Aerocrown club members

[hobbyhorse23]

I was referring to the actual width of the of the wheel itself compared to my pequea wheels. As far as wheel height, I saw Adair said that her wheels were 26 inches tall...that is the same of my pequea (24 inch plus 2" with he rubber rims.

Ooooh, the wheel width (what you actually said) as opposed to the TRACK width, which is what I thought I read! LOL. That information used to be on the website but I guess it isn't anymore. How odd! I want to say mine are 2" wide or some such ridiculously broad number. I can measure tomorrow, if Amy's mare ever drops her foal and lets me sneak home! LOL. Wait, Amy has an Aerocrown. Hmm.... *scurries off to find tape measurer*

Okay, measured. The wheel is 1.5" across the rubber and just shy of 23" tall counting the rubber.

Now I have to ask myself....how will this compare with my hyperbike? LOL

Only two-wheeled cart I've found that can compare in the general feel at speed. Much heavier of course, and showier for dressage and such, but very nearly as stable over rough terrain.

Then I also have to decide where to buy it from...

I'd go straight to Steven at Carriage Machine works, but Driving Essentials is good as well.

How hard is it to take apart to transport?

It's a bit of pain to get the shafts aligned again so I don't take mine apart.

Leia

 

[shorthorsemom]

Ditto on the shaft alignment. I have already decided that this is "Ike's cart". I wouldn't enjoy adjusting between two horses except every once in awhile. I have it where I like it and it will stay there for awhile. We tweeked and tweeked the shafts until everybody was satisfied with the fit.

 

[shorthorsemom]

My boy's feet are feeling better and I got a lesson today on my aerocrown!!!! Whoooo hoooo, it was terrific. Between getting rid of my meadowbrook and going to an aerocrown and losing 25 lbs, my boy thought he sprouted wings. WOW. we had such a great time. Canter, trot, hills, mini newbie hazards and we did cones. My boy LOVES cones, I cracked up, he goes after them I swear he knows what to do without me. Neat doing the cones from the new cart perspective. I was much more accurate and I could whip right through even did off-set cones and I didn't brush anything. It was sooooo cool.

After I bragged about my quiet cart I noticed a small squeek in the seat, one of the wing nuts was loose, but after tightening, I might just lay a thin piece of rubber under for the seat to rest on. Other than that little squeek, it was pretty quiet in comparison to my meadowbrook. My meadowbrook left today with its new owner, so no cart collecting for me.

We used little leather dog collars for some trace carriers on the aerocrown until I can get some.

Anyway, I was so excited I just had to share.. Pretty day today, it was awesome...I totally love driving my boy in my new cart.... whooo hooo

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Adair,

I can feel your enthusiasm! SOunds like a great lesson and that you have a nice place to drive. If I get an Aerocrown, I am really thinking I may go pick it up. I have a Jeep Patriot...I hope it will fit in the back. I can put one side of the back seat down.

Anyone want to post more pix of their Aerocrown in action?

I drove Wish tonight and asked her if she'd like a new cart...if she does well with Jeff Morse next week then maybe that will be her reward LOL

Angie

 

[shorthorsemom]

I have a honda pilot and it fit great in the back.

You fit in the cart part, the shafts are off and you put them on at home... lots of adjustments to get them where you want them. The cart comes with a little yellow jack thingy that fits into the shaft hole to hold the cart level when it is in your car. I can't imagine needing to use the jack again though. As long as it took us to tweek the fit, I am not moving anything for awhile.

I am so glad I made the leap and got a new cart...it was worth the wait. I am totally loving my driving lessons. I hooked up everything and my instructor didn't have to make any adjustments ... yippee.

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Would it be possible to measure the length -width - height of the body of the cart? I guessed the shafts were off. Were the wheels off too? I can fit my hyperbike in the back of my jeep so fingers crossed that I could fit the Aerocrown.

You should be very proud of yourself Adair. You are doing a great job....we need more pix!

Angie

 

[shorthorsemom]

Hi Angie, I will measure today and get back to you... wheels were on. I tried to get my daughter to take some more photos yesterday but the TV called her back into the house. LOL, I can't imagine any TV show that would be more fun than being outside yesterday, it was absolutely perfect weather. I wanted to get more photos of me driving Ike for myself because I wanted to see what I looked like in my cart after I lost all that weight. Now is that just hilarious or what. I do know I have so much more room in the seat and my horse has gotten rather zippy. Adair

 

[shorthorsemom]

Would it be possible to measure the length -width - height of the body of the cart? I guessed the shafts were off. Were the wheels off too? I can fit my hyperbike in the back of my jeep so fingers crossed that I could fit the Aerocrown.

