prone garden cart

I built this last winter and I'm finding it incredibly useful in my 100'x 50' garden. I grow alot of garlic and onions for a local food pantry and I'm trying to give my 62 year old back a break.
I've attached a photo.
The front wheels steer like a car. One thing that is unfinished is to finish off the back end so that I can propel it with my feet.

I have two videos about this on Google Drive. On my device I need to download before I can play it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S6s9r8xgqAVjpt6FOhSdyL-lFi981I-R/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S7TEhqxSzaoWphye3bqOEhme0g2ma10k/view?usp=drivesdk

That is cool! are you thinking of getting pedals installed?  or how else will you propel self?

Welcome to Permies, Steve! That's an awesome cart.

May I suggest you consider a propulsion system that is more like a treadle sewing machine than pedals? I admit my anatomy course was decades old so I'm partly going on gut feeling, but I think that in the prone position, you're going to find pedals awkward and the movement's more likely to bruise your hips as a pedal action comes heavily from the hip joint. A treadle action can be accomplished with more ankle "range of motion" rather than hip "range of motion".

Maybe some of our engineers will have an opinion?

Jay and Ben, you are both very correct. There is no way pedals can work. I used a poor description of what I'm planning to do. I'm wanting to have two pieces that my lower legs push on,  with connecting rods to the crank. Yes, somewhat like two treadle mechanisms. I also want to modify the platform I lay on to allow an adjustable angle at my hips. Flat as a pancake is a bit tiring for hours on end.

Cool project, Steve!

or maybe you can try and make something like short "stillts" that you attach( tie or strap) to your feet and simply 'push off'.

Steve Shantz wrote:Jay and Ben, you are both very correct. There is no way pedals can work. I used a poor description of what I'm planning to do. I'm wanting to have two pieces that my lower legs push on,  with connecting rods to the crank. Yes, somewhat like two treadle mechanisms. I also want to modify the platform I lay on to allow an adjustable angle at my hips. Flat as a pancake is a bit tiring for hours on end.

Your cart is way cool. I do not grow that much garlic/onions but I wish I had something like that.
As far as propulsion how about making the cart just a little shorter, like to support from your shoulders to your pelvic area?  [It would be lighter too, maybe more maneuverable? ]. If you could level it also so that your knees graze the ground and your toes can then touch the ground, and with a nice thick pillow under you, I think you should be a lot more comfortable and you would not need to build pedals at all.
Simpler is usually better. Once you start adding gizmos, you complicate your life and more adjustments need to be made.

Have seen a few versions of both pedal and electric versions - i think a rest bar for the forehead has been one of the key features. here are some links but of course not seeing the ones i recall from before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIaLRBgx5kQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JeO8_8Qe0s

ah this one has the head rest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCVXHOqhoBw

You might like these folk too https://www.facebook.com/Fietswiederss

Whoa, how did I not know this was a thing?! I had to watch the YouTube videos to figure out what this was. I can see how that could help with a bad back though I think my shoulders would still hurt. I can also picture myself falling asleep on a nice sunny and breezy day, face down in my garden rows. 😁

i think it could get really sore neck without the headrest but i have never heard a report back from someone who has used one for a long period, and who doesn't have the inevitable bias of the inventor/creator/builder

pete davis wrote:You might like these folk too https://www.facebook.com/Fietswiederss

Suboptimal design:

* They are carrying themselves and the tool across the ground. Extra mass is wasted effort.
* Will only work for a short time. Once the crops are about 20cm high this won't work.

I do have a headrest, and the cart clearance is high enough that I can go over my almost mature onion patch with no damage to the plants.
As for mobility, I designed it to straddle my 24" wide beds and be high enough to work at a comfortable arms length. Pushing on the ground with my feet doesnt work. I have a double treadle design I'm toying with that should make it easy to move down the rows. It is geared to be easy to peddle, with one revolution of the crank moving me 6" down the bed, which is my plant spacing.
I also have plans for an adjustable removable shelf under me. It could be used to keep garlic cloves and onion starts while planting, or strawberry boxes when picking strawberries.

Sounds really good steve. I didn't pick up the headrest in the photo so apologies for making out you didn't have this. I tried the videos and they played without downloading and give a much clearer idea of how it works. nice job.

Brain storming with my neighbor on this idea for picking strawberries...his idea was to mount a Car Starter with a push button....click the button and it would turn a chain to propel a bicycle tire to move the cart...put a solar panel on it to keep battery charged

Ronald, I considered making it electrically powered but it gets substantially more complex and expensive with many points of failure. Having said that, I will now contradict myself...
I am considering an attachment on the front end that would drill 4 holes in the ground for planting onion starts and garlic cloves. That would get me much farther along in my desire to go no-till with my onions and garlic. In the past I've toyed with no-till onions and garlic and it hasn't worked because my soil is too compact. (I'm working on that problem too.)
And now imagine a 5 gallon tank of urine that could deliver a shot into each hole when planting. Now we are talking low-tech precision agriculture. Put the fertilizer exactly where it is needed!
I confess that for me, half of the fun is in the design-build process. I fully acknowledge that more sophisticated equipment may not necessarily meet my intentions (as the pee slowly drips on my head from a leak in the system!)

Steve Shantz wrote:I fully acknowledge that more sophisticated equipment may not necessarily meet my intentions (as the pee slowly drips on my head from a leak in the system!)

May be we will see a new Hair Restorer product on the market soon?