DIY Single Wheel to Two Wheel Wheelbarrow conversion

 

Well it certainly has been a while since I posted to my blog. I've been busy with a lot of large projects for a friend of mine over the past several months. One smaller project I did in-between was to convert a single wheeled wheelbarrow to a two wheeled wheelbarrow. I thought I'd share the conversion process with the world incase someone on the planet wanted to do the same.

If you've read any of my past blog posts you may recall one of the projects I did was to refurbish a 6 cu.ft. wheelbarrow. The one seen below in fact.

It turned out great BUT... the person I refurbished it for is a small 70 year old woman. A wheelbarrow this size was a tad much for her.  Anyone that has loaded up a 6 (or 6.6) cu. ft. wheelbarrow can attest, the thing gets heavy fast and can be cumbersome to control once fully loaded. Plain and simple it was just too big for her and her needs.

And wouldn't you know it but on a trip to Home Depot one cloudy day, someone had discarded a 4.4 cu. ft. wheelbarrow in the parking lot. Yup, it was covered in cement, had a flat tire, and was barely holding together as all the bolts were loose. But the parts were all there, the sled and everything in decent shape. And it was the perfect size for her to use for the yard work or gardening she does. So i loaded in the SUV and set out to not only refurbish it, but convert it into a much easier to drive two wheeled wheelbarrow. And how I did so, is the project of topic. 

This is a True Temper 4.4 cu ft single wheeled wheelbarrow with a poly sled sold at Home Depot for around $40 bucks new. Here's a pic of one new:

For the conversion on this particular wheelbarrow which has a 5/8 inch axle you'll need the following:

A 5/8 in x 24 inch solid steel rod stock. Home Depot, Lowes, Ace all have this and it's not too expensive.

I picked up a couple 13 inch white hub tire and wheel assemblies from Harbor Freight for great price. Rated at 400lbs load each. A note on this, I would have prefered ones with ball bearings rather than bushings but bushings are fine though if you can find them with bearings all the better.

You'll need a couple of 5/8 washers for the outside of the hubs. And a couple of cotter pins.

You don't have to have it, but a short piece of 1/2 inch pvc pipe to go in the center of the axle is nice. Just makes it stronger in my humble opinion. You do have to make sure the 5/8 inch steel axle rod fits inside the pvc so you can slide it through. They sell 2 foot sections at the box store just check them till you find one that you can slide the rod in.

You'll need to save and cut in half one of the original spacers that came on the wheelbarrow. They are three inches approx. Just use a hacksaw or whatever to cut it into two equal size pieces. IE: cut it in half. You'll use those for the outside spacers.

The Conversion:

The conversion is simple really for anyone with basic skills and some common sense.

Remove the front wheel assembly from the wheelbarrow.

Set one plastic spacer aside to cut in half. The other toss in the junk parts drawer for future use with the other spacers you've accumulated.

On the axle brackets you'll notice a stop. It's the bent down tab on the bracket I have an arrow pointing to in the below image:

In order for the new axle to go through that tab has to be removed. You can easily grind it off with a Dremel and a cut wheel. That's all I used. It's quick and easy work. Do that to both axle brackets.

If the brackets are done, go ahead and cut the spacer in half. That done it's time to dry fit to get your axle length.

Put the axle brackets back on finger tight. Slide the axle rod on through both. put your spacers on. Put the wheels on, the correct way. Put your 5/8 washers on.

On one side leave about 3/8 in past the outer washer. Mark it all the way around the axle. Make sure everything is pushed snug. Measure 3/8 inch past the washer on the other side. Mark it, as that is the length of your axle. That mark is your cut off mark. So cut it off there.

While you have it dry fit, get the measurement for the inner pvc sleeve if you're adding one.

Drilling the hole for the cotter pin is a pain in the butt if you don't clamp the rod and you don't center punch where you want to drill the hole for the cotter pin. Freehand or drill press, you can do either much easier if you clamp the rod and center punch where the hole is to be drilled.

A rod clamp jig is easy to make - real easy. If you have a table saw even easier. I used a circular saw. Just clamp one end of the piece of wood and make your cuts. It doesn't have to be a huge jig. You just need something long enough to clamp and hold the rod while you drill the hole.

Here's mine:

A 45 degree cut makes the bottom V groove. And a simple slot for the top clamp part.

Here it is with a dowel. It's doesn't matter what the rod is made of. It holds round rod.

On my axle as mentioned you have 3/8 inch past the outer washer. Center punch a mark 3/16ths from the ends. That's where you'll put your cotter pin. See...

The axle on the one I converted is around 20 inches long.

Once you drill the holes for the cotter pins it's just a matter of assembly. If you opted to add the center PVC pipe over the axle, this is when you'll put it on. It may be a tight fit, had you put it on before, it might have proved a pain to get off again.

Here's some pics of my conversion assembled so you can get a feel for how it should look and go together.

You'll notice a notch out of the center PVC pipe on either side. The axle stops on the inside are not bent down. I chose to use them to prevent the center PVC from spinning. You can do the same.

When you reassemble, make sure you line things up and they are square. You don't want it steering right or left and if it isn't square, it will steer in one direction or the other.

Here's a close up and an arrow pointing to the original spacers once cut in half... just in case you were confused on that part.

Once you have everything lined up and tightened back down. You're done.

However with this one, not quite so fast. It was covered in cement. I have this pic before cleaning up the sled if that gives some indication of what I was dealing with. And this is after I scrubbed it down.

So I took the whole dang thing apart. Gave a muriatic acid bath to all the metal and poly parts. Gave all the metal 3 coats of exterior grade enamel paint. Repainted the handles.

I noticed the front support they had drilled the holes wrong and was way too forward. Rather than re-drilling the holes I added a hard wood support to the front. That compound miter was a bitch to get right. I must have cut it 3 or 4 times before  I was happy with the fit. Now it's tight and much stronger than the original. I used red oak for it.

While working on it, this little guy passed through. Came from the back yard, wandered through the porch work area and headed out the front porch door. First time I've seen one here. It's a Three Toed Box Turtle. He was nice enough to pose for the pic before heading down the walk way to whereever he/she was heading.

Well that's it for this project. A simple one, but one I'm glad I did. The woman that it's for love's it as it's much easier for her to use. It's much more stable than a single wheeled version and the perfect size for her.

One more shot of it all cleaned up and ready for use.

Till next time,

Stay Happy, Stay Creative.

Cheers...