You should be very proud of yourself Adair. You are doing a great job....we need more pix!

Angie

Hi Angie, I am getting 41 inches from wheel hub to wheel hub and 45 inches from back of wheel to swing tree. The swing tree sticks out a little farther than the end point where you put the shafts in. Height of cart with seat on is about 39 inches and without the seat is a little over 23. The seat easily comes off, it has wing nuts.. You can always make it smaller if you take off the wheels, but that is the measure I get of the base cart without the shafts.

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Thanks Adair! I will test out these measurements tomorrow. I may need to take off wheels and seat. Hope you got to drive today.

Angie

 

[shorthorsemom]

Thanks Adair! I will test out these measurements tomorrow. I may need to take off wheels and seat. Hope you got to drive today.

Angie

I didn't get to drive today, but I did uncover the cart and look at it wistfully in hopes that I could conjure up a drive for the day.

Milk inspector person due Monday or Tuesday to inspect our dairy... sigh. Can you say major cleaning day? I can't wait to get out again and drive my boy though, I was hoping for today so our lesson from yesterday was fresh in my brain, but it didn't happen. I am so tired and exhausted from cleaning the cow barn and milk house all day. My house is a wreck, but the barn is looking good.

it is 10:45pm and I still need to bake two batches of cookies for my daughters school project and get up at 5 am tomorrow morning and go to work.

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Can anyone tell me how wide the shafts are? I like the space Wish has in my Pequea cart compared to my Frontier. ANd does anyone have pictures of the different wheel colors? I have seen the burgundy, black and yellow. I'd love to see the green.

Thanks,

Angie

 

[hobbyhorse23]

However wide you want them to be- you tighten them down at whatever rotation/width fits your horse. I guarantee you she'll have much more hip room in this cart as the shafts bend in at the tugs far more than the other models you mention.

I custom-ordered my wheels to be black with dark green hubs in a gradient and was quite happy with them. They're a little darker than I'd expected, almost completely unnoticeable, but pretty in bright sunlight.

Leia

 

[shorthorsemom]

Rotating the shafts in and out to determine the width and fit on my chubby boy is what my trainer and I played with for quite awhile. I admit to having them just perfect and didn't tighten the nuts enough and having them spin out of position while we were double checking with the tape measure to be sure that right and left were the same length...and then we had to start all over again... my boy was cross tied when we were playing with the fit and there were three of us, one heading, and two playing with the cart fit, so there wasn't a time where anything was a problem. Our first drive we decided that the shafts were too close to his body and we drove it right back, hooked to the cross ties and started all over until we were happy. Then the second day, we tweeked it a bit more on length of shaft. . I did put some scratches on the shafts while making adjustments that I have to touch up. My boy is draft chubby but if he were lean and fit, I would easily have been able to spin the shafts in to accomodate. more than enough hip room IMO as a rookie observer, and taking curves and tight turns, I haven't noticed him tapping or hitting or being uncomfortable. In fact I am so thrilled with his obvious happiness at the new cart., all the benefits so far have far outweighted the price tag

. I will admit to initally saying to myself that it just looked like a seat with shafts and wheels and didn't look like $1800 worth of cart in comparison to my super cute wooden meadowbrook. Then I drove it and the same night put the meadowbook for sale knowing I was ready to move on.

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Thanks gals, I understand now. Now thinking of colors....Jack from Driving Essentials will be at the Orleton show I am volunteering at and said he'd bring samples.

I am leaning towards the green- but may end up like Adair's with the cranberry. Any ideas? If I get one it will probably mainly be Wish's cart and Buck will have the Hyperbike...my they are spoiled ponies. So, what do we think looks best with silver dapple?

Remember when I bought the hyperbike it was hyperbike or haflinger? Now it is Aerocrown or Fjord LOL...what a struggle.

