Here at Mike’s Plant Farm in Perry, Ohio our plants are scattered over a pretty big area. Far too big to carry plants by hand to our check out area. Therefore, we provide our customers with wagons that they can load up and pull up to the check out area.
Typically I end up buying a few new wagons each year and each year I grow more and more frustrated with the wagons that I have. These are the wagons that you see in certain farm supply or big box stores. I pay from $89 to $129 for these wagons and to be perfectly honest with you, I am extremely unhappy!
These things are terrible! The tires go flat, the bearings fall apart, the metal on the wagons just rusts away and fall apart. Actually becoming a hazard for our customers.
Finally I opted to buy better wagons and ordered 7 plastic wagons from a nursery supply company. Check them out in the video below;
Y’all need to ask me how these new wagons worked out since we’ve barely had a chance to use them.
Questions, comments, mean things to say? Post them below. And by any and all means, stay inspired!
I have a wooden one, It’s made of eastern white cedar, or Juniper as its incorrectly called also. It’s outside by the garden all the time even winter. It’s not pretty anymore, but its 30 years old. Still going strong. Joints are mortise and tenoned, floor is slightly bigger than the metal wagon chassis, which keeps the weather off it. It’s windy here in Nova Scotia, so the airflow must keep it dry. I oil it at the start of each season, when I do my shovels. Just saying. I could build you some if you’d like to buy some.
Dean,
That sounds like an awesome offer but probably not practical with shipping and all.
We’ve had one of these wagons from A.M. Leonard for 4-5 years now. It’s held up beautifully. Some years it get put away and some years it sits outside all winter long. The airless tires are a big plus, no fooling around keeping the tires inflated. I’ve had ours loaded with concrete blocks to the point that it’s hard to pull and it takes that abuse in stride.
We’ve had one of those wagons from A.M. Leonard for 4-5 years now. Some years it gets put away and some years it sits outside all winter. It looks and works just as good as it did when we bought it.. The airless wheels are a big plus. I’ve had it loaded up with concrete blocks to the point that it was hard to pull and it handles that abuse.
I have a metal wagon like that. You’re exactly right……….tires are junk. Not to mention it’s heavy to pull before you even load it up! It still has a little life but I’ll never buy another one! Nice to see there’s an alternative.
For Home use; I am using “little tikes” wagon w/ removeable sides; – after my grand kids out grew it. It is light weight; plenty strong for my use, water proof.& easy to hose off. Plastic tires are wide enough so it does not cut into lawn. Wagon stored in garage between uses In spring I put plants on to move in & out of cover/shade until they adjust. After 25 odd years, it no longer looks new; but it still looks presentable. OH YES. ir is light enough to take in auto for work else where.. I really can not really read what I have typed Virtually rust free!
It will be interesting to see how long the plastic holds up to sunlight and cold. Some plastics do better than others but all plastics get degraded by sunlight. I recommend you build some sort of covered corral to keep them shaded and out of the weather between customer use.
I hope the plastic models work better than the metal ones. my experience is that I have to replace the wheel bearings annually and the wheels every other year on the metal ones. Gonna build my own wooden wagon and use the best bearings and wheels as I can find.
Should repair be needed, I know that parts will be accessible locally.
Albert I agree if you can find quality wheels locally. I have two carts from A.M. Leonard that I’ve had for years and they are perfect. They were well made, quality wheels. Looking around locally I rarely, if ever, see good wheels on the shelves.
Wow Mike! You know, I was pretty happy to have a couple of those metal carts to haul my car load of plants in, happy you helped me load them, too. Those new ones look awfully nice!
Debbie,
Let’s hope they hold up better than the metal ones.
Hi Mike. Can you mention where you buy these wagons? I would like to buy one of quality as well.
Thanks!
He mentioned it twice in the video.
If you leave those plastic wagons out in the sun I bet they will become brittle and start to break after a couple of years. For some reason I thought the email notification I got said you made some yourself.
Pam,
Good plastic should hold up even in the sun.