Cart "repair" question

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The single tree should be at least as wide as your horse's butt if not a bit wider. In this case, wider is better.
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My crappy wood breaking cart has 50" shafts. I use that cart for all my young horses, 30"-38".

Footman's Loops can go anywhere on the shaft that they need to be. With your horse in place, wrap your breeching strap around the shaft with at least one whole wrap, and then mark the shaft where you want the loop.

I can't tell if you can add springs. If not, I would use a very stiff upholstery foam, so your butt doesn't go threw to the plywood. We use marine foam for boats. That way, it also doesn't matter if it gets wet. Consider making two seats, one vinyl (or naughahide) and one fabric. You will really appreciate that fabric seat in the shows, because your butt won't slide around. Avoid gaudy colors that scream, "I'm a big seat, look at me!" You want the judge to focus on your horse, not your butt. I made the mistake once of making an off-white seat. When I bought the fabric in the store, it looked more cream, but not in the sunlight. I got more comments that year about my big white seat. It's now a nice tan. Personally, I would stick with tan or black in vinyl. You can add color to your outfit, but keep the cart "neutral".

Your uncle is going to help you with the slats, right? I don't see where you have a lot of frame to attach slats to. Our slats are 2"-2 1/2" wide and at least 5/8" - 3/4" thick (actually that is a guess, as the carts are in the barn and it is raining right now. Yippee, goodbye snow!)

Stain can be any color you want. Get a sample of the wood you will use and hold it up next to your horses. Red stains look nicer with bays and grays. Walnuts with chocolates and some sorrels. I have a chestnut vehicle that seems to go well with most colors.

Good Luck,

Myrna
 
Your uncle is going to help you with the slats, right? I don't see where you have a lot of frame to attach slats to. Our slats are 2"-2 1/2" wide and at least 5/8" - 3/4" thick (actually that is a guess, as the carts are in the barn and it is raining right now. Yippee, goodbye snow!)

I had seen this aspect as well Miss Myrna. I found myself wondering how much structural rigidity the sheet metal "boot" was providing the rather minimal framing in the floor of the cart. Putting numerous holes in the minimal framing for the slats could very well be problematic. Additional gusseting of the floor would definitely be in order. I would add two gussets from front to back and because our motto is "heck for stout" I would add one additional gusset laterally to secure the (now) 4 front to back gussets. At this point I would think that one would have enough framing in place to drill for the slats.

Build right once, drive forever,

Bb
 
pictures of our refurbished easy entry cart.

we left the wired footing on, and covered with heavy vinyl which can be removed, just domed on.

picture below before the cart was redone:

9b56504a.jpg


these are pictures of the cart refurbished.

AhorsecartC.jpg


AhorsecartB.jpg


AhorsecartA.jpg
 
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That looks BRILLIANT!!

I have the same pattern cart and I have been thinking.....with a bit of time and ingenuity, that I could....and now you've done it, so that proves I could.

Does any of that make sense?
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Build right once, drive forever,
Bb
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I am working on a presentation about trail driving safety, and in the process I asked for stories of "wrecks" from the Carriage Driving List (CD-L). One lady sent me a story about a gentleman who built is own four-wheel vehicle, but somehow didn't tie the front to the back very well. During the marathon of a CDE, the front came detached from the back and the horse bolted dragging the front with him. Later that day, they ended up humanely destroying the horse because he was too injured to recover. Her moral of the story was "if you are going to do something on your own, research it with people who know how and why things are done as they are. Research safety over and over again. Even many of the carts and wagons for sale on

the market today, are unsafe for horse, whip, and passengers." I am going to be using this story and advice in my presentation.

It's good that you are asking for advice before cutting your vehicle apart. Bb has some very good points. Since he is more the metal expert, I would definitely defer to him!

Myrna
 
We bought something like that and had new shafts made and a new leather seat made.

Hubby did a paint job and pin striping...total cost 275.00 (cart and refurbish)

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Wow, that looks a lot better than I expected with the metal basket. We were going to weld two additional strips of metal where the basket is to support a wooden floor, but honestly, it doesent look bad metal, will be less work, and probably cheaper. Id like to make a vinyl boot like reble has to fancy it up, but that can wait. I really like your seat, may I ask where you had it made? I was just going to do a flat seat as Im not super crafty with sewing, but if I knew of somewhere that could make one, that would be something to consider.
 
Im going to leave the metal basket on, but its tack welded on. We are going to reinforce the welding of the basket. We're going to use a grinder to remove those nasty trace hooks, and weld on a bracket for a single tree. I think I am going to cut my shafts back to 52", my biggest horse is 36", and at this point, Im not interested in horses over 36". I think my horses will "swim" in the cart if I let the shafts at 56". I may even cut them back to 50", it depends on what it looks like once their cut back. I think I can safely cut the shafts back 4" to 6" without having to remove and reweld the footman's loops. The cart is 37" wide at the back, 17" wide at the narrowest. I know you said wider is better for my single tree, and it needs to be wider than my horses butt. Should I get something like a 34" single tree, or is it going to cause my traces to V out and look weird. Im not sure if I explained that right, so let me know if you dont understand what I mean. If its going to look gawd awful, Ill go smaller, but still wider than the horse. For the wood of the seat, I planned to use 3/4" exterior grade plywood. We are going to add some reinforcement under the seat also. It doesn't budge now with that crappy piece of wood and the support it has, but you wont see it, so we might as well add the extra support. With the extra support I think I'll be able to make the seat a little wider from front to back, which would be good, because quite honestly, I dont have the smallest behind and I think a little wider seat may help minimize how big by behind looks. How wide do you like your seats from front to back so that they are still comfortable? The cart has quite a bit of leg room, so Im willing to give a little up. I cant figure out how to make the back winged, and Im not the best sewer, so I think im going to have to stick with a flat seat. How thick of foam do you like on your seat? This cart does not have springs, so would I be best to go with something like 4" foam to help absorb some of the movement? I think I read somewhere to cut my foam a little larger than the size of the wood, so plan to do that unless there's a reason I shouldn't. I planned to use black for the seat, to minimize my behind, and because I plan on painting the cart black. If I can find narrow enough pin stripes for the shafts, I would like to put a gold and silver pinstripe on it, but the shafts are small, so I dont know if I'll find anything narrow enough.

Does this sound alright, or should I change something?
 
It was a mennonite that upholstered the seat for us.

When you are putting the foam on the wood you always cut it larger than the wooden board or you have a ridge.
 
Do you have a pattern for the removeable boot for an EE cart? I'm trying to refurbish an EE to use in local shows.

Thanks!!
 
pictures of our refurbished easy entry cart.we left the wired footing on, and covered with heavy vinyl which can be removed, just domed on.

picture below before the cart was redone:

9b56504a.jpg


these are pictures of the cart refurbished.

AhorsecartC.jpg


AhorsecartB.jpg


AhorsecartA.jpg
Where did you get the pattern for the seat? Did someone make it for you?
 

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