Carts and rides

Posted by Tanos on Mon 17 Nov 08, 10:39 PM

Tags: bridgewood, openairbdsm

Writing a review of The Human Pony reminded me of the prototype cart I made at the start of the year, and yesterday I tried using it as a handcart for moving firewood logs across the jumble of branches left by felling. It worked surprisingly well when pushed and guided over obstacles.

The picture shows this "glider" rickshaw style cart with some logs and the firewood stack. There's about 60kg of wood on it, and yet with the big 700mm bike wheels it rolled easily over even four inch logs stuck in the ground. This is useful because I tend to end up with a small stack of logs near the stump of a hazel tree, surrounded by smaller branches splayed out on the ground, metres away from the ride that can be negotiated with the trolley cart.

I was slightly concerned that even with its tyres that are wide for a bike, but still not that wide, it would sink into the ground when loaded, but in practice it was fine. That even suggests that the rides won't need improving for this kind of use next year.

I've not mentioned the "glider" design before, but it's meant to be something you can make from components bought at B&Q and Halfords, using nothing more than a hacksaw, drill and a vice. It only weights about 12kg, but since it's all composed of triangles made of steel tubing, it stood up to rather rough use with the firewood without any buckling. It's broadly similar to the rickshaws perfected by the Japanese in the 19th century. The big wheels are both better for going over uneven ground (they roll over the dips and bumps) and they raise the axle height closer to the height of the shafts - meaning less force is wasted. (6ft high penny farthing wheels would be ideal, but they're not readily available.) Keeping the centre of gravity of the load high and the shafts horizontal when pulling (or in this case pushing), also reduces the bending "torque" forces which are wasted effort. By positioning the wheels wide apart, the instability of having this high centre of gravity is reduced.

I've had the trolley cart at Bridgewood since the spring, and it's extremely useful for moving equipment around. But due to the small wheel diameter, it's hard work unless the ground is cleared, and with four wheels, it's quite easy to tip over if you're going over the buttress roots at the foot of a tree. However, the wide wheels are useful for the muddy patches in "busy" parts of the site that have got trampled, breaking up the fibrous mesh of roots, fallen leaves, twigs, and stringy vegetation that normally holds the soil together.

Yesterday I tried digging a small drainage ditch and spreading some twiggy branches on one of these areas which helped a bit. After that, there's a series of higher powered ideas to work through, all the way up to geotextile materials if necessary.

Edited Wed 19 Nov 08, 12:19 AM by Tanos

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