One big wheel powered wheelbarrow

I would love to have a motorized cart to go up on the mountain behind the house and get wood. There is bunches of trees down but there is no way to get a truck up there. You can get a 4wd 4 wheeler up but to dangerous to bring any weight back down. Gonna try to figure out a way if possible. People before tried to bring logs off with a horse and jerked the poor horse off the mountain. Luckily the horse didn't get hurt. Just have to figure a way to keep the logs from rolling. Sam

Too many people interested in the old cast iron transmission garden tractors. And thats more weight. The paddle wheel plow looks like one I used to see in Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening, etc back in 70s. Its not a real antique, though much as I want to deny it, 70s era stuff is getting closer and closer to the 50 year antique mark..... I'd probably have to replace jackshaft bearings and chain on it, but maybe someday will stick engine on it just out of curiosity. I know those paddles wont like rocks here. I put big steel wheels (no paddles...LOL) on my homemade garden cart and you know when they go over a rock!

2000 to 2200, heck even 2400rpm is lot quieter than having small engine go full governed 3600 to 3800rpm. And if I really wanted I suppose a centrifugal clutch could be modified to engage at slower speed. But really 1800 is kinda minimum to get use out of modern small engine unless its really oversized. Not like those old engines with the big flywheel.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Yes intended sprocket on side of wheel. But mini-bike wheel too small in my opinion. A big wheel navigates over obstacles much easier than small wheel. And going to a bigger wheel gets me back into a jackshaft as I doubt I could find a big enough sprocket to get speed down enough directly.

Look again at those pics I posted. I think variation on that Chinese design only with frame designed specifically to hold firewood. I really like that first pic I posted with wheelbarrow carrying brick though that variation wouldnt work for wood particularly. The guy who designed that was really clever. I wish all things were engineered like that, simple but clever.

And I need to make and experiment with such a wheelbarrow without an engine or motor before adding one. Still isnt going to be easy to push up hill loaded, but might be big improvement otherwise. I've just never used such a wheelbarrow. With weight more supported by wheel than normal wheelbarrow and wheel in middle instead of at far end, I wonder how it would handle. Its very old design so if it were awkward and unstable, doubt it would have survived over the centuries. Culture that designed it were very dependent on human power, there were no engines, just maybe oxen if you were wealthy.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

In that case look into a rear wheel off a full size older motor cycle sprocket would still be there and the size would be more to your liking .
since your not after speed a 30-1 worm gear at the final dive would provide torque , you would need to figure out the drive sprocket size.
Then you'll need to decide if you need reverse or not .
Ideally you could run the drive shaft along one of the handles
for a motor though your going to need around 50cc min

If it weren't for the battery weight (which could be balanced by the axle)
a 24 volt wheel chair drive would be nearly ideal

What about using something like one of those Troybilt tillers without the tiller as the puller?

If you have snow just cut your wood and wait for snow to haul it on a toboggon.

Or set up cable lines like they do out west in the mountains. If you are only talking 500' or so that shouldn't be too much work.

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Get a 4-wheel mobility scooter and attach a 2-wheel cart to it.

Mon

Get a low dollar pony off of Craigslist, and build a pack saddle frame with racks for wood on both sides. Load the wood evenly as you load him and he can carry more than you can push in a wheel barrow. He can go anywhere you can walk. If you have a little feed box at the house with a handful of oats in it, he will take his load of wood to the house without you being with him. During the summer he can clean out some of your underbrush if you string a hot wire around a patch at a time. Of course he would be like a gas engine and backfire on occasion. LOL

I havent been to very many auctions last few years, used to run into some old non running motorcycles super cheap. But really think jackshaft and couple gokart sprockets would work. I'll have to think on speed some. Dont want to get stuck where it just creeps back to house once I get out of woods. On other hand dont want too fast out in woods.

