Forecart Advice?

[Lizzy Koltai]

Hi,

I’m looking to purchase a forecart for my vegetable farm.

Does anyone have any advice? Which forecarts do you like the best? Are there any that are superior for work in the market garden? For those of you with homemade forecarts- what’s the best thing you put into the design?

I’m considering the Whitehorse Machine #607 with lever steering and hydraulic brakes- mostly because the farm I used to work for had a Whitehorse 606 with lever steering. Admittedly, I like the steering for backing up to implements. The price tag ($1580 including brakes) is steep for my current budget, but within the realm of consideration if its really the best tool for my farm.

Also, if anyone has a used forecart in good condition for sale, please let me know.

Lizzy
Helios Horsepower Farm
Bowdoinham, Maine

[Brad Johnson]

Lizzy-
We used a barden cart for years with a single mare for vegetable production. That design is great for team use as well. We did all of our garden work as well as haying with that cart, and the barden is good in the woods as well – a true multipurpose tool. Not sure if there are any around used but would be worth a look. The design really is functional.
-Brad

[wild millers]

Hi Lizzy, I don’t know specifically about the 606 or 607 but I think they are quite heavy duty?

I would consider what sort of equipment you hope to move with the cart and what sort of tongue weights you might expect.. A heavy duty cart may be more than you need for most market garden work.

I have used a white horse for cart before that had an adjustable axle. You could move it forward or backwards depending on how much tongue weight was hitched behind. This was a nice feature for moving around heavy, two wheeled, trailers full of fire wood, or two wheeled ground driven manure spreaders because you could put more of the trailer tongue weight on the axle and stop the pole from lifting up by the horses’ heads. I have never used a cart with a steering lever, though I once heard an Amishman scoffing at how much his children used the steering lever to steer the cart rather than steering the horses.

For simple drag work around the market gardens..harrows, wagons, rollers/cultipackers, etc. a lighter cart might be just the ticket.

We use a Pioneer cart that I believe we got for around $600, and these carts are so common they seem to pop up on craigs list quite often. It has always done the work I needed it to around the market gardens as well as pulling hay rakes and wagons in the hay field. Pioneer also makes other useful attachments that can be added to make it more than just a for cart. We use the scraper blade for snow plowing, I don’t own one but they sell a potato plow that will bolt onto the same lifting mechanism. I would like to find a small york rake that could mount onto this system as well for grading work. 2 to 3 horse adjustment is easy, pole to shafts adjustment is easy, it has drum brakes rather than hydraulic but they work fine for what I have needed them. They will lock the wheels with very little effort and I never could figure out how the expense of a hydraulic system could serve that function any better.

Good luck-
P.S you can try out our Pioneer cart when you come for a visit if you like.

-Joel

[wild millers]

I should also mention that Mark Cowdry makes a nice looking “Piggyback” bolt on firewood arch for the Pioneer cart at a reasonable price. There is an ad for it on this website somewhere.-Joel

[Donn Hewes]

Lizzy, Here is my two cents. I think there are many good forecarts for general farm use. I think the barden cart has some unique features that might make it easier to use’ especially with a D ring harness (high tongue and low evener). The pioneer and all the other carts are nice. I am sure the steering gear is nice, I just don’t know what I would need it for.

If you know anyone who can weld a simple fore cart is about the easiest thing to make. For most farm purposes no fancy features are necessary. I like to start with a salvaged trailer (I just bought one from a neighbor that is a tandem axle with good hubs, bearings, and tires for $250). The with some square steel tubing or channel you can make a flat deck. add a seat, draw bar, railing, bolt on a tongue. They can be really simple and easy to make.

I guess for me it would come down to exactly what I intended to hook it to. I use mine for manure spreaders, hay rakes, hay wagons, moving chicken houses, and sheep shade shelters. water wagons. For my next one I plan to include some features of a log arch, a barden cart, and my idea of a simple forecart; plus a bus seat, or two person seat. One nice thing about a cheaper home made one is you can have more of them. Including a gas powered pto, and a ground drive pto, I have five forecarts that I use; all home made. I am planning to make a new one this spring.

[dominiquer60]

The steering option on the White Horse cart is nice and it does make backing up to an implement easier, Sam says,”Life is an Obstacle Course.” The only time that I have ever made use of the steering while working is plowing with a 2 bottom trailer plow and 6 horses on a hillside. It helped to steer up hill to compensate for gravity trying to pull us downhill the whole time. Other wise I have never needed the steering. I imagine the more you use a cart, the more uses one may find for the steering, but in the end you can probably do with out it. I have been keeping my eyes open for a used one of any sort. We only have 2 and both have an attached neck yoke, which is great for using horses, but means that I cannot use it with my steers. Ideally I would like a Barden Cart, but will settle for what ever works. If I come across an extra, I will let you know.

[Does’ Leap]

I have a White Horse forecart with steering. I wasn’t looking for the steering, it just happened to be on the used cart that I bought. Although I used the steering some when I was learning to drive horses, I came to hate it. Mine has a big lever (steering mechanism) that protrudes through the floor of the forecart. It always seemed to be in the way. I eventually took a torch to it and welded the axle in straight. I think to steering was developed to adjust for side draft.

George

[JMorrow]

Hey all —

I just noticed this ad on the Hudson Valley Craigslist, which includes a Pioneer forecart ($700), and other things (manure spreader, nylon harness, disc, White Horse Machine two row cultivator).

http://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/grd/4876116888.html

Jake

[Author]

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