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Chinese Wheelbarrow

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Location: Midwest zone 6

posted 12 years ago

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http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/the-chinese-wheelbarrow.html

The wheel being nearly centered carries the entire load. Unlike a front wheel wheelbarrow where the operator carries half. This allows the Chinese wheelbarrow to handle 6 times more weight. Using animals and sails to help pull wheelbarrows long distances is extremely practical.

Wheelbarrows sometimes have landing gear in the front or back. Some require the user to push down on the handles, rather than lift up.

William Bronson

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posted 12 years ago

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Love this. Planning on a using this principle on my biochar retort, which I am building as a mobile BBQ to avoid permitting issues.

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Jordan Lowery

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posted 12 years ago

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I'm so building one of those.

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings. - Masanobu Fukuoka

Nick Sims

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Location: Southeast Michigan, USA

posted 11 years ago

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The Chinese variant is horrible to use, top heavy, impossible to steer, and hard to push. There is a reason why when I was in Thailand and Cambodia I never saw one setup like that... They're archaic.

The best wheelbarrow in production is the Cariola Wheelbarrow, you get what you pay for... and pay you do!

The newer Jackson's (steel and poly) are better than prior versions, some Jeep branded wheel barrows are ok, but neither are nowhere near as good as a Cariola.

The biggest issue with typical hardware store wheelbarrows is the landing gear (and axle tabs!) are stamped metal, the axles are undersized and the bearings in the wheels are pathetic.

Some advice on sprucing up a box-store wheel barrow... Flat-proof tires are impossible to push over small obstacles, do not buy them. Put fender washers in where you bolt the tub to avoid stress fractures, Weld bar/rerod/allthread to the landing gear to support the load, ad an X brace in the front (you'll hit your shins if you weld it on the back) and flat stock onto the feet to help with wear and floatation.

About 6-7 years ago I was going to introduce a new wheelbarrow to the market, which solved many of the daily issues faced with currently manufactured units.

A one piece hydro formed frame/landing gear with replaceable wearing feet, studded poly tub, pillow block axle guides, 1" axle (with zerk fitting) with a 16x6.50 hi-ply pneumatic tire (large contact area for good floatation) is the solution.

My product never went past an excellent prototype, as realistically there is no demand.

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Nick Sims

Posts: 57

Location: Southeast Michigan, USA

posted 11 years ago

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Oh and John Dyson (the vacuum guy with what I suspect to be fake accent) made a "Ballbarrow"

It had some things going for it, mainly the large contact area and low center of gravity. Again, no demand.

http://content.dyson.com/insideDyson/article.asp?aID=ballbarrow

ballbarrow_01.jpg

Victor Johanson

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Location: Fairbanks, Alaska

posted 11 years ago

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Nick Simcheck wrote:Oh and John Dyson (the vacuum guy with what I suspect to be fake accent) made a "Ballbarrow"

It had some things going for it, mainly the large contact area and low center of gravity. Again, no demand.

http://content.dyson.com/insideDyson/article.asp?aID=ballbarrow

It's James Dyson. What kind of accent does he have? If it's British, it isn't fake; he's from Norfolk (not in Virginia; the original one).

Vic Johanson

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Nick Sims

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Location: Southeast Michigan, USA

posted 11 years ago

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My bad, James Dyson.

But I still think he fakes the accent

andrew curr

Posts: 288

Location: Deepwater northern New South wales Australia

posted 11 years ago

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Allan Savory once said" the largest piece of machinery you need on a farm is a wheelbarrow / but only if you like machinery"

we have to forest our farms and farm our forests

Bill Eagle

Posts: 7

posted 11 years ago

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as a middle-aged Chinese man,I have never seen this kind of wheelbarrow in reality...I knew this ,only from history books and other channles.these wheelbarrows are usedfor short and long transportation in history.but now heavy duty trucks instead everywhere.

Leila Rich

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posted 11 years ago

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My mother loves hers. She uses it constantly and it's especially handy as it's surfaces are stable and horizontal when parked.
You can fill it with compost, perch a lot of seedling flats on top and pot-up on the 'arms', in whatever random spot you like

*Edit*
Actually, I hadn't opened the link, and hers looks nothing like the pictures.
Her (homemade) barrow has two large front wheels on either side, a ply box-type 'bucket' and two back 'pegs'.
Hmmm. My descriptive powers are slightly lacking

I think I'll try and get her to take a photo!

andrew curr

Posts: 288

Location: Deepwater northern New South wales Australia

posted 11 years ago

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HMM 2 large front wheels

we have to forest our farms and farm our forests

Chris Kott

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posted 11 years ago

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I would want to stick to one wheel, as most construction or landscaping applications usually require one to manoeuvre over single-plank walkways. I like the idea of the ones with the wheels set back from the centre, so that you push down to bring the tub bottom/foot at the front up and balance on the wheel; you stop, handles go up, barrow stops, still upright; you drop it, same deal; you keel over backwards with a full load and a passelful of children directly in your path, barrow still stops upright, no squashed kiddies. You could even have gravity-deployed feet on the operator side of the wheel, so that if you push too hard, it stops, still upright.