I'll just have to build a non-power version first and see, trying to leave room to add sprocket and engine. No I dont want reverse. I want to keep this as light and simple as possible.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Rarely get that much snow in Arkansas and it usually doesnt stay around that long. It doesnt bury the "hazards".

Well thats a thought, but living creatures tend to want to be fed year round every day, not just when I want them to do work. I have no other use for such an animal.

The tiller suggestions, well have any of you ever taken a tiller out into the woods? They have small wheels and not very high off the ground. I dont think you would get very far. My old Gravely has problems just jumping a plow furrow in the garden.

The closest you would come with tiller is to get an old front tine tiller, remove the tines and mount tall wheels on the shafts, then appropriately gear down the drive speed with different pulleys. Still have the problem of two wheels connected to an axle going over things at tipsy angle and spilling the load. A wheelbarrow with two wheels connected by an axle maybe more stable on garden path or flat ground, but would be impossible to balance like a one wheel wheelbarrow in rough terrain.

as to a 4 wheeler, you are going to be cutting a path and even if it can navigate without a path, the suggested pull along trailer wont unless again you make a real path for it. The whole idea is to avoid bunch road building just to get wood from one tree one time. Plus they are kinda expensive just to retrieve some firewood.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

HJ, even if you tell me I'm not sure that I can comprehend it--but how much firewood at a time are you thinking of hauling? I know, I know, not like the loaded carriers we see pictured in India, but ????? pieces of wood X in length, size of carrier ??? or ??

I was working a small salvage sale on the National Forest once when an old man looking for fire wood pulled into the landing. He was driving a 1958 IHC pickup he had converted to a 353 detroit. I recognized the sound right off, same engine that was in the old Clark skidder I was running. He claimed he got up to 60 mpg with it. Anyway, he also had a old heavy duty industrial wheelbarrow that he had converted. All he did was flange a starter gear to the wheel, built a bracket to mount a starter motor inline with the gear. He built a simple hanger for a battery behind the landing gear. He had a lever on the right handle, kind of like a brake/cutch lever on a motorcycle. He used the motor for an assist for steep grades and tough spots. All he had to do was pull the lever which engaged the bendix gear. When not in use, everything freewheeled. The weight of the load counter balanced the weight of the battery so you couldn't tell it was there.
The thing worked very well and wouldn't be hard to build at all.

Imagine a standard contractor wheelbarrow piled as high as possible without having to rope it down to keep it from falling off. I've found this to be a very useful quantity. A wheelbarrow load a day helps keep the cold at bay.... Somewhere around 16 inch long pieces of wood, standard firewood. I think if you designed body of such a firewood mover with wheel in middle and rack on each end with handlebars on rear rack. -W Kinda like that capital w, though bit more squared off. If I got too much weight then would have problem balancing it. And I really need to experiment with an unpowered version of that Chinese wheelbarrow. Heck I might get by without engine though bet will need one to make loaded wheelbarrow go uphill.

Doing google found some guy on east coast selling a one wheel garden tractor with rubber tire and good ground clearance. Interesting it had the wheel back of the cultivator implement. Mine with the steel paddle wheel has implement in back like the hand push wheel hoes. I've not seen one like it around here, but it probably would be adaptable to do what I want to do.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

600 lb capacity. Don't try jumping logs or going thru creeks with it though. They also have a 700 lb two wheel trailer and a one bottom plow.
http://www.rokon.com/products/accessories.htm

Yep simple enough to build, but I still think range of such would be very limited before battery discharged and then the weight of the battery and motor. Even counterbalanced, you are still pushing extra weight, just not lifting it.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Okay, not the massive amounts of firewood that I imagined you might want to haul all at once.

I think what you have in mind is quite doable.

HJ, could you incorporate the engine into power transmission via bicycle gearing? Should be plenty of old 21 speed bicycles showing up as salvage by this time. I have never had a rear hub apart to even know how the gear is attached to it. You would basically need to power the small hub and transmit the power to the larger one. Your jack shaft if you will via bicycle gears and chains.

