'My' (given to next door by a builder, left when nextdoor moved, 'rescued' before new people arrived) is about shot. The pan is OK but the chassis is rusted through in critical places and will break soon. I looked at strengthening the affected bits but I don't have the material or equipment.
It's at least 30 years old and was used on building sites until next door had it. It's really well made and rather heavy (helped by the layer of mortar inside it) - I doubt that a new one would be as good.
I need something robust, not the twee domestic sort, but can't find anything. Ebay, Amazon, nothing good. Builders merchants, same things but twice the price. Any pointers please to decent ones or, if none, the least bad of those available? Need metal pan and prefer solid tyre and quite big. Capable of carrying 150kg+.
I have a couple of the substantial old-fashioned ones where the pan is made from folded and spot welded steel sheet, a quick google suggests that these days they are all made from thinner pressed steel. But this outfit seems to have some heavy duty ones with solid wheels (at a price).
That last bit is probably the problem. Health and safety has come to wheelbarrows and that sort of loading being top heavy is difficult to control and puts a lot of strain on the person using it. Brian
Some of those look OK but! the prices for pressed steel! I always look at front, vertical struts, if fitted. Most are steel strip and too thin. One barrow had thse and they werent even shaped or straight - load-bearing almost zero. Current barrow has them but they're about 4x the thickness of modern ones. Although I can afford anything on that page I do wonder what is 'extra' over shed etc. ones at up to £100 less.
Yes, I'm considering that - although it can be difficult/impossible to get into some places. I'd like a twin-wheeler with the wheels on about 6" - 10" centres - some stability and still narrow. Could be done with the axle mounted as with one wheel with more spacing.
Yes our wheelbarrow (Von Haus plastic pan, so not suitable for your 150 kg loads!) has its wheels spaced a bit wider than I would like. A few times I've clipped objects on the ground because the wheels seem to be very slightly wider than the pan which is the thing you see when you are judging clearance.
I wouldn't go back to a single-wheel barrow - the number of times I've had those tip over on an axis between the single wheel and one of the two rear "skids"...
We also have an electric barrow which is great, but that is three wheels: the front two have broad treads and inflated tyres, but the rear wheel which is used for steering is a narrow solid tyre which leaves grooves in our gravel drive, or on the lawn in anything except very dry conditions. That really should have a broad inflated tyre at the back - maybe harder to steer but kinder to lawns and gravel. On gravel there is the added problem that the rear wheel gets bogged down in the gravel and then the front wheels cannot provide enough grip to pull the barrow along: I'm wise to that and distribute the load as far as possible over the front axle.
I don't know the firm at all, but they do seem to talk the right language about extra struts for stiffness. And they quote capacities in kilograms as well as litres. I suspect you do actually get what you pay for, with them. The big two-wheeler looks pretty substantial, and they have a good choice of wheels.
On strut thickness, steel is expensive in the UK these days, have you bought any lately? And they are mostly made in Britain.
This is something I've often come across when trying to replace something old / good with something new / good, they really are made down to a price these days (even if the price we might be wiling to pay isn't an issue).
When I took the (fairly old, conventional flue) tumble dryer to bits the other day, everything undid ok, there wasn't a spec of rust on any of the (substantial) steelwork, no stripped threads, wonkey screws, corroded wires / connectors and even the plastic didn't snap, all well designed etc.
Depending on how bad the overall structural condition of this barrow is (albeit rusting away in places) and given what you might have to spend, *if* you could find something anywhere near equivalent, in the spirit of DIY I might be interested to see if it could be recovered using fiberglass bandage?
eg. I would remove the bucket, wheel, grips and any unboltable bracketry and give the whole thing a good going over with a wire brush (in an angle grinder / drill where suitable). Sand blasting would be lovely of course. ;-)
Get some 2" wide 'woven roving' and tightly wrap in a spiral fashion from one handle, round the frame and back to the other then wet out with resin. Or, better, first give the known weak / stress points a local layer first, then go over the whole thing as above, possibly a couple of times.
