Simpson Desert Crossing - June 2006

THE PADDY WAGON

The quest was for large diameter wheels to reduce the pulling effort but on a cart still compact and strong enough to carry 130kg over 400km and 1100 dunes.

Peter Hodgkinson welded it up using TIG, Tony Armstrong gave me the light but strong hauling shafts, the wheels are Surly 26" rims (3.7" tyres designed for snow and sand riding) with motorbike tubes for extra prickle resistance. There's also a leather liner to help stop the prickles and probably some slime to seal punctures if the prickles get through the leather and tyre. The prickles out there are monsters with woody 2cm spikes and were a curse on the Stony Desert walk we did last easter.

My father John helped refine the design by placing the wheels inside the framework which has made it stronger and lighter.

Why "Paddy Wagon"??

It's named after my youngest son, Paddy (below), who at the age of five with his big brother Jim (bottom pic, aged 7) walked three days across Sturts Stony Desert. Paddy took a few rests by riding on top of an earlier incarnation of the current Paddy Wagon.

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