I was reminiscing about building what we called a push cart. As I thought more about it I realized that the kids today would be hard pressed to find the parts. Our carts always started with taking the axles off of a baby carriage. Those old carriages were easy to come by but today I rarely see one. They have been replaced by those umbrella strollers. The axles were often riveted to the frame of the carriage and took some work to free. I mostly used a chisel to shear them off. Once freed though those axles were excellent. There would be at least two holes through them were the rivets had been and it was those holes that allowed the axle to be fastened to a 2x4. We would drive a couple nails through them and bend the nail over were it stuck out the other side. Often times we would also use more nails bent around the axle to hold it tight. Once the axles had been attached to those 2x4's the rest was easy enough. Just use another 2x4 for the " body " and nail the rear axle in place. The steering was accomplished by putting a carriage bolt through the front wheel assembly and tightening it just enough that it would turn but not tilt. When it wore out all you had to do was replace it with another piece of wood. And then you needed a seat. We would get a wooden case that milk came in and knock out one side. Kids today would sure have a hard time finding one of those. Ours almost always said Schenck Dairies on the side. A piece of rope for steering and towing and the push cart was ready to roll.
My siblings and I spent many hours pushing each other around in those carts. Up and down that old dirt road we lived on. At the far end of that road there are two hills. The big hill and the little hill. These hills are in succession, big to little. The big one was too steep for those carts but the brave could navigate the little one. The problem was not only was the hill steep but very bumpy, there were many pot holes that could catch your front wheel. Now, if you've never ridden on a push cart you may not be aware how dangerous that is. You really couldn't steer that cart using only the rope and so you placed your feet on the cross piece holding the front wheels. If the wheel caught in a hole it would violently turn that crosspiece. It your foot didn't get smashed between that and the body, the cart would certainly flip over. Happened more than once. We weren't wearing knee pads, elbow pads, helmets or body armor. Well. sometimes we did wear my oldest brothers football helmet.
There were a few times when our Uncle Doc took us to some back roads that were paved and watched us race those carts down a hill. He would then pull the cart and us kids back up the hill with his car. He knew some nice long slopes were you could coast for a good distance. Those roads are all lined with houses now and I'm certain traffic is a problem. That was all more than fifty years ago, a half a century. At the time I thought nothing about it. I figured every kid had 2x4's and baby carriages to build these carts with. The idea of fastening roller skates to a board and riding that never occurred to me. I expect those little steel wheels wouldn't have worked very well anyway. They were hard enough to use on the sidewalk let alone dirt. So, we built many of those carts as the wheels collapsed and things became loose. Even built one with a cabin on it. The cabin didn't last even one trip down the hill! Let me tell you that was a painful lesson to learn. We survived and we learned. We were entertained as well.
My siblings and I spent many hours pushing each other around in those carts. Up and down that old dirt road we lived on. At the far end of that road there are two hills. The big hill and the little hill. These hills are in succession, big to little. The big one was too steep for those carts but the brave could navigate the little one. The problem was not only was the hill steep but very bumpy, there were many pot holes that could catch your front wheel. Now, if you've never ridden on a push cart you may not be aware how dangerous that is. You really couldn't steer that cart using only the rope and so you placed your feet on the cross piece holding the front wheels. If the wheel caught in a hole it would violently turn that crosspiece. It your foot didn't get smashed between that and the body, the cart would certainly flip over. Happened more than once. We weren't wearing knee pads, elbow pads, helmets or body armor. Well. sometimes we did wear my oldest brothers football helmet.
There were a few times when our Uncle Doc took us to some back roads that were paved and watched us race those carts down a hill. He would then pull the cart and us kids back up the hill with his car. He knew some nice long slopes were you could coast for a good distance. Those roads are all lined with houses now and I'm certain traffic is a problem. That was all more than fifty years ago, a half a century. At the time I thought nothing about it. I figured every kid had 2x4's and baby carriages to build these carts with. The idea of fastening roller skates to a board and riding that never occurred to me. I expect those little steel wheels wouldn't have worked very well anyway. They were hard enough to use on the sidewalk let alone dirt. So, we built many of those carts as the wheels collapsed and things became loose. Even built one with a cabin on it. The cabin didn't last even one trip down the hill! Let me tell you that was a painful lesson to learn. We survived and we learned. We were entertained as well.
This is the basic design we used.
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