Wheelbarrow advice wanted

[Peter Easterling]

I've had two flimsy metal bed wheelbarrows and both deteriorated too fast. They are used for hauling dirt and rocks, etc. around my yard. In Puna, the metal beds were foolish as they rusted right away. Still, I wonder if the ethylene beds hold up. Any advice about wheel configurations and construction material? 2 and 3 wheel carts seem to make sense.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I have a Rubbermaid wheelbarrow with two large wheels, almost all parts are plastic. Bought it in over 20 years ago. Leave it outside a lot. Still looks good, and works great. Paid maybe $350 for it? But worth it.

[Rob Tucker]

My metal wheelbarrows all died an early death. Using a poly one now with two wheels. The two wheels are nice. I am hopeful about the poly body... still stuck with wooden arms... bummer. Wood is such a loser.

[birdmove]

Our two front wheeler came with our house, which we bought in about 2009. Plastic bed, metal reinforcements, and wooden handles. We've replaced the handles 2-3 times. Love the dual front wheels, as you can push or pull the thing with one hand. I've had some cracking of the bed where the bolts go through, and just gone to larger diameter fender washers as needed. The metal reinforcements can be made with strap steel sold at Home Depot, with cutting, drilling, and bending.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[LazyLehua]

We went with the poly (single wheel) which has metal handles. We are up in rust land Volcano and it has done very well. We store it under the house. My only wish was that we got the two wheel. The single wheel in the front is a pain sometimes with heavy loads.

Stacey
Living the life in Cali and Hawai‘i

[terracore]

In just 6.5 years we are on our third wheelbarrow, technically it's a cart, which is more wheelbarrows than I had in the previous several decades prior to moving here. My advice is not to get anything with wood or painted steel.

We are using the Rubbermaid 100% poly cart model they have at Home Depot, link below. Two wheels. It's a lot easier to use than a single wheel and takes less strength to lift. Unfortunately it has only a 300 pound capacity, which is far less dirt than the volume of the unit can hold. And if you exceed the weight limit, which is easy to do, the wheels bend and you can't roll it at all. Fortunately, they don't appear to break when that happens and they pop back to their normal shape after an incident. I understand that two replacement wheels will cost more than just buying a whole new unit, so this is something to be aware of. Also the wheels are very narrow and make them prone to digging into soft wet soil when the cart is overloaded. It's not a perfect solution but having no wood or painted steel I hope to get more than a few years of use out of it, assuming I can avoid breaking the wheels by overloading it.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-C.../100344354

ETA: Specs say it holds 7.5 cubic feet. Interwebs says 7.5 cubic feet of water weighs 486 pounds. That sounds like a problem for a unit with a rating of 300 pounds that most people leave outside.

[Chas]

Funny you should ask... I just bought one of the Rubbermaid ones in Terracore’s link today. (Home Depot still has two left) Thanks for the info, I plan on hauling rocks with it.

I also have one of the kind like HOTPE has. LOVE it! Had mine for well over 20 years as well. In my mind a better design than the new ones. (Unfortunately it’s still back on the mainland)

Rubbermaid also makes a smaller version of the one I just bought but I don’t know if anyone here sells them.

The thing I like about these “carts” are;

You can move it with one hand
Doesn’t fall over sideways if not loaded evenly.
You can fit a lot more stuff in them.

I feel they are more versatile and easier to use than a wheelbarrow.

I can’t say how this new material holds up but my 20+ year old one is still in great shape, despite me chucking rocks into it from 6’ above and all kinds of other abuse it took over the years. That’s actually why I went with Rubbermaid. I’m hoping the new one will hold up as well. Time will tell...

[Carey]

We have gone through 1 & 2 wheeled barrows, both here & on the mainland... the poly one we had here did last longer than the metal, but had failures at the bolt through... If I ever to a barrow again, I would put large fender washers around the areas the poly meets a bolt....BUT....

We do not do barrows for much of anything anymore (too many times twisting to "save" a load & shoveling up just to dump down....

Mostly use mortar bins for everything from green waste (makes cleaning the truck after a green waste run easy... & dumping a load is flipping up a side...) to rocks to cinder loads to palm seeds for friends...slides over most terrain & like a dream over wet muddy terrains, something that slogs down wheelbarrows...

This was a learned thing from having wood chips delivered in the winter on the mainland... no way to use a wheelbarrow, so I used those plastic toboggans... they slid on snow & grass like greased lightening... & they do glide over cinders...so we still glide vs wheel here....

Tried to find them when we first moved & could not, but found mortar bins... (believe it or not, there was one winter when Walmart accidentally was sent plastic tobaggones, but we had our mortar bin collection by then...)

[hotinhawaii]

We have gone through a lot of wheelbarrows here. For my last poly one, I replaced the painted steel handles which were the first thing to go, with some galvanized square stock in the same dimensions from Hilo steel works. I replaced the bolts with stainless steel versions. And added large fender washers to hold on the plastic tub. The axle brackets and front brackets and the tub itself finally gave out. Bought a new wheelbarrow and reassembled it with the stainless bolts and washers and gave all the metal a coat of auto undercoating before assembling it. We’ll see how that goes. When the metal handles rust out, I’ve still got the galvanized from the last one.

[dan d]

Ace hard dual no air solid tire , metal tub
Last better, no flats, all plastic crack, at mount bolts.been thru dem all 15 years,Doubles as a rain guage.Only if left out

Make next one out of 2 6 in trailer tires,and drives and turns w / front driving wheel, and dumps, probably run 1 k but i have major junk yard. Parts in stock, i weld.

Almost everything i have thats outside has been heavily destroyed by 100+ days of h2so4
Any buckets homer left out even under cover, shatter. All rubber including window trim going on cars. Any rubber ,vinal toast.

Need a very big dumpster


HPP