Hey guys I’ve been kicking around the idea of taking a used gas powered snowblower and removing the auger section and adding some angle iron to support a wheelbarrow tub and adding dolly wheels on the front to support some precut into 16" firewood. This would be used to transport firewood in a previous logged area. That has a lot of underbrush, so a regular wheelbarrow would be out of the question. Also I’m not sure if I want a wheeled or a track unit to transport those cutup tree tops to my truck and trailer. After looking on line for firewood carts, I have not seen any that would work in this area.
The wheeled ones are plentiful and cheap...build one and see how it works, if you aren't in love with it then it will still buy you some time to find a great deal on a tracked one, then the mods can probably just be switched over to the tracked unit...or, very likely the wheeled unit can be sold for profit and the second build refined from the first...win/win!
Good idea. Not sure, but would a wheeled one have better ground clearance? I'd think that would be important in the woods/underbrush.
an old lawn tractor drive system lkely would be a better canidate, much better drive ( not the hydro ones though) most snow blowers ( except for really old ones) tend to use the two disc system for drive- slip like mad when old because the friction discs wear out. royal pain to repair. Smiplicty of the centrifugal clutch and a chain drive best.
Those drives are a pain to work on and once that friction plate glazes over they are prone to slipping. How about a belt drive with an idler pully that is controlled by hand. Kind of like a roto tiller (that's all I can think of offhand) works with no centrifugal clutch, this way it works at any engine speed and as soon as you let - go it stops moving.
No way a snowblower drive is pushing a wheelbarrow of wood in underbrush. At least not for long. Made a couple of powered trailer dollys out of snowblower drives and they worked okay.
Sounds like you need a “concrete buggy”. Google it. I’m sure they would do just what you want. Probably way over your budget though, even used. Pretty awesome little machines, I’ve been around and operated several. But even used ones are hard to find for under $7000
heres what I came up with, my sister and her deadbeat husband would borrow this snowblower every year from me and never fix anything and wouldnt let me leave it at there house, so I took the front auger off and bolted it to the cart. I have a cable that goes under the cart and when you lower-turn the cart steering handle down it engages the slip clutch in the snowblower drive. I have only used it from my shop to my junk pile, but it does work.
I've been thinkin about adding a parking brake to it somehow, not sure how to go about doing it, I will probably never use it, I had tried to sell it and noone wanted to buy it, so I rigged it up and drove it to the junk pile where it has been for the last 6 or so months
Sandhillbilly yes you are so correct about those concrete buggy's. All those that I seen were battery powered and those are still not in my price range for the amount of use that I will get.
Never seen a battery one. Mostly familiar with the Canycom ones. I’ve seen a couple other brands. I think one would really work well for firewooding if you have a need for something like that. I personally don’t have a situation that would put one to good use. Although I’ve thought about buying one to rent out for concrete work.
I just rented a buggy last Saturday...I was disappointed how easily it got stuck when empty...would not go up over a 4" lip with 45* ramp without spinning out in the gravel...had to push too. Also would not go up ramp onto trailer...it was not steep either...did the old sit n spin until pushed. I wouldn't expect much from one off-road, especially empty.
