Gardening involves a depressing amount of physical activity: haul this over here, dump it there and then cover it with this. Things like wheelbarrows are still damn hard work, especially for people like who are somewhat physically compromised. That’s why we love this build from [Karl Gesslein]. He usually makes electronic bikes, adding motors to bicycles to roam the streets faster. But this time he applied his expertise to a wheelbarrow. He added a 3000W motor to the wheelbarrow, which drives the front wheel when triggered by the accelerator on the handle.
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The project is a bit more sophisticated than sticking a motor on the wheel, though: [Karl] details how he chose the wheelbarrow to motorize, going with a single-wheel wheelbarrow than the two- or -four-wheel models he initially considered, because it is easier to navigate. He drilled holes in the front wheel and added a chain wheel, mounted at several points to stop the cheap metal wheel the barrow came with from warping. This chain wheel is driven by a $350 Luna Cyclone Mid Drive motor driven from an Ego battery mounted behind the carrier. He admits this motor is rather more than a wheelbarrow really needs, saying that it “provides more power than you’re probably ever going to need, even when wheeling 500lbs+ up a very steep incline…. at full throttle still goes faster than I can run.” Perhaps the next phase could include a remote control and robotic arm so it can load (and unload) itself.
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