My main motivation for making this cart was to prove to my older brother that I could do it. Now that I have completed that I see where I could turn this experience into an entrepreneurial opportunity. I am Roxroy Hutchinson, I am 23 and from the community of Orange Bay in Hanover. I’m not formally trained in this field. I’m a self-taught visual artist (I do paintings) and I’m also an inventor. I also work part-time as a fitness instructor.
Growing up, I didn’t have some of the stuff the other kids had so, for my enjoyment, I always made my own toys. One of my favourite things I made was a cart made out of wood. We used to have fun rolling it up a hill and driving it down. I remember my brother said to me one day when we were doing this, “You’re going to grow up one day and can’t do this anymore. What are you gonna do when you can’t do this anymore?”
This was more than 10 years ago and I remember I said to him, “I’m gonna build a bigger cart. One that I don’t have to push up and down the hill.” As much as he might have not taken me serious at the time I was very serious. I took the time to teach myself how to make the cart and now I have a made a cart that works.
I spent a lot of time preparing for this project: drawing the plans, doing the prints, learning the mechanics of the cart, gathering the parts, everything. When I’d finished preparing, my first step was to get to the welding shop in our community and make the metal frames that would form the cart. The metal and some of the smaller parts I used I got from a mechanic shop or garage in Orange Bay called Toyonda Auto. I got some used parts and salvaged the best parts in the waste pile they had there. I got some old golf cart parts, golf cart wheels, golf cart differentials, golf cart steering hubs. Some I bought from people, some I got for free from friends with old golf carts. It runs on a bike engine that I bought from a friend, which is a 150 CC Jamco carburettor engine. I recycled an old plastic chair as the seat and the spoiler is painted scrap Plexiglas.
From there I did the rest of the work at my home; from adding the parts to the final test drive. I spent days and weeks getting the cart together. I got some serious injuries in the process – maybe not serious serious injuries but some injuries.
This cart I consider my prototype. I have plans to make an even bigger cart and to eventually go into auto racing and I plan to do circuit. Now that I have proved I can do it, I’m just driving it to get a further understanding of the wear and tear points to this prototype to get me started in building a bigger and stronger one.
It doesn’t have lights and other safety features so I keep it very close and drive it only around the vicinity of my house. It’s mainly for fun but it is very fuel efficient. $300 gas can drive around the community for days.
My entrepreneurial goal is to make as many carts as I can, acquire a piece of land and do like an off road cart race. I believe the more knowledge I can acquire in this area is the better it will be for me. More knowledge is the only thing I could need. Seeing what I’ve already managed to do without any training from an institution, I think there is a lot more I can do.
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