Angie

 

[shorthorsemom]

Green sounds really pretty, is it a dark green or lighter green?. The mini bellcrown they had in their shop had on dark blue wheels, but in regular light they just looked black. They didn't have any other color option in stock... I really liked the look of the maroon or cranberry or whatever they call it. Carriage machine web called it burgandy. I admit to not even thinking about it matching my horse. My boy is a mostly white with chestnut pinto. LOL, what a rookie, I just said... Hey, that looks pretty,I want that color...never cared if it matched or not, but now that I have it, I think it would probably match most colors so lucky me,

If I were catalog ordering I may have ordered blue since that is my favorite color, but seeing them in person and how dark they were and how they really just looked black, I am glad I got the burgandy wheels.

Adair

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Now thinking of colors....Jack from Driving Essentials will be at the Orleton show I am volunteering at and said he'd bring samples.
I am leaning towards the green- but may end up like Adair's with the cranberry. Any ideas? ... So, what do we think looks best with silver dapple?

Silvers usually look great with maroon or burgundy. Go for it! Please tell Jack Leia says hi; he sold me my Bellcrown back in 2007 but I've never gotten to meet him. I'd love a picture of his samples please!

Green sounds really pretty, is it a dark green or lighter green?. The mini bellcrown they had in their shop had on dark blue wheels, but in regular light they just looked black.

That would suit me! For marathon or recreational use I'm all for bright colors, but since I planned to use mine for dressage I didn't want anything too bold. I had them make mine "dark dark green," which they told me would be a combination of hunter green with a little black, and like I said it turned out so very dark you could barely tell they had any color at all.

I think it was still better than straight black as it has a little depth in photos and matched my green Ultralite whip shaft, but even I thought it should have had a little more color than that.

I'm torn on what to get for Turbo's Aerocrown in a year or two as I want it to be versatile for both horses (Kody shines in green, Turbo does better in navy blue) but I don't want to go with black! Reality is Kody will probably never haul a full-weight cart like that again so I suppose I should go with whatever looks best with Turbo.

Leia

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Well ladies, I am closer to ordering...I need to decide on seat and wheel color and if I want the basket underneath... Advice? Leaning towards the burgundy, no basket and the seat Adair has..

I drove Miss Wish tonight in the Pequea...it is a nice cart, but with our rolling terrain the Aerocrown will probably make Wish's job easier so will probably offer the Pequea and my frontier up for sale once the Aerocrown is home.

Leia, I will tell Jack hi for you.

Angie

 

[shorthorsemom]

Jack is super cool, I called him first about my aerocrown but they didn't have any in stock so I went to carriage machine. He gave me a ton of information on the phone.

On the basket, I skipped it for now. I figured I could always order and add on later. I was shooting for the least amount of sticker shock so I stuck with standard on my cart . On the seat,... I love it. Very comfortable.

You can't adjust the back height of the seat, so it might be personal preference but I like the way the arm rests are padded and they support my elbows and it helps me keep the nerve pain on my right side from flaring up and bothering me when driving...I am very short and I feel well supported and I don't slouch at all, I think the seat helps remind me to drive with good posture (IMO)... I do like the high back of the seat and my seat is VERY comfortable. Much more comfortable than any other seat I have ridden in. I admit to filling out my seat pretty well before I lost all that weight, and steven mentioned something about the aerocrown being idea for people under 165 pounds so there might be a consideration on seat type depending on the size of the drivers bottom... LOL did I really just say that ...

I think you will find the burgandy colored wheels totally awesome if they become your choice. best wishes.

Adair

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Hmmm...would I like those side part (are they arm rests?) on the seat?? or would I like a different seat...I should google and see if I can find different seats..

I think my butt will fit in your seat type Adair

As an aside you do have me intruiged with the Weight Watchers...

Angie

 

[shorthorsemom]

Hi Angie, I know in the seat I picked if he makes any sudden moves I am not sliding anywhere. Seat really hugs the driver and is padded so you don't go bump. I like it.

As a side... I highly recommend the new weight watchers plus. I followed it strictly and I have lost 26 lbs since March 1st and still losing. I never had a diet work before and had almost resigned myself to being big, blamed it on metabolism. They asked what our goal was and I said I wanted to lose weight so my mini didn't have to pull so much... the lady cracked up, said that was the first time somebody said they wanted to lose weight for a horse.

I am hoping I can keep it up and keep the energy it takes to follow the plan. It really works, if it doesn't work for somebody it usually means they are not following the plan. New cart, smaller butt, happy horse and Happy Adair..

LOL