Kutzmann Kutschen
Sunday I got a call from Gary. The carriages were in! He said they turned out gorgeous and was really excited for us to see them.
When Chris got home from home teaching he hooked up the trailer and loaded up the tie straps.
Yesterday morning we sent the older boys over to visit Gamma and Farfar and Quentan was loaded up with us in the truck and away we went!
We stopped for gas in Prescott Valley and pulled into Gary's about 11:30.
Gary was right! We saw the Challenger as we pulled in and it was quite striking!
We met Shelley, the lady who imports them directly from the Kutzmanns and shipped them over. She was quite excited to show them off and said we had great taste in the colors and such.
We looked at the TR50 first. It usually has a back step on it and we nixed the step, which Shelley thought was a smart move. The cart is nicely balanced without it and looks sharper too if I do say so myself. We have two sets of ahafts for it (horse and draft), a removable wedge for the bench seat, a removable foot box because I have nubby, nubby legs (it will fit in both vehicles), fully covered storage under the seat, and brakes (could have done without the brakes, but resale value and they were reluctant to not put them on).
We then went over the Challenger and I climbed up in it and we poked around and looked at all of the features. It's just a touch bigger than the Robert's Carriage we have. The hydraulic pole is a very nice feature and having the doubletree built into the body of the carriagr is nice. On the Roberts the pole and doubletree are all one, which makes it terribly heavy and annoying to put on and off. The Challenger has rear brakes (they usually do all around, but we didn't need the weight or really see the need for brakes all around), pole, shafts, a 4-up attachment (we may use it someday!), delayed stearing, a 5th wheel brake, and airbag suspension system. I'm pretty excited to see how it rides.
Lots of carriage talk and staring and admiring them. Hard to believe they are ours!
Shelley headed off and Gary and Chris loaded up the carriages while I fed a now-hungry Quentan. We had to put the cart in the bed of the truck as there wasn't quite enough room for both the Challenger and it, which was a little disappointing. We can fit a horse and the Challenger in the trailer (checked when we got home) with just a couple inches to spare and the TR50 would be no problem being a third its size.
Thankfully Gary had some ramps and a bit of a ledge. The cart might not be as heavy as the forecart, but it is still fairly substantial to push up into the truck.
The drive home was uneventful. We apparently scratched some paint off of one of the Challenger's wheels. The good news is they came with touch-up paint. The TR50 was fun to unload. We don't have ramps and Dave wasn't home yet so we couldn't borrow his. Thankfully we do have a large pile of dirt! We backed up to it and Chris shoveled out a pad of appropriate size and we rolled it right off and Chris held it as I moved the truck before rolling (and sliding) it down the hill.
We did have a bit of an annoyance and disappointment as Chris went to grease up the hydraulic arm for the delayed steering. He put the grease gun over the zerk and when he went to remove it the zerk popped out of its hole! The thing was lodged in the grease gun amazingly well and I think it might still be stuck in it... Turns out the zerks weren't all tightened in their threads, but Chris had another one pop off on him today too. We'll be calling Gary about that.
Hopefully, minor hiccup aside with the zerks, they are going to be really nice vehicles for us. Chris put up the Robert's Carriage for sale last night and this morning my phone was lit up like a Christmas tree! I had a voicemail, text message, and Facebook message from a couple interested in it. They know Audra, who we bought our forecart from, and they REALLY want the carriage! They'll be coming down tomorrow to look at it and hopefully take it home with them! That pays for most of the TR50.
It's a good thing too, the workshop is pretty crowded!
When Chris got home from home teaching he hooked up the trailer and loaded up the tie straps.
Yesterday morning we sent the older boys over to visit Gamma and Farfar and Quentan was loaded up with us in the truck and away we went!
We stopped for gas in Prescott Valley and pulled into Gary's about 11:30.
Gary was right! We saw the Challenger as we pulled in and it was quite striking!
We met Shelley, the lady who imports them directly from the Kutzmanns and shipped them over. She was quite excited to show them off and said we had great taste in the colors and such.
We looked at the TR50 first. It usually has a back step on it and we nixed the step, which Shelley thought was a smart move. The cart is nicely balanced without it and looks sharper too if I do say so myself. We have two sets of ahafts for it (horse and draft), a removable wedge for the bench seat, a removable foot box because I have nubby, nubby legs (it will fit in both vehicles), fully covered storage under the seat, and brakes (could have done without the brakes, but resale value and they were reluctant to not put them on).
We then went over the Challenger and I climbed up in it and we poked around and looked at all of the features. It's just a touch bigger than the Robert's Carriage we have. The hydraulic pole is a very nice feature and having the doubletree built into the body of the carriagr is nice. On the Roberts the pole and doubletree are all one, which makes it terribly heavy and annoying to put on and off. The Challenger has rear brakes (they usually do all around, but we didn't need the weight or really see the need for brakes all around), pole, shafts, a 4-up attachment (we may use it someday!), delayed stearing, a 5th wheel brake, and airbag suspension system. I'm pretty excited to see how it rides.
Lots of carriage talk and staring and admiring them. Hard to believe they are ours!
Shelley headed off and Gary and Chris loaded up the carriages while I fed a now-hungry Quentan. We had to put the cart in the bed of the truck as there wasn't quite enough room for both the Challenger and it, which was a little disappointing. We can fit a horse and the Challenger in the trailer (checked when we got home) with just a couple inches to spare and the TR50 would be no problem being a third its size.
Thankfully Gary had some ramps and a bit of a ledge. The cart might not be as heavy as the forecart, but it is still fairly substantial to push up into the truck.
The drive home was uneventful. We apparently scratched some paint off of one of the Challenger's wheels. The good news is they came with touch-up paint. The TR50 was fun to unload. We don't have ramps and Dave wasn't home yet so we couldn't borrow his. Thankfully we do have a large pile of dirt! We backed up to it and Chris shoveled out a pad of appropriate size and we rolled it right off and Chris held it as I moved the truck before rolling (and sliding) it down the hill.
We did have a bit of an annoyance and disappointment as Chris went to grease up the hydraulic arm for the delayed steering. He put the grease gun over the zerk and when he went to remove it the zerk popped out of its hole! The thing was lodged in the grease gun amazingly well and I think it might still be stuck in it... Turns out the zerks weren't all tightened in their threads, but Chris had another one pop off on him today too. We'll be calling Gary about that.
Hopefully, minor hiccup aside with the zerks, they are going to be really nice vehicles for us. Chris put up the Robert's Carriage for sale last night and this morning my phone was lit up like a Christmas tree! I had a voicemail, text message, and Facebook message from a couple interested in it. They know Audra, who we bought our forecart from, and they REALLY want the carriage! They'll be coming down tomorrow to look at it and hopefully take it home with them! That pays for most of the TR50.
It's a good thing too, the workshop is pretty crowded!