Dom's Self-propelled Basket

A few days ago Dom finished construction of his self-propelled basket--his version of a motorized wheelbarrow. The primary reason for making it was to haul wood up to the barn from the lower part of our property. Several years ago we had a number of trees taken down (they were old cottonwoods and one had already fallen on our neighbor's land).

The motor portion of it is part of the cutter bar--a scissor-type grass cutter. The cutting portion comes off the front so, in his shop on Whidbey Island, Dom created an attachment and frame for the basket. He ordered appropriate size wheels. That portion of the creation was packed up in a small wheel suitcase to be transported over here.

Once here he began looking for a basket of some sort to attach to it. At first he had in mind a grocery store shopping cart. We contemplated a late night raid on a local supermercato but looked for other options first. Eventually he found a wire basket at Mercatino del Usato in Lucca. It is a small version of the type of basket that is used to hold a bunch of merchandise in a store. The only drawback was that the whole thing easily came apart in pieces.

Dom purchased some stiffer rods and wired the whole thing together. Then, one evening we went over to Mary and Orlando's so Dom could use their welder. He and Orlando spent a couple hours out in the shop at the end of which the basket was a solid whole. (Thanks Orlando and Mary!!!)

Once the basket was back home Dom bolted it to the frame. He cut it down a little and smoothed the sharp edges with a grinder. Then he attached the whole thing to the motor of the cutter bar. He took it for several test drives. Our Italian neighbors found it very interesting.

On Monday Dom took it down to the wood pile along with his chainsaw, cutting rack and other tools. He proceeded to cut up a couple of loads of logs suitable for burning in the fireplace. Then he brought them up to the barn. He said it worked pretty well except for a tendency to be a little top heavy.

Here is a short video clip showing the basket in action.