Old Fashioned Wood Hauling Wheel Barrow

I lived on a old time loggers property for a few years. The guy had done almost every conceivable thing with wood one can imagine. He told me they used stretched out flat wheel barrows to haul big loads of cedar bolts or firewood out of the woods or around a homestead. There are very easy to make as it’s all made from flat boards. A old metal wheel will work or new inflatable wheel. These also make a great bench to sit on, temporary workbench, and general purpose hauler around a homestead.
I’m a big fan of carts and wheel barrows of all kinds. The video linked shows the general idea except the example in the video is short in comparison to what the loggers used. A long flat wheelbarrow can haul a huge amount of wood:

This is certainly true.

I was thinking that if a person was hauling wood out of a certain area, or they were retrieving wood from the woodshed, they could also set up a monorail, or even duel wheeled cart. With the right wheel, it would stay on a rail made up of inexpensive electrical conduit supported by short lengths of 2x6's. I think it would be well worth doing because the coefficient of friction would be so low that a person could more easily push a cart with much bigger loads on such a monorail.

When I worked on the railroad, we put new trucks under the locomotives. We would take a crane and pick up the end of the locomotive, then using a lining bar, pry the truck out from under the locomotive. That truck weighed 35 tons, yet we could bar it forward because of how easy it is to roll something with steel wheels, on steel track.

Wow, lifting a train!! That’s heavy!
A PVC rail system makes a lot of sense for moving stuff around. There’s a video on forming curves in PVC using hot sand to make a backyard thrill ride. Same idea would make a track for moving materials. If I built a straw bale house I’d set up a track from the straw bales to the house site. Though a cart works pretty good too.
I had about 7 carts and wheelbarrows at my Permaculture site. There’s no such thing as too many. One trick I learned for up-cycling materials is replace the rotting plywood in the “garden carts” with bed liner material. People throw out the plastic bed liners when they spray their trucks. The stuff will last a long time in a cart. Cut the bed liner with a circular saw or even a hand saw. Ive used it on shed roofs also.
The big diameter metal wheels were nice on bumpy ground. The bigger the wheel the smoother the and  easier it is to roll. Also a one wheeled wheelbarrow can go down a surprisingly narrow track. Or up a narrow ramp. But I also used a heavy duty two wheeled wheelbarrow a lot.

Travis Johnson wrote:This is certainly true.

I was thinking that if a person was hauling wood out of a certain area, or they were retrieving wood from the woodshed, they could also set up a monorail, or even duel wheeled cart. With the right wheel, it would stay on a rail made up of inexpensive electrical conduit supported by short lengths of 2x6's. I think it would be well worth doing because the coefficient of friction would be so low that a person could more easily push a cart with much bigger loads on such a monorail.

When I worked on the railroad, we put new trucks under the locomotives. We would take a crane and pick up the end of the locomotive, then using a lining bar, pry the truck out from under the locomotive. That truck weighed 35 tons, yet we could bar it forward because of how easy it is to roll something with steel wheels, on steel track.

French gardens had these setup,  I remember reading about it in Elliot Coleman's books.

I have a great deficiency of carts and barrows here, hopefully I get a chance to work on that this winter.

I like the idea of an extended flatbed but would prefer the wheel set back a bit, so it carries more of the load. More like a chinese wheelbarrow.


Wondering if a small motorbike wheel might be a good fit for a beefy unit like this, anyone tried it?

Ive not seen a motorcycle or scooter wheel on a cart but I’m sure someone has done it. That would be sturdy.
I remember reading about a sliding greenhouse or cold frame in Elliot Coleman’s books. The idea makes good sense for rotating crops.