I particularly like this idea for large mobile chicken coops, where you want to house your 75 to 100 birds and move them all by yourself without a tractor. I'd want two wheels, not one, but as long as its stable, all you'd need are long handles.

-CK

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Bill Eagle

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posted 11 years ago

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Chris Kott wrote:I would want to stick to one wheel, as most construction or landscaping applications usually require one to manoeuvre over single-plank walkways. I like the idea of the ones with the wheels set back from the centre, so that you push down to bring the tub bottom/foot at the front up and balance on the wheel; you stop, handles go up, barrow stops, still upright; you drop it, same deal; you keel over backwards with a full load and a passelful of children directly in your path, barrow still stops upright, no squashed kiddies. You could even have gravity-deployed feet on the operator side of the wheel, so that if you push too hard, it stops, still upright.

I particularly like this idea for large mobile chicken coops, where you want to house your 75 to 100 birds and move them all by yourself without a tractor. I'd want two wheels, not one, but as long as its stable, all you'd need are long handles.

-CK

yeah,I agree single wheelbarrow is more convinent.
but chicken coops hold 100birds?how it huge? I have seen small coops with 4 wheels

chicken-coops.jpg

Chris Kott

pollinator

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posted 11 years ago

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That is, at present, hyperbole, but using the above approach I bet it could be done. To be honest, I'd just as likely make two or four smaller ones, unless there was a good reason to make just one big one. But the application is valid whatever the size.

-CK

Bill Eagle

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posted 11 years ago

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in reality,four small ones is better,unless a big chicken farm owned.

Glenn Ingram

Posts: 41

Location: Hartsville, SC

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posted 11 years ago

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This is a pretty old thread now, but I'll put my 2 cents in. I built one of these that is basically a garden cart up on one 24" bicycle wheel. It is not designed to do that. It was as one poster said, top heavy, difficult to steer, and impossible to push uphill with any weight at all. The biggest problem was the top heaviness. That does not mean it does not work though. The traditional design is to have a large wheel in the center and a shelf around the wheel at or a little above axle level. That makes it not top heavy at all and easy to steer. It is not designed to carry loose material like dirt. It is designed to carry baskets, boxes, etc that you can set on the shelf and tie it on so it doesn't fall off.

I will say too, that if you pack it such that you have to be pushing the handles down while walking, then you can't get traction pushing it up a hill. So put heavier things in back.

It is not a replacement for the common western wheelbarrow; they do different tasks. Where the western wheelbarrow is for carrying a lot of weight/material (especially loose material) a short distance, the Chinese wheelbarrow is for carrying containers, baskets, bricks, lumber?, even people of heavier weight a longer distance. Most people would obviously rather use a car or truck or bicycle for that purpose. So I think it is a great invention if you have a practical reason to use it over your car. An article I read about it was saying that it came about during a long recession when infrastructure was really falling apart especially roads. So it was a way to carry heavy loads long distances on foot paths. 2-wheeled carts were used before that, but they require wide level roads.

Possible modern uses:
You really really hate cars and want to be able to carry heavy material somewhere.
You have a long entrance to your house on a narrow or rough path where cars cannot go/are not allowed.
You have a large farm or such and need to push a lot of weight on side-hill paths.
You just like tinkering.

I think I fall into the 1st and last categories, mostly the last.

Glenn

Creighton Samuels

Posts: 604

posted 5 years ago

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Yeah, this is a pretty old thread. But the complaints about the Chinese wheelbarrow on this thread don't apply, because the function of a Chinese wheelbarrow is not for moving stuff around a garden. It was the pre-industrial equivalent of a small pickup truck, or perhaps a medium range dolly/hand-truck. Europe used animal pulled carts for the same purpose, but Europe benefited from the decaying transport infrastructure of the Roman Empire, which required that two military chariots could ride side by side anywhere along the official "Roman Roads" (i.e. All paths lead to Rome). Rural roads in the Middle Kingdom didn't reliably permit a cart as wide as a Western horse-cart to pass, as such rural roads in China were more like walking paths than military transport infrastructure. Different invention for a different purpose.

Joel Bercardin

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posted 5 years ago

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Good dialogue here. But since this thread on the general topic of the traditional Chinese wheelbarrow and derivatives is an older one, I thought I'd post to add a link to this newer thread on the topic...
https://permies.com/t/55649/Trad-Chinese-single-wheel-barrow

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