It was time to get a new cart as our old one has done it’s fair share of hauling rocks and is clearly showing the wear. It has been an excellent cart for the last 6 years, and without it we wouldn’t have been able to build what we have in the yard. It has been instrumental in our walls. It will now be used for light yardwork like weeds, grass clippings, etc.

We decided to replace it with another cart. With a sloped yard a wheelbarrow is not an ideal tool for gardening. The cart allows both Kurt and I to control the descent from the top of the yard to the bottom when it is fully loaded. Likewise, we can both help push it to the top of the yard if it is full of heavy yard waste.

Some key pieces that we love about our old cart that we wanted to make sure our new cart had:

• Dump feature – We can unlock the bucket and it will dump the load like a dump truck
• Closed bucket – We didn’t want a wire bucket because we do haul crushed gravel and dirt, so it needed to be enclosed
• Big tires – the tires currently need to go over uneven ground, so we want sturdy tires

Some features that we hoped we could find improved in our new cart:

• Heavy-duty frame – the old cart was good but the frame could have been stronger. We babied the old cart a bit to ensure we didn’t bend the frame (which eventually did happen)
• Sturdy handle – the old cart handle was great but fairly weak and in the end bent easily.
• Bigger bucket – the old cart had a decent size bucket, but if we could get one slightly larger then we would need to make less trips while still feeling safe with the 2 of us bringing it up or down the hill.
• Hand brake – We would love to find one that has a hand break option on the handle, but I don’t think they make any with this feature so it is a bit of a pipe-dream.

After a bit of searching, we realized there are fewer and fewer garden carts on the market, which is a shame. Even if one day we move to a flat yard, I will still have a cart over a wheelbarrow. They are much easier to manoeuvre and are much more versatile.

We ended up finding one at a local store that looked to be a good replacement and a little more heavy duty that the one we currently had. So, I went and grabbed on as soon as I could because they only had a couple in stock, and are apparently hard to find.

When we got it out of the box to start assembling, we could see that it was definitely going to be much more heavy duty that our last one. The frame for this one was much heavier and sturdy, with less moving bits that could bend. The handle is huge and thick compared to the old cart. No hand brake, but definitely more ability to push on it without it bending.

The bucket is also quite a bit larger, which allows us to add more load to it. Plus there are slots in it that we could add some rope to make it easier for us to both help brace the weight of it as we go down hill.

The tires are also larger, allowing for better clearance on the ground and for going over the uneven ground in the yard. It also is a HUGE help when it comes to how much we have to bend to load or unload it, helping save our backs a bit.

The dump feature is the same on both, though because of the height of the new one, allows the bucket to get far more tilted meaning that more of the load comes out easily without having to scoop or push it over further.

We are excited for the beast to help with the next phases of the landscaping. Kurt added a few fun decals to it that seem very fitting for it’s use.

We put it to the test, hauling a 40′ long by 3′ high x 4″ wide wall worth of rocks in it. It handled it easily and works like a charm!