I am very interested in acquiring a high quality timber cart, so if you or anyone else makes this kind of product available please let me in on it. I will say that 400-500 dollars seems pricey though. tb Has anyone seen or used those fancy log/timber carriers by the company Future forestry. They seem quite helpful as they not only carry the load but pick it up off the ground as well. They are also quite light weight as I hear, but they are also pricey and may possibly cause some minor damage to the timbers in the process???? tb

Raphael,

Thanks for looking into this. I'm in the same boat regarding my tool budget being maxed for a while, but I am game for a timber cart in the next year.

I'll be looking for a cart without a towing hitch, as I don't live on a road and forest here is too soft for machinery. Anything real big will be moved with a winch.

I just saw a fine design for a smaller cart following the draw boring thread, posted by Collin Beggs, made by John Snow in the UK:
http://www.windysmithy.co.uk/html/handtools.htm

A quick question. Have you considered aluminum? I suppose steel is cheaper to fabricate, but if I end up hiring someone local, I would use the local aluminum welding expertize.

Best,

Zach

Zach. thanks for the cool link to Jon Snow's site. It is really a great site. tb

Hello All,

Jon Snow's carts are great -- as is everything else he makes. He makes them to order based on the height of your horses. I wish we had a smith over here that would cater to framers. I met Jon at the UK Carpenter's Fellowship gathering this past summer. He had a forge set up and was letting people fool around. Great fun. The guild should have more stuff like that at our conferences.

That style cart can be seen in nearly every framing yard in the UK, I believe. It works great. If I had a welder, I would have already made one.

Gabel

Gabel, I am not sure what you are looking for, but I have been considering making some tools for timber framing. I have made some hewing dogs and hook pins already, and have a couple of people interested in buying some. If there was interest I could make small batches of tools.

Dave

Lon Tyler used to sell a GREAT timber/log cart. Light but strong, I've handled green 32' DF 10x10's, alone, once they were up on horses. Lon has sold the business to a nephew & I've lost the new contact info!!
Best to contact Lon @ lon@ltyler.com or 541-367-6726 & he'll steer you to the right spot. There may be pics of it from the LISEC Bayles project.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this post. I originally though he was talking about a tool cart.
I see now that it's a very good idea, though I seriously question if people would be willing to pay $500. You basically need 2 carts. one for the rear and one for the front to steer. The rear one should be fixed wheels like this

The front cart should be very similar only should have a swivel table on top that will allow you to turn the front wheels, plus it should have a steering/pulling handle. This way you can use the same axles and wheels for front and back and nearly identical carts, only adding the swivel table and handle to the front cart. Perhaps it may be more economical to sell cart kits where people do the welding themselves? Or even better if it's a bolt together design. You would be able to save the customer money on shipping by shipping it in pieces or being able to pack it more compactly, and saving the customer the assembly cost. It would be much easier to make the pieces than the whole assembly too. Also consider using angle iron bolted together for the top hoop. this would allow the customer to drill holes and bolt 2x wood on top so as not to marr the timbers. This could be a suggestion to the customer as it would be too easy for them to do this as opposed of having 4 pieces of 2X shipped across the country with the kit. The bolting holes could be pre punched in the angle iron at little cost. Can you tell I'm a product designer/engineer?

brad

why would you need two carts? The ones I have used were a little different from the one you have pictured, but I believe worked on the same principle. Take your timber out of your stack with your big machinery, then place the cart right at the timbers center of gravity. Then the cart works as as a fulcrum at the center of the timber. If you want to turn left: the right wheels moves forward, the left wheel moves backward. Then you push it along until you get to your sawhorses, guide the timber and push down on your end, which lifts the other end. Set the away end down and lift your end on to the other sawhorse.

You're right for shorter timbers. I guess I also had my 38 footers in mind.

I was going to build a swiveling front cart to go with my current cart but realized I'd be dropping a lot of timber given the terrain I have to deal with.

This ugly kluge worked well for long timbers:


Thank you all for your input.