[scareu72]

Was thinking about about building a funeral hearse. The problem so far is the wheels are so darnn expensive. Anyone know of any sites that are reasonable on wood carriage wheels? I already checked Ebay and my local Facebook sale sites.

Thanks

 

[Family Haunter]

Here is tutorial on how to make them:
http://www.bastardrat.com/restinpetes/hwheels.htm

 

[ChrisW]

If you have a Big Lots in your area, check their Spring outdoor decor items. For a number of years they had 2 sizes of wagon wheels that were pretty reasonable. I don't know if they still carry them. I believe Tractor Supply Co. (TSC) might have carried them as well.

 

[slcjeeper]

What size wheels are you looking for and do you need them to support a load? The problem with the garden decorative wheels is that they can't support a side or lateral load.

 

[The Halloween Lady]

I made mine out of 3/4" plywood, then glued 2 together which made each wheel 1 1/2" thick. It worked great. Then mostly for aesthetics but also to help protect the wheels from wet ground I cut metal flashing and rimmed the outside of each wheel. It looks pretty cool.

 

[ChrisW]

What size wheels are you looking for and do you need them to support a load? The problem with the garden decorative wheels is that they can't support a side or lateral load.

You're right. I should have specified that I was thinking of the hearse design that is built on a table and that the wheels would not hold weight. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[scareu72]

Do you have a picture?

 

[Scatterbrains]

Check out this thread http://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-prop-building-group/76979-project-5-hearse-students-thread.html

 

[The Halloween Lady]

The link above (posted by Family Haunter) is what I followed. The link leads you to a wonderful tut by Evil Bob. He is a member here and IMHO is the definitive horse drawn hearse King!!!! He has built two almost museum quality hearses. I made my hearse this past year and borrowed elements from many of the hearses made by our members over the years. The link that scatterbrains posted is also really helpful. Additionally if you do an advanced search on horse hearses it will show you a bunch of different threads.

 

[Scatterbrains]

Yep, Evil Bob does phenomenal work....

As for wheels, my $0.02 is to build your own or go with real Amish ones. If I were to do it again, I would want to be able to move it around by myself, so I would splurge and go with Amish wheels because they are made to the pipe axel. As Halloween Lady said, do a search on hearses/carriages because someone went with the Amish wheels last year I think..

 

[scareu72]

Thanks for the ideas and links everyone. I greatly appreciated it!!!!

 

[Evil Bob]

Aw , shucks, Halloween Lady!
Plywood wheels work great, lol.

The link above (posted by Family Haunter) is what I followed. The link leads you to a wonderful tut by Evil Bob. He is a member here and IMHO is the definitive horse drawn hearse King!!!! He has built two almost museum quality hearses. I made my hearse this past year and borrowed elements from many of the hearses made by our members over the years. The link that scatterbrains posted is also really helpful. Additionally if you do an advanced search on horse hearses it will show you a bunch of different threads.