Wheelbarrows with plastic tubs

[Rod Sheridan]

My plastic wheelbarrow is just over 30 years old, stored outside.

Last summer I put a crack in it dropping a patio stone, corner down.

I'm going to buy a 4 wheel wagon from Lee Valley to replace it.

Regards, Rod.

[Steve Demuth]

Totally and completely depends on the quality of the plastic. I've got a plastic-tubbed cement mixer that has performed brilliantly for over a decade - and I do some crazy stuff with it, like filling it with a mixture of rocks and walnuts in order to de-hull the nuts. I've got plastic stock tanks that are 30+ years old, and going strong. UV stabilized, HD poly is amazingly tough stuff. A wheelbarrow made from the same material as either of those would easily survive most use and being left outside. The one plastic tubbed wheelbarrow I did own, though, was not made from that kind of material, but something much thinner and lower density, and did not hold up well at all.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a plastic tub wheelbarrow that has a crack/hole in it from tossing a brick into it. It still works for anything short of trying to mix concrete in it. My parents have an old metal wheelbarrow that the tub is all cracked and rusty around the bolts. There are fender washers holding it together.

[Jim Koepke]

This wheelbarrow had the broken wooden handles replaced by my father about 25 years ago:

Whellbarrow.jpg

After moving to Washington over 10 years ago, one of my neighbors thought I was a survivalist, no just frugal.

After getting a lathe one of my first projects was to make some wooden handles. Not a great turning:

Handle.jpg

The tenons were carved to an interference fit into the aluminum rails/arms. They had to be persuaded with help from a mallet.

There was a lot of concrete mixed in that before my dad gave it to me. There has been a lot since.

jtk