Wheelbarrows & Carts
Buy and sell wheelbarrows and carts in Guatemala.
The one-wheel barrow that carries mix across a Guatemalan building site, the upright hand truck that walks sacks of cement off a delivery truck and into a storeroom, and the flat platform cart that moves boxes across a shop floor are all traded here, new and pre-owned. Most of them outlive their first job, because the parts that wear out are the tray, the tyre and the bearings, and a hardware store sells each one separately. That makes a used wheelbarrow quick to judge: tip it over, look under the tray and spin the wheel.
Wheelbarrow, hand truck or platform cart:
the choice comes down to what you are moving and over what ground. A one-wheel barrow carries loose material such as sand or mixed concrete and tips it exactly where you want it. It runs along a narrow plank, but your arms do the balancing. A two-wheel barrow stands up on its own and suits someone who is not on a site every day. A hand truck carries what comes in sacks and boxes: tilt it back, slide the nose plate under a stack of cement and wheel it off. Two-in-one models fold down into a platform for longer runs on a level floor. The sand and block themselves are under building materials, and the shovels and trowels that fill and empty a barrow under tools.
Tyre, tray and the label on a wheelbarrow:
the tyre matters most where the ground is bad. An inflatable tyre takes a full load over a dirt alley or a rutted lot on a Cobán hillside far more easily, but nails and offcuts of tie wire on a site will find it. A puncture-proof polyurethane wheel never goes flat and weighs less. The capacity printed on the box is a heaped load of dry material; wet concrete fills about half of it before it slops over the front, so size the barrow to the mix rather than the sticker. Plastic trays never rust, but years of sun leave them brittle.
New wheelbarrows, hand trucks and the cost of spare parts:
a new 4 to 4.5 cubic foot wheelbarrow with an inflatable tyre costs around Q350 to Q500, and a steel hand truck for sacks starts at about the same and climbs with its rated load. Used value follows the two parts that wear. A replacement tray, or a complete wheel with its axle and bearings, each takes a fair slice of what a new barrow costs. A barrow with a sound tray and a wheel that runs true therefore holds its price well, while one with a rusted-through tray and a dead tyre needs close to a new barrow’s worth of parts.
The underside of a used tray and the wheel bearings:
turn the barrow over before anything else. Concrete left to set in a tray, or rainwater left standing in it, rusts the steel from the bottom up, and a coat of paint on top hides it well. Press the floor of the tray with your thumb along the front edge and around the bolt holes: thin, flaking metal there is a hole on its way. Lift the front and spin the wheel. A wobble means worn bearings or a bent axle, and a grinding noise means the bearings have been run dry. Wooden handles should have no splits near the grips. On a hand truck, look hard at the welds where the nose plate meets the frame, because that joint takes the whole load every time it is tipped back.
Passing on a wheelbarrow once the build is finished:
describe it in the words a buyer searches for: wheelbarrow or hand truck, one wheel or two, the capacity stamped on it, and a steel or plastic tray. Name the tyre type and say whether it holds air, and mention any patch or weld. Photograph the tray from above and from underneath. On Truper, Pretul and Expert barrows many wheels, axles and bearings interchange, so give the make: it tells a buyer that a worn part can be swapped instead of the whole barrow written off. Someone driving in from Chiquimula will want to push it once across your yard before lifting it into the back of a pickup, so pump the tyre up before they arrive and knock the dried mix out of the tray.