Swedish Work Cart Lets You Lay Down On The Job

Swedish Work Cart Lets You Lay Down On The Job FARM HOME Miscellaneous 33-3-4 Laying face down on a work cart when working a vegetable or berry patch isn't just for people with bad backs. It helps get work done faster and easier. "It does save your back but it also helps you do a better job," says John Bashaw, Pendragon Fabrication, importer and distributor of the Swedish Drangen Lay Down Cart. The operator steers and controls the speed of the cart with their feet. Both hands are free. "The first customer I had was a third generation cut flower grower," recalls Bashaw. "He put in 25,000 plants a year. The next year after buying the cart he doubled production. Another young couple in Oregon bought a cart when they started their vegetable farm. They farm 17 acres by themselves using our cart." Bashaw points to a University of Wisconsin study that found a person could pick 23 percent more snap beans in a 20-minute period with the cart than they could without the cart. "If that was the first 20 minutes, think how much more productive they would be at the end of the day," he says. Bashaw says the way the machine fits a body's natural position is what makes the difference between it and other such carts. Designers looked at what shape the body takes in zero gravity. They adapted that shape to their cart. The angle of the legs to the chest and the knees on the Drangen is a natural stress-free position, explains Bashaw. "It gives you stability that you don't get laying flat," he says. "The Drangen can be quickly adjusted to fit the individual body shape, whether short or tall. If you get sore on it, it's because you haven't adjusted it to your body." The Drangen cart comes with wheels or tracks and with a seat for sitting upright. A base unit with tracks sells for $9,500. The upright seat adds another $1,200. Other accessories include trays and platforms for seedling flats or harvest containers, rotary brush weeders, harvesting conveyers, canopies and four-wheel steer trailers. Custom-built equipment is also available. Carts can be equipped with either gas or electric motors. They can be equipped for one to four workers. "The only problem with them is that once a person uses it, you don't want to give it up," says Bashaw. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Pendragon Specialties, LLC, 2485 Corporate Circle, Unit 5, East Troy, Wis. 53120 (ph/fax 262 642-7793; mobile 262 844-3440; info@pendragonfabrication.com; www.pendragonfabrication.com).

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