I got rid of wheelbarrows here eight years ago when I found a radio flyer wagon with ATV inflatable tires and bought a mesh bed utility trailer that I can attach a 12 volt powered dump hinged construction wheelbarrow bed to.

I built vertical push handles for both wagons so I have the choice of pulling them or putting the pull handle vertical in a rack on the push handle and push it as a rear wheel steered cart.

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Its just so annoying to have to walk wood out one armload at time and easy to trip and fall if carrying much at all on very uneven surface.

I dont know how well bicycle parts would hold up. Might work, sure be lightweight. I think PyroDon's mini bike idea or my gokart idea would be little heavier duty. Course if I lived in farming country, all sorts of machines with sprockets and roller chains show up.

Would need a centrifugal clutch so nice if sprocket I use on wheel matched sprocket on clutch, course wouldnt matter if I had to use jackshaft anyway. With engine off or idling it should free wheel. I'd like the whole thing to be light enough that I'm not 100% dependent on an engine at least on flat/even ground unloaded. I do know quality heavy duty bearings make such a difference.

When bicycle wheels collapsed on my garden cart, I decided to go to big diameter but narrow steel wheels off an old milk cart. Well they used some goofy bushing that was worn out and not easily replaceable on milk cart. Milk cart axle also worn since they'd continued using it after bushings wore out. Looking around I had an old wrecked rear drive Mazda 626 that had donated an engine to the Courier I had at the time. I cut the front hubs off it and welded them to short length 1.25 pipe, didnt even cut off the disk rotors. Then took center out of couple of wheels off the car and centered and welded them to the steel wheels. So the steel wheels just bolted to hubs like the car wheels did. Anyway added whole lot of weight compared to the bicycle wheels and wood 2x2 frame I had used to support them, but those bearings allowed it to roll so much easier with load compared to the bicycle bearings that it made up for the extra weight. Course I ever get access to a torch, I'd cut off the brake rotors, for whatever reason Mazda made the rotor and hub into one casting on that car. Quality high speed bearing like that would do wonders for wheelbarrow too. And could just use temp spare tire/wheel. They are narrow. Not sure if you can still get the really narrow 15 inch tires like on ancient VW and Volvos anymore or not, but that would be another option, I have enough old Volvo parts around, just that any narrow 15 tires still setting around here are long ago dry rotted.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Again you arent going out in the woods navigating over/around lot rocks, branches, partially rotted logs, big tree roots, etc. I am sure 2 wheel or even 4 wheel conveyances work fine and are quite stable on normal developed paths, lawns, gardens, driveways, etc. Single wheel has its place. Allows tilt/lean and adjust to terrain plus follow a narrower path of least resistance. Simular to being able to lean into a curve on a motorcycle, but not in a 4 wheel car. With only one wheel it means not only can you lean, but you can tilt at same time, giving maximum flexibility.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Here is link to that one wheel garden tractor I saw on east coast ad. http://greensboro.craigslist.org/grd/1610169446.html Cant quite make it out, looks like "Power Kraft" on side so guess old Monkey Ward product? I still think for wood hauler it would just about have to have engine sitting over the wheel, not in front or behind like the garden tractor. Cause would want to balance the load front and rear without making it super long.

Its doable, just take lot tinkering to get balance right as dont want to make it super top heavy either. Has to be somewhat for ground clearance, but the happy compromise that I would be looking for.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

HJ, Thanks for a great thread, I saw the DR Power wagon full page ad in Countryside this month and considered it for wood hauling.
Like you you I have some very challengeing wooded terrain. The DR wagon is out of my price range and the design flaws are not good for our intended work...and that rear steering wheel would also get hung up.

I do like that Chinese design.
What kind of Horsepower are you considering and load capacity?
With a horizontal drive engine dose balance become an isssue for single wheel units?
Thanks again and good luck with your project.