The narrow tires and narrow width would worry me. Flat firm solid dry ground only. 15mph is pretty darn fast for something like that. I wouldn’t trust my mother with it, maybe not even myself LOL That said those electric buggies do work pretty well. I bought my mom this cheapy model a couple years ago at 89. Pushing a loaded wheelbarrow was getting a bit much for her. She uses it almost every day and it works better than I thought it would. And it dumps. Just gotta remember to charge the batteries. It may be a toy for your average Firewoodhoarder but once the old age takes its toll,,,,,,,,,, Now I’m contemplating building some ramps and driving it in the front door and right up to the stove. Think mom will let me borrow it for the winter?
God bless her. I hope I'm able to push my own wheelchair at 89...that's if I make it that far. Is there a weight limit on it? Give each other rides around the property?
Think it’s rated for 500lbs. It may handle that weight but the cage wouldn’t handle that type of abuse for long. In other words you’re not going to be tossing 2-300lb rounds into it for long. You can remove the cage and use it as a flat platform. Cement blocks or bags of cement, something that distributes the weight then yeah it’ll do 500 easy enough. It was Christmas so I put it together in my living room. Drove myself around the house in it then wearing socks it had enough traction to pull me on the wood floors. I expected it to bog down and struggle, never skipped a beat. It’s not built for heavy abuse tho. She’s 91 now and for rides I use the ATV. Lived here 91 years and never made it as far as the end of the road LOL. Ok the end of the road is a little more than three miles through some really stony washed out mess right through the middle of the rattlesnake dens I’d include a pic, PIA tho
It looks like something someone in an office designed. Too narrow, skinny tires, wimpy structure. How is the gearing? Probably way too high to climb any kind of slope. Battery cost and availability? You can cut/weld a lawnmower and make a flatbed that will haul 500lbs with ease over most ground. The fuel cost would be minimal.
I've been wanting to build one of these for my gorilla cart that I use at work as a rolling tool platform. more weight has been added since this picture was taken.
Seems to me that one of these might be very useful to a firewood seller as a way to get splits from the truck/trailer to designated stacking spots, if the spot is unreachable otherwise. At best I can usually only muster maybe 7-9 splits at a time by hand. More if I have someone to pile me up.
I'm actually rather intrigued by this contraption. I had looked at other types of motorized carts several years ago thinking something like this would help to get scrounged rounds out of the woods to the road (back in the day when I would either drag 6' logs by hand or carry the scrounged tree out one round at a time). Never did find anything practical. Fast forward to now and this would definitely be something that I could use on a regular basis around the property. My stacks are not that far from my woodshed, and over the years I always thought it was somewhat pointless to use the ATV or lawn tractor to tow a trailer of splits to the shed when it was that close. I often just used a wheelbarrow since constantly starting the machines and only moving about 50 feet isn't what they were designed for. With the ever-increasing health/mobility issues, something like this would be perfect. With 1000-pound payload capacity, hi-lo gears, three speeds (L,M,H), the ability to move/tow trailers, and not being overly tippy (I think it weighs around 1000-pounds), this thing could definitely make life easier around the property. Would it replace my ATV? No, of course not. The Step Ranger would just be another tool in the toolbox. But depending on its capabilities, I could see myself getting rid of the ATV eventually (just doesn't get used that much). I would still have the Kioti tractor for the big stuff and the Cub Cadet lawn tractor as well. I was planning to cut some trails through my (relatively flat) property to access some areas with the ATV. I could do the same for this machine but with much narrower paths. This is probably the best review video I found (independent review, not a company posting) and the person who posted it does process firewood (he even towed his splitter with the Step Ranger). www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2FMXiFxx0s There are other posts out there, including one where a person uses his Step Ranger towing a log arch to bring wood to his sawmill (he does make the disclaimer that the logs are spruce, not 18" diameter oak...common sense after all). Bottom line is I see a lot of plusses with this more than the minuses. This is a video from the company showing the Step Ranger on somewhat uneven terrain and navigating a 30-degree slope. If you actually take the time to see how this thing is constructed, it's pretty slick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=87cIIMmomZI (Pic below obviously isn't exact...but AI can only do so much.)
I see on their website they do offer a much better tire. Should probably be standard if they wish to target the outdoor community. I would like to see all wheel drive. Have you ever considered a log arch for your Atv? If you have enough land to harvest from that is. Nice thing about an arch is no loading or unloading of rounds. Just pick up the whole log, drive it to the splitter, cut it up and split. If your splitter has a log lift even that job is eliminated. IIRC it weighs 300lbs. Not exactly light but the 4wd would really help. Having moved some big loads around with various Atv,s now I’ve seen how much weight of the machine, tires and 2wd 3wd and 4wd play a role.
I looked at different log arches over the years but never picked one up. For the most part, I was not cutting down many trees on my property but always scrounging in the national forest so really didn't have much need for the arch (the tractor and grapple did the work at the homefront). Since the caterpillar apocalypse of 21-22, I now have an abundance of dead red oak on my property. I've had most of the ones closest to the house taken down, and the tractor handled moving everything. For those farther in the woods, I'll probably be using the skidding winch to pull out those that are closer to the edge of tree line and then bucking those farther in and hauling them out in rounds. My woods are pretty thick and not conducive to towing an arch with a long log (I can barely (or can't) get my ATV through most areas, and towing a trailer is a pain, which is why I've been thinking of cutting a trail through the property). If I ended up getting one of these Step Ranger gizmos, I understand it's limitations and most of the reasons I want it are for moving splits around the property (as well as other landscaping jobs, etc. that don't require constantly driving the ATV short distances or firing up the tractor). Doing anything else in the woods would not be often. If I was carrying rounds out of the woods with this, it's not that far so small loads aren't an issue.
At one time I was trying to justify one of these. I always thought they looked like a good wood porter. My stacks are right beside the house, so no need there.
