[Grasshopper]

Hello everyone. I just wondered if anyone could help me? I live in a little village on the shore of a river come estuary and lots of trees and wood gets washed up onto the shore. I'm having a wood burning fire fitted in my front room later this year and would like to use what's washed up. I'm not bothered about collecting it (in fact I'm looking forward to it) but I need a handcart come truck to load it in to bring home. Anybody out there got any ideas or plans on how to build one? I'm not too bad on the building side it's the design I'm not sure about. Cheers.

[Kleftiwallah]

How about scouting round your local garden centres and asking "those in authority" if they have a barrow that has seen better days but with a little tweaking can still be useful for haulin' logs?  Lateral thinking.    Cheers,   Tony.

[grendel]

I have one that I made, its part of a sheet of 3/4" plywood, on each corner bolted on by 4 bolts each are 4 big casters like the ones on B&Q trollys (5" or 6" tyres) two fixed two steering, another steering type wheel had the wheel taken out and bolted upside down onto a section sticking out from the front of the base, a long piece 1 1/2 " or so square is bolted through with the wheel axle, and a 8" bolt put through the other end, this is the pull handle.
on mine the sides need replacing, but you can make them any height, screw them from the bottom up through the base, 4 sides or less if you want an open back.
perfect little trolly, have the steering type wheels at the same end as the handle.
I'll post some pics when I have taken some.
Grendel

[arugula]

Grendel your cart sounds quite like THIS kind of thing, but made of wood obviously. I would say you need at least this size of wheel and tyre combination to attempt shore access.

[grendel]

yes very similar, but the plywood was scrounged on a building site where it had been used to shutter concrete, and the wheels may well have been off of a long abandoned b&q trolly, total cost £0
Grendel

[grendel]

and

[grendel]

and

[arugula]

That's a great design Grendel, as you've taken away the need for an axle (or two).

[grendel]

sides can be as high as you like, but this is simple, and I believe these wheels can be easily bought, if you cant find an old abandoned and rusting trolly. mine is quite small due to wanting to be able to fit it in the boot of my car. Its really sturdy though, I have carried a dozen 25Kg bags of sand on mine no problem.
Grendel

[grendel]

it works as push or pull too because of the fixed set of wheels, turns in its own length and just gets propped up on its end for storage.
Grendel

[grendel]

if you want to get the castors on ebay the 125mm ones are a lot better priced than 150mm ones
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=125mm+castor&_sacat=0&_odkw=150mm+castor&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
quite often they come in sets of 4 fixed or 4 swivel, you could always but a set of each - make 2 carts then sell one for the cost of all your materials. actually you do need 3 swivels as you need one for the handle  too, that gives you a spare wheel just in case.
Grendel

[grendel]

though the one for the handle on mine came from a much smaller castor wheel.
G

[Grasshopper]

Thanks to everyone for all your ideas, I am going to sit down, try to get the old brain working and weigh up all options. I do think the larger wheels with inflatable tyres will be better for the type of terrain I will be negotiating though.

                                                   Cheers everyone,
                                                                               Brian.

[grendel]

you can get the castors in 8" versions too:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/200mm-HEAVY-DUTY-Industrial-Castors-8-Rubber-Wheels-/120593799354?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Supply_Material_Handling_ET&hash=item1c13f358ba
rubber tyres, but  not inflatable.
Grendel

[8doubles]

Have a look at the 4 wheeled polydump carts on ebay they seems a good buy .
You will probably pay that much for 4 wheels.