Is a Gorilla cart better than a wheelbarrow?

Gorilla cart pulls its weight in backyard landscaping projects

It’s time to talk about the 600 lb. Gorilla in the garden.

Actually, I put it together and it’s wandering around my garden being extremely helpful.

And I have to admit, I love her enough to actually tuck her away every night in our shed. (And folks, take it from my wife, putting things back where they belong is not normal for me.)

Our new Gorilla cart is actually not anywhere near 600 lbs. She weighs in at a nimble 32.7 pounds, but apparently can carry a load of 600 lbs on her back. I have not loaded her up yet by I’m thinking lugging that much weight on her back would take my wife three maybe four trips from the car to the backyard.

I have to say that in just a few short weeks this Gorilla Cart has already earned her keep. Tackling backyard landscaping projects and cleanups has never been this easy.

For more suggestions and some of my favourite garden things, be sure to check out my Favourite Things post.

Is a Gorilla Cart better than a wheelbarrow? I would recommend a Gorilla cart over a traditional wheelbarrow for most jobs in the garden, from moving trees to taking on backyard landscaping plans. If you are getting on in age and gardening work is getting harder every year, a Gorilla Cart is definitely the way to go. In fact, it has played a leading role in a major two-week landscaping project in the backyard.

Our new Gorilla Cart holds 4 Cubic Ft. in its heavy-duty polycarbonate container that lifts up 180 degrees to dump its load. Notice the 10-inch pneumatic tires that can roll over anything that gets in the way and makes the device a joy to use in tight or difficult areas in the yard.

One year review: Five stars

Editor’s note: After a full season of putting our Gorilla Cart through its paces, I have to conclude that it performed better than I had hoped and was more useful than I ever expected.

Not only did it perform flawlessly, it made difficult jobs much easier. Its biggest challenge involved helping me move a large multi-stem Redbud tree from the back of the car in the front of our home to the backyard.

And not just the backyard, it needed to be moved to a far corner of the yard in the middle of our fern glen. That involved wheeling it across the backyard and about 20 feet into the fern garden over seriously uneven ground. The Gorilla cart handled the task with ease and even allowed me to dump the root ball right into the hole I had dug earlier.

I don’t know what I would have done without my garden helper. Without it, I may have had to ask a neighbour for help.

Later in the fall, the Gorilla cart came in handy putting all our cement garden statuary into the shed for the winter. It not only reduced reduce most of the heavy lifting, it allowed me to pick up all the heavy cement objects in a couple of rounds rather than moving them individually to the shed. It even made moving a very heavy bird bath a much simpler task.

There is little doubt that as we get a little older, we need more help doing simple garden chores. The line-up of Gorilla Carts available, from the smaller one we purchased to more heavy duty steel-cage models, are lifesavers for many of us who need a little help with all the backyard garden chores and landscape projects.

The quick-release dumping mechanism is easy to use and will come in handy for dumping loose material exactly where you want it.

Five uses for a Gorilla cart over a wheelbarrow

1) Moving large plants around the garden is much easier given the better stability of the Gorilla Cart with its four wheels. Many times I’ve lost a heavy load on the wheelbarrow when the weight shifted and the whole load spilled out.

2) Several bags of river rock and pea gravel had to be moved. The stability of the cart handled the weight of the heavy landscaping material and the dumping mechanism made removing the bags much easier. A wheelbarrow’s instability with very heavy landscaping material make them difficult to use safely.

3) The cart really performed well when it came to the removal of heavy concrete statuary. It was easy to walk around the garden pulling the cart and collecting the various garden objects.

4) The large pneumatic wheels make it easy to move heavy objects over extremely uneven ground.

5) The fact you are pulling the cart rather than pushing the wheelbarrow makes going up a steep hill much easier for most of us. If necessary, a helper could push the cart from the rear while you pull from the front to move the heavy object uphill with ease. This is much more difficult with a wheelbarrow that is pretty much a one-person tool.

Better than a wheelbarrow for most tasks

Heck, the hips are going, the knees have long gone, the back isn’t what it used to be … so 40 years of lugging, soil, mulch, pea gravel, river rock, trees, shrubs and who knows what else into the back garden thankfully came to an end when we became the proud owners of the 4 Cu. ft. Poly Dump Cart from Gorilla Carts. (Click on the link for Gorilla Carts complete line of Carts etc.)

The sleek black affair that actually tilts up 180 degrees to make dumping whatever you are carrying simple and easy was purchased just a few weeks ago from a local big-box store for a total of $89.73 Cdn.

The sturdy metal frame is seen here with the cart in its dumping position.

A good solid wheelbarrow has its place, but trust me, I will take this Gorilla Cart over a wheelbarrow any day of the week. Why struggle with a balancing act on three wheels, when you can get it done a heck of a lot easier on four wheels.

It took about 30-45 minutes to assemble it in the family room. Assembly was simple. So simple that not a single swear word was spoken. (And once again folks, take it from my wife, that’s not normal for me.)

The only problem we encountered was that one of the four 10-inch pneumatic tires was flat and needed air. But no problem, the cart is so lightweight that I popped in the back of our 16-year-old Outback, zipped to the car garage and filled it with air. It’s been perfect ever since.

So far she has carried 10 bags of mulch, 10 bags of soil, a large multi-stem Redbud tree from the front to the back with flying colours. I have also used it to move a number of large, soil-filled containers around the yard. It has performed flawlessly.

I was first impressed with Gorilla Carts watching Laura from Garden Answer (if you don’t know who I am talking about, look her up on YouTube, Facebook she’s all over the web, or click on the link provided to go to her Facebook page). She uses a variety of the carts for her enormous garden and they all seemed tough enough to really take a beating.

Gorilla Carts are available in a number of styles and sizes including super heavy duty all-metal models with removable sides. Thinking back, I should have bought one of the heavy duty ones years ago considering all the heavy material we have moved around our property over the years. At this stage, however, with most of the heavy lifting done, we decided that the smaller polycarbonate bed was perfect.

The 24-inch width of the unit makes it easy for us to navigate the narrow walkway from the front to the back, and the impressive turning radius makes manoeuvring around tight corners simple. I managed to get 7 bags of soil from the front to the back in one go. Four bags at a time is ideal, but it’s nice to know you can carry more if need be.

The cart’s ease of use is largely dependent on its oversized pneumatic wheels. Don’t be fooled by other makes that cheap out on the wheels. Without these, the cart would be rendered useless in difficult terrain, even long or bumpy grass could pose problems for carts without proper wheels. These wheels seem to be able to go over the toughest terrain without bogging down.

So, would I recommend this Gorilla Cart? Absolutely. I know that Gorilla Carts are not the cheapest, but they are among the best, well-though out and toughest. So far, I don’t know how I lived without it all these years.