Refurbishing the Tactical Wheelbarrow

[brutal]

Do you hire out?

[.455_Hunter]

Outstanding!

[Hoser]

Get some.

[Little Dutch]

I'm actually excited Murdochs sells good handles. My favorite barrow got it's handles chewed by my lab pupp last year and I'd rather replace them than the whole barrow. I, like you, looked at Lowes and was disappointed in the options.

ETA- I don't see them available on their webpage. Might be a local store offering.

[JohnnyDrama]

That's a thing of beauty.

[rondog]

Warms the cockles of my C.O.B. heart.....

[OtterbatHellcat]

I inherited a derelict wheel barrow when I bought this place, but not with a history like that!

Nice work.

[StagLefty]

Great post !! Great restoration !!!!

[Hummer]

Thanks for the comments, fellas, I am glad you enjoyed the story. I'm sure all of you take pride in fixing and restoring things, whether old cars, guns, furniture, anything. If this had been any old worn out tool I wouldn't have bothered, but the history and quality of it pushed me to invest much more time and money than was really justified.

Awesome story and awesome restoration. These things were obviously built to last unlike all of the disposable stuff sold today.

Are you going to add side mounted machine guns?

Nice job.

Stealth mini-guns already installed.

Who would have thought that a wheelbarrow restoration post would ever pull me in to read through to the end? Certainly not me, but pull me in it did.

Amazing restoration and I hope your next 2 generations appreciate it for what it is and keep it going strong.

I know there was plenty of TLDR built into the story but I wrote partly to document the process for myself and any future owners. The Tactical Wheelbarrow lives on!

I'm actually excited Murdochs sells good handles. My favorite barrow got it's handles chewed by my lab pupp last year and I'd rather replace them than the whole barrow. I, like you, looked at Lowes and was disappointed in the options.

ETA- I don't see them available on their webpage. Might be a local store offering.

I bought the handles in Longmont but the Murdoch's in Clifton had them too. They also had cheaper handles. Since I wanted to restore the family wheelbarrow to it's former glory I opted for the better ones that included wedges. $55 bucks each, ouch!

For another barrow I might do it differently, possibly going with the tubular metal handles and rubber wedges in order to save weight.

My barrow broke in January and I needed a quick replacement to haul firewood. I like the new one, it's pretty strong but the metal tub is thinner. A big advantage is the weight, 41.5 lbs. vs. 68.5 lbs. for the old Wards barrow. That's 27 lbs. less, a 39.5% decrease in weight.

Actually, I have 3 wheelbarrows, the other from the mid-80's is in between in weight and has a seamless tub.

What I don't like are the solid, hard tires. They don't give like pneumatic tires so they're harder on the body. I plan to restore the original wheel with a tube tire.

[Seamonkey]

Looks awesome!

Suggestions:
- Scabbard for your M1 Garand or Carbine
- Hollow wheel you can fill with water