Question of Survival

[Pete Grey]

MB you know the saying “rubbish expands to fill the space available” it’s the same with the boot of the car, and also your backpack. Its human nature to fill every space in your pack wether its 40 litres or 70 litres “just in case”.

It sounds a good idea to keep a lightweight cart in the car, not much call for deer carts in the midlands but i will look into making one if i find suitable wheels, it would also be useful to move full jerrycans about.

[Straight Shooter]

Well i will be making one this winter, i have the wheels (off my grandsons bike) and plenty of bits to make up the frame.....i remember MB posting about this when he bought it first ....i think its a brilliant piece of kit and makes absolute sense to have it.....a lot easier than humping especially if you'r carrying for two .

[Mortblanc]

It need not be a specific "deer cart", simply the concept of the same. A cart that is well balanced, will carry 50-100 kilos, will track well over rough ground or smooth, and will collapse for easy storage in the boot.

It could be a garden cart, a shopping cart or any other suitable device.

In days gone by the hobos carried their gear all wrapped up in a bindle on a stick. Today the pinched grocery trolley is their favored device. A well made two wheeled cart sure beats a grocery trolley with a wonky wheel.

[CharlesHarris]

Around here the college lads use a jogging stroller to transport tbe beer keg and tap from the tavern to the frat house, as well as for transporting groceries and inebriated party guests.

[Mortblanc]

Those umbrella type baby strollers also fold up flat and take up little space in the boot. They are also cheap!

One could shove their pack into the baby seat, secure it with a couple of bungee cords and be gone in a flash.

Anything beats carrying the pack for both young and healthy folks and those of us getting on into the malady laden years.

I always try to remember that a horse can carry about 100 kilos on its back without harm. That same horse can pull a wheeled cart that contains a ton!

That is why I never reply or comment to threads about best pack, pack size, pack color, how many pockets or zippers? I do not care. I am not carrying a pack anywhere for any distance.

As a side note we have in our history over here a series of westward migration that have become legend. One of those migrations was the transport of Mormon believers from Iowa to Utah, about 1000 miles, with the sole means of transport of all supplies and goodies being the use of two wheeled hand carts. The carts were capable of transporting 500 pounds of supplies and were pulled by a single human.

Most of these pioneers of the American West, were immigrants fresh off the boat from Scotland, England and Wales, so there is a valid connection to UK survival in the analogy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers

Of course those are way too big for stashing in the boot, but the connection by emergency use is present.

[Pete Grey]

Yes MB you can pull a load easily that would be almost impossible to carry, especially when you are in your 70s.

I’ve started to look around the local charity shops (and junk shops) for a two wheeled shopping bag, like the ones our mothers used to use.

As long as the wheels are good and rotate ok it will do the job well, it’s really only a good frame that’s needed (even if the bag is tatty) and it will pull along nicely, it will be a useful addition.

[Midnitemo]

I think they are called sholley's , i have a wheelbarrow earmarked for that duty , thinking of modifying it to twin wheel on a short axle of maybe 50 cm's

[Spike_Polite]

I have one of these fishing tackle barrows, I do a lot of fishing but it folds up neat and handles a heavy
well balanced load easy. For bugging out you could make sure you have plenty of items also when you need to build camp you use the barrow to carry water, logs, branches or rocks to your camp, save as much energy as you can when having to move.

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/trakker-...ity-barrow

[Mortblanc]

Over here in the states we once had a famous troll who started out his career in the WWW under the screen name "Gunkid".

Now Gunkid had the IQ of a squid and would argue with a fence post. He also had some really wild ideas and proved to be responsible for many of the wild impressions the entire survival community got stuck with.

He thought of himself as a self trained mercenary that would rule his own private kingdom as dictator and war lord once SHTF and he could not wait for that to happen.

One of his brilliant visions was a "tactical wheelbarrow", and that spelled doom for the general concept of using a wheelbarrow for anything here in the States.

He also advocated the use of Chihuahuas that had been surgically altered, removing their bark, as guard dogs. If they did not perform they would fit in the stew pot better than a big dog.

He had some other wild ideas I will not even touch on but the "tactical wheelbarrow" always come to mind when anyone mentions the use of such a conveyance.

Mr. Gunkid eventually did an 8 year stretch in one of our Federal Penitentiaries for violation of our firearms laws. Contrary to popular belief we do have some very stringent firearms laws over here. Some of them make less sense than your own.

At any rate he talked too freely on the web, ticked off someone he should not have mistreated, had his house and storage facility raided, and went to prison. That brings to attention that it is not how much you have stored but WHAT you have stored that interests TPTB.

All of that being said we also have a historical investment in the one wheeled device known as the wheelbarrow here in the U.S.

Back during our Gold Rush to California in 1849 a young blacksmith named John Studebaker went west and soon discovered he could make more money supplying wheelbarrows to the miners than panning for gold.

He made some money in California on his wheelbarrows and sent it east to his brothers who invested it in their carriage business. When John returned fro the west he became president of the firm, the largest carriage maker in the U.S.

In 1901 they switched to making motor vehicles.

During WW2 they became the primary supplier of trucks to the Soviet Union on the "lend/lease" program. So when you see pictures of the WW2 Soviet army on the move, and 1 or 2 ton trucks are present, they are usually Studebakers, and direct decedents from the wheelbarrow firm.

OK today's history lesson is over and you can resume your previous activities.

BTW that is a really neat fishing wheelbarrow. I could cope with that.

[Mortblanc]

Here is another question!

If a wheel barrow has one wheel and you add a second wheel does that make it a "wheels barrow"?

Do two wheels make it a "cart"?

If one of the wheels is behind the other wheel does that make it a bicycle?