Paint (if you want), re-assemble and use. You could even fill the inside of the tubes with expanding foam (first) to ensure any holes don't allow too much resin in and stop water getting in afterwards (drilling extra holes in the top of the tubes (low stress area) where necessary to be able to inject the foam).
Probably much easier than mucking about trying to weld rusty steel and at least you know what you have once finished.
I've repaired a couple of motorcycle steel front mudguards that way where they had rusted where the were joined to the inner fork brace / bracket. Get it de rusted and clean and tape up the outside. Flood the inner gaps with resin and loose fibreglass then glass over the bracket and inside the mudguard. Fill the outside (now down onto sound material underneath) sand and paint. Been on there 10 years now and not a sign of rust or any fatigue or de lamination. ;-)
It is, but there are 29 branches in England, Wales and Scotland.
I find it well worth while, but the membership criteria are weird. If you have a business you are straight in (and a little more cheaply). Otherwise it's a bit over 30 quid a year, and I probably save that just on cat food! But individual membership is limited to (well, quite a lot of people). All public servants, education (I qualify) and various other stuff (I qualify again as a chartered engineer).
I think the problem with that if there is significant corrosion in a load-bearing region is that the flexing will break the resin to steel bond and eventually corrosion will occur underneath. I'd say your bike mudguard brackets are not so highly stressed as some of the parts of the barrow.
That said, I am all in favour of repairing things. It all depends on the location and extent of the corrosion..
Exactly. The default design is single wheeled for a good reason, for example running up a scaffold plank. Two wheelers are great where the access is reasonably flat and level, and you don't have to turn on a sixpence.
It shouldn't should it (break the bond nor rust) as the fibreglass would seal the outside and the foam the inside? I was thinking the glass would be substantial enough (at the main stress points) to not distort any more than the steel?
Well the bracket has to transfer (along with the axle) any difference in loads / movement between the two fork legs (especially dynamic), plus the fore-aft vibration and wind load of the mudguard itself.
Agreed, that's why I thought that doubling up (or maybe more) at all the main stress / weak points.
I was thinking we end up with a fairly substantial (where it matters) fibreglass tube frame, even if the steel was to rot away inside. ;-)
45 miles each way for me, but I go every 3 months and do a very large shop. It saves a lot of hassle for everyday items. Loo roll, kitchen roll, cat food, bulk staples, etc...
Thanks for the suggestions, but such a repair wouldnt withstand the forces applied. There's very little metal left in some places and fibregalass wouldn't take the twisting etc.
You could certainly make fibreglass strong enough but whether it would be economical in either time or money I don't know. Properly built up and layered fibreglass is a very strong material but it's very labour intensive to make things out of fibreglass.
FWIW, I've been working with / in fibreglass for years and I'm pretty sure that if applied the way I'm thinking (which may not be as you are thinking <g>) I see no reason why it couldn't be sufficiently strong (in all required dimensions)?
I mean, the fibreglass bumper-covers (on my fibreglass kitcar) aren't that thick but are still pretty strong / stiff? Similar with the door frames.
The hulls on all our fibreglass boats weren't very thick but were made rigid by fibreglass 'ribs' moulded in to give them more a 3d section (they often used a length of 'paper rope' that added little weight and took the resin well but created the hollow core that gave the shape that created the stiffness).
If we are talking the conventional wheelbarrow tubular chassis that includes the handles and 'nose' to carry the front wheel, I imagine the stresses in use would be:
A mainly upwards bending moment in the handles focused around the back of the tub.
A mainly upwards bending moment in the section forward of the tub from the wheel.
Dynamic variations on those bending moments as you move around (still likely to be mostly upwards on both the handles (varying as you balance the load) and definitely the front (unless you get it airborne). ;-)
Also, there would be nothing stopping you glassing some steel into the key areas for extra support, but it probably is a project best suited to someone who has some experience with such materials (assuming you don't and definitely 'a project' rather than the easiest solution).
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