Cart Design

The cart parts came today and I spent this evening sitting on the living room floor coming up with a design.  I think it will be pretty cool and quite flexible, and very easy/quick to make, unlike the bicycle cart!

The wood is just a scrap piece I had so the size/scale is off, and the other black plastic pieces are just loosely placed on the aluminum tubing.  But basically here are the features:

• The shafts (two long pieces that go beside the dog and hook the harness to the cart) only need to be straight pieces of 1" square wood with two holes drilled in one end for the snap rings, there can be a series of holes drilled so the length of the shaft can be adjusted to the dog.   The other end will have a moveable clamp for the brake where it hooks to the harness, and the ends would be slightly tapered for ease of inserting into the harness loops.  The shafts and wheels would also be easily removable for transport.

• The black plastic fixtures that hold the shaft to the cart can be adjusted to two height settings and two width settings to accommodate the size of the dog using the cart.  They are held in place with snap rings (not shown in photo, but similar to the ones holding the shafts in place).

• The really cool thing is that the cart can be run with either side up!!!   As it is shown in the photo the wood platform is below the axle so the weights for a test will sit at or just below the axle giving the cart a very low center of gravity.  For fun events, parades, etc. the cart can be flipped over so the flat piece of wood is on top and side rails inserted for a more fancy look (would have a higher center of gravity, but less weight is being pulled).  This is possible because of the fixture that hold the shafts on can also be flipped overdue to being mounted with two snap rings (not shown).  There are also 4 pieces of wood rail (not shown) that would define the bottom box "sides" and contribute to sturdiness of frame, these would be permanent unlike the fancy rails for the flip side which would be removable.

• We'll have to figure out a neat removable system for holding the weights for the haul in a draft test.

• The frist thing that needs to be determined is how wide the ideal distance between the shafts should be for Peach, should they be close to her body or farther away?  All other measurements will be based on that, there would then be another setting that is wider by about 4" if the cart were to be used by a dog that is less long and skinny than Peach!!!