Ha! All kidding aside, the really nice thing about this is how little upper body strength you need with it. 8 bales of hay are heavy, but most of the weight is over the axle, not supported by the handlebar. Also, because the support arms are so long (8-9 feet from the handlebar to the axle) you have awesome mechanical advantage on the weight you do have to support. It’s not conceptually different than a wheelbarrow, just an “extreme” version of one. Also, when using a wheelbarrow or a wagon, you have to pull or push with your arms, which gets hard when the load is heavy. The bar on this cart lets you push with your hips and takes the upper body out of the work.
Longbo55,
I have seen plans for mormon handcart floating around on the internet. Do a google search and you can find them too. I used them as a rough guide, but did most of this “on the fly.” The bed is made of a 4×6 foot sheet of 5/16 plywood, reinforced underneath by 6 2×3 boards over two 2x6x12 foot supports tapered at one end and drilled to fit the 4 foot dowel that I use as a handle. I added a 1×6 frame around the bed. The supports for the axles are shaped from 2×12’s, with a 2×12 cross piece to prevent buckling. I cut the supports so that the bed is 34 inchs high, which makes is level when I am pulling it. If you are taller or shorter, you might want to adjust this height. The wheels are from Northern tool (Item# 145123) and are rated for 300 lbs each. According to guidelines from designs for mormon hardcarts, a 4×4 foot bed is recommended for a single person and a 4×6 foot bed is for a couple. Personally, I think a 4×6 foot bed is pretty easy for a single, but that is why I made the bar with overhangs on either side so that two people could pull it if needed. Pehaps my wife will help pull from time to time on specific chores, but she doesn’t seem excited about it… At any rate, if the load requires two, I would be willing the bet that the axle/wheels/bearings would be overloaded.
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