Fiberglass shafts

[red_mares]

Does anyone else use them? Why or why not?

I’m just sitting watching a Modern Marvels comparison of wood and fiberglass ax handles. (It’s not the most thrilling, but not sports or Law & Order :lol:) and it got me thinking. Most of the Amish I know use fiberglass shafts & wheels. My BO breaks them occasionally, but he also (gets paid to) drives nutcases. It’s kind of nice (?) when they do break because it doesn’t splinter like some wood shafts. I wouldn’t expect them on old vehicles, do any of the new ones use them?

[China_Doll]

I have never seen fiberglass shafts or wheels. Are you sure the Amish use the? The Amish I see use wood.

[red_mares]

Oh yes they are definitely fiberglass. Very apparent on BO’s war wagon that he uses to break horses. With the paint scraped off, they are definitely glass. When you see the wheels, it is apparent that the spokes are molded with the rest of the wheel. It’s one piece for the rim, spokes and hub (minus metal housing for bearings).

They use open buggies in this community, and I’m pretty sure the bodies are fiberglass as well.

[Plainandtall]

I have never used them- but as far as the fiberglass buggy wheels all I can say is that they are pretty ugly compared to real old fashioned wooden wheels- they seem to be molded-in a one piece pour-in mold- so the spokes and rim are all one piece- and the cast wheel has curved/smooth surfaces to the outside- but the inside surfaces of the wheel are flat.

Where I live they used to use all open buggies- but due to some church changes and some new churches moving into the area- there are some box buggies around too. I have worked on some of the open buggies (painting) and the ones I worked on were made with plywood. Of course this is not a universal observation.

[DiamondJubilee]

We have had a custom phaeton made by an amish company (it was their first attempt at making a non-amish carriage) and though they did have some body parts made with fibreglass, the shafts are not (they are made of metal I believe with patton leather overtop) and the wheels are metal. They must have felt that this would be a better option (though they made the carriage from pictures of a kuhnle and they went to see one in person, so perhaps since the kuhnle did not have fibreglass shafts, they did not make them out of fibreglass as well…).

All of our other carriages are have either wooden shafts (for the cutter and meadowbrook) or metal (for the marathon carriages or the cheapy easy entry breaking cart). I have not heard of making shaft out of fibreglass…