Hydrostatic Wheelbarrow Makes Light Work Of Heavy Hauling

Hydrostatic Wheelbarrow Makes Light Work Of Heavy Hauling FARM HOME Miscellaneous 29-6-29 Unable to justify the high price of most powered wheelbarrows, Daniel Kirk decided to build his own. It worked so well that he's now planning to put them on the market. "It will carry 500-lb. loads, yet it only weighs 180 lbs.," he says. "Two people can throw it on a pickup so you can use it anywhere." Kirk started out with a tubular steel frame similar to a wheelbarrow with a single 6-in. castor wheel on the back end. The 48 by 30 by 15-in. deep box is balanced for easy dumping. Originally Kirk planned to use a 3 hp Briggs and Stratton engine driving a standard rear end. When a friend gave him a 6 1/2 hp garden tractor engine and hydrostatic drive unit, he quickly changed his mind. "It was all self-contained in a 65-lb. package," explains Kirk. "All I had to do was mount it on the frame and hook up the linkage." He notes that many newer lawn mowers have hydrostatic drive, making parts easy to get. One change he did make to the unit was to equip it with narrower tires with tractor type tread. The narrower tread gives him more power and a tighter turning circumference. Operating the power wheelbarrow is easy. "Just move the cart handle forward or back, and that's the direction the cart moves," says Kirk. "With the variable speed on the hydrostatic, the farther ahead you move it, the faster it goes." So far he has made four prototypes and hopes to begin marketing one with a 6.5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine soon. He expects to price the hydrostatic drive wheelbarrows at around $1,000. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Daniel Kirk, Jr., 6 S. Chanango St., Green, N.Y. 13778 (ph 607 656-8322; djkirkjr @yahoo.com).

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