The Wheelbarrow Project

Probably about ten years ago we got a second bigger and better True Temper wheelbarrow for the backyard. The other one was a small rather awkward plastic one which was OK for small jobs and sort of worked for us over the years. The new one at the time was much better and easier to handle.

Last year the tire on the wheelbarrow went flat and we needed to be replaced. At the time I thought it was a project. Then early this spring we realized our handles on the wheelbarrow were rotting away. Especially on one side. We needed new handles or replacing the the whole thing. We looked into new ones and they were running about $140 and would have metal handles. Replacing the wood handles would cost about $40. We opted for the replacement handles. It turned out to be quite the project.

We went over to Home Depot to get some mulch and looked around for the wheelbarrow handles. We finally had to ask someone working there and we were accurately directed to the proper aisle. We had been down that aisle before but missed them. They were hard to find but we got them and put them in the car along with the ten bags of mulch.

A couple of days later I started working on the wheelbarrow first by taking it apart. It was a project. There were no illustrations but I went online and looked at some pictures and videos of the installing of the wheelbarrow handles. Of course the first problem was a big one. The new handles were about an inch wider than the original handles. I spent some time working on this puzzle before I realized that the original screw bolts were just too short to work with the new handles. I dropped everything and ran over to Value Home to pick up some new bolts. It took about an hour before I got the wheelbarrow all back together again. Next time would be a lot easier after the trial and error of putting all the parts back together. Now it works fine.