The NuBarro: The Ballbarrow Reincarnated?
By Benjamen Johnson
In 1974, James Dyson created the Ballbarrow, a wheelbarrow with a ball in place of the front wheel. It’s no longer manufactured, but a company named NuVations markets a wheelbarrow similar in concept: the NuBarro.
NuVations manufactures the NuBarro in Germany. They start with a polypropylene roller wheel (the NuRoller) that they claim is impossible to puncture, never needs inflation, and resists heat and acid. The wheel rotates about a steel axle on sealed bearings and can support up to 750lbs. The wide ball-like wheel travels easily over soft terrain like mud, snow, gravel, and sand without sinking and makes it easy to lift, turn, and dump the NuBarro.
Heavy-duty skid plates on the bottom of the no-rust steel frame protect it from damage and keep it balanced. The tub is also zinc-galvanized to resist corrosion.
NuVations currently sells three different models in some limited retail locations: the NuBarro L which retails for $135 and has a 3 cu. ft. capacity, the NuBarro XL that has a 4 cu. ft. capacity for $150, and the NuBarro XL Pro which also has a 4 cu. ft. capacity, but also features a painted tub, for $165.
Despite the website’s 2005 copyright and order links that you can’t order from, NuVations is still alive and kicking. I talked with a representative on the phone who told me they’re planning to re-launch their web page with an e-commerce site, and they’re also planning to sell a new version with a frame that can be broken down and shipped easily via UPS.
NuBarro [Corporate Site]
May 1st, 2009 at 10:02 am
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May 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
Where’s the laser? Something like this has *got* to have a laser!!!
May 4th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Is that the same Dyson who made the vacuums of the same name? One of those vacuums has a ball like that…
(…sure, I could google it, but if we answer all our own questions we don’t give others an opportunity to feel like know-it-alls.)
May 21st, 2009 at 6:28 am
Yes, that is the same James Dyson. Unfortunately, trouble with partners and investors only resulted in a limited run of the ball barrow in Great Britian