During our first trip to the Grand Design RV Rally in 2022, the husband of one of the group administrators referred a folding wagon he used to transport things as an “stupid wagon”. Prior to the 2023 rally, it was announced that there was going to be an stupid wagon contest. I took our plastic garden wagon and pulled it around with a light up Christmas reindeer wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Someone pulling a little Radio Flyer wagon won the contest. In 2024, we did not attend the rally. The winner of the stupid wagon contest was a decorated standard sized Radio Flyer wagon.

I decided then that I needed something totally different to wow the rally goers and win the Stupid Wagon contest. I decided to build a low-rider wagon. I had seen pictures of some, and they looked pretty cool.

I started a search for a wagon a few months ago but wasn’t having much luck. Then my daughter and her husband had to move, and they were selling off some stuff to raise some money. One of the items they were selling was a well-used John Deere wagon. I offered to buy it from Amber, instead I made a clothes rack for her to give to her grand daughters Winnie and Ellie as a Christmas gift.

Now I had a wagon, I just had to figure out how to make a low-rider wagon out of it.

The first thing I needed was a frame. I found a couple different companies that make low-rider frames, both were in Washington. The first place I contacted was from Arlington. I traded a couple emails with the owner then didn’t hear back for a couple weeks, I figured he was busy due to the holidays. He contacted me in early January and let me know that he would not be able to supply a frame that would fit the John Deere wagon. I contacted the other company, and he responded immediately and gave me all the information I needed. His frame would work with only a few minor changes. I bought the frame kit, and it is better than I expected.  Thanks to Rohde Fab for the pictures above and below. 

I didn’t get the fancy handle; I have an idea for my own home-made handle.

I dismantled the John Deere wagon. The wood sideboards are junk, most of the wood is rotted. All the fasteners are rusted, I had to cut some off. The tub of the wagon was heavily oxidized, it took 3 applications of rubbing compound to remove it all. The paint is faded, and the bottom of the tub shows the effect of carrying heavy loads. Instead of painting the tub I decided to keep the original patina. I was going to buy new wheels and tires, but I couldn’t find anything that would work within a reasonable price. I cleaned up the original tires and wheels and will use them.

 This is the tub after disassembly. Lots of oxidation except where the sideboard supports were installed. Got a lot of rusty fasteners too.

A good cleaning and one round of rubbing compount has the tub looking better. Went through a bunch of paper and cloth towels to remove the oxidation.

2 more rounds of rubbing compound and the tub has some shine back to it.

 

 Cleaned up the wheels and tires too. Going to paint the valve stems green with green caps for a bit of contrast. I would like to add some pinstripes to the wheels, I don’t think I have the skill to do that. The paint to do that is pretty expensive.

Got the frame delivered and laid out everything. A big shout out to Rohde Fab from Vancouver for this kit. It includes everything to build a Radio Flyer low-rider. The tub from the John Deere wagon has some differences so this build will be a bit more complicated. The frame fabrication is outstanding, and all the fasteners are stainless. The only parts I won’t be using are the axles and wheel mounting hardware, the tub mounting hardware and the handle bolt and nut.

 

 I bolted the frame together. Everything went together very easily. Here is the tub on the frame, this gives an idea of what my low-rider wagon will look like.

The axles supplied with the kit will not work, they are for wheels with half inch axles, the wheels for this wagon are only 7/16 of an inch. I bought some 7/16-14x4” bolts to use for axles. I added some fender washers and nuts to hold the axles to the wagon. Instead of drilling out the 3/8” holes to install the larger axle bolts, I tapped the holes to match the bolts. I figured this will add a bit of needed support. I used grade 8 bolts for extra security.

The axle supports have 3 different holes; this allows for some choices for wagon height. I thought about using the upper holes up front to give the wagon a bit of a rake. Using the center holes worked nice, I like the bit of rake the wagon will have.

Next was working on mounting the tub to the frame. The Deere tub had 5 mounting holes for the subframe, only the back 2 will work with this frame. Because of the X stamped into the bottom of the tub I also need to raise it about 3/8 of an inch, so the tub won’t sit on the frame. I had some pieces of half inch square tubing that worked nicely to fabricate some mounts and spacers for the tub. At mounting point A I drilled a couple new holes and used a 5-inch piece of tubing as a spacer. At mounting point B I used 2 pieces of tubing, one as a spacer and one as a clamp. I did the same at mounting point C. At mounting point D I used an 8-inch piece of tubing as a spacer and the slots in the wheel mount to attach the tub. This is very solid and will work very well. This also helped remove a bit of an oil can issue I had with the bottom of the tub. 

Here is a close-up of mounting points A and B. When I do the final build, I am going to use nylon lock nuts so everything stays nice and tight.

This is mounting point C. Because of the X stamped into the tub, I placed the spacer longitudinally. This really stiffened the bottom of the tub. 

This is going to be the handle for the wagon. I figured the original handle would be too short; most pictures I have seen of low-rider wagons also include longer handles. While working at Boeing a lot of the carts were built from a tech tube and used handles like this to pull them around. I am adding a couple motorcycle hand grips I found on Amazon. I got the T clamp from a website called Maker Pipe. Looking at their site had given me a couple other ideas that I may incorporate into this build.

 

I bought some cheap plastic chrome valve stem caps from Amazon, they also included some chrome sleeves for the valve stems. The sleeves won’t work on these wheels. I painted the valve stems metallic green and the valve stem cap John Deere green. I’m also going to paint the head of the axle bolt and the fender washer green. I thought about having them chromed but that would cost about $40, I don’t really want to spend that much for something like that. I’m still debating whether to paint the wheels or leave the faded yellow color.