31 Mar 2019

A question about : Plastic or metal wheelbarrow

I need to buy a wheelbarrow to move some soil and bricks in my garden but are the plastic ones any good and is it best to get one with a pneumatic tyre.

Best answers:

  • It's only the load area that is 'plastic' - structure is metal and tyre is pneumatic.
    I got the 'plastic' one from Tesco - been great moving 60ltr compost bags from car - down drive to back garden - I'd be a wreck trying to do that by hand - one or two at a time was ok, bit iffy with three!
    I have seen a good 'metal' one in Wilkinsons - it's just a matter of choice.
  • If you are going to throw bricks/stones into it regularly, metal's probably best; galvanised if you can afford it. I throw logs into my wife's plastc jobbie and it doesn't complain, though.
    In time, all barrows rust and I suspect that the plastic ones will succumb to UV light. They definitely fade. Still, you should get at least 8 years from the average barrow, and more if you store it dry.
    Tyres for barrows are almost universally poor, so I view them as expendable and put a good trailer tyre on when the inevitable puncture happens.
    My builder has one of those unpuncturable tyres on his, which seems like a good idea, until it's pushed. The effort required is noticeably greater, so no free lunch there IMO.
  • I have one of each and they are both OK, but no where near the kind of durability of the older steel type that I had with folded corners and heavy tubing frame
    Tyres and tubes in e-bay are very cheap.
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