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Comment by xen2xen1 | Hacker News Reader

Please tell me there's a story behind an "industrial tricycle?"

It's really a thing they sell. https://www.mcmaster.com/tricycles/ The why, though, no idea. Warehouse schlepping, probably?

On the other hand, I take one look at this mostly-prefabricated building and I'm like "...I could use one of those." https://www.mcmaster.com/6704T998/

Boeing, other large industrial plants.

Looks like they would be very useful on large industrial site with multiple buildings. Provide staff with bikes to get around, and cargo tricycles if they need to move small to medium loads.

Or even inside a large industrial building like industrial assembly lines, etc.

I saw these in use in the Boeing factory north of Seattle during the factory tour.

Every other worker in a shipyard has a tricycle like this.

TIL. Thanks!

When a factory is a couple km long in either direction and a machine breaks the mechanics need to get their tool boxes there fast and safe. While street truck could be used (and often they are), a because of people walking around the top speed is no higher, and the trike is more maneuverable and so overall is faster than a truck.

It has come up when we've played the "McMaster Game" at our office, in which we attempt to guess random things that McMaster might or might not have.

Interesting things they have had in the past include basketball hoops (in a kit, ready to go, for all your "our institution needs a basketball court... today" needs) and a urinal.

But yes, there are real uses for industrial tricycles -- need to move some stuff (or a person) pretty far pretty quickly inside a warehouse? Industrial tricycle.

> Interesting things they have had in the past include basketball hoops

They still have them: https://www.mcmaster.com/basketball-hoops/

Don’t buy their basketballs, though. They aren’t RoHS or REACH compliant (https://www.mcmaster.com/45425T23/)

I used to fix machines at an insurance company in Wisconsin that was so big people rode those tricycles with baskets all down the hallways.

We use these in military aviation across the world. Stupidly useful when you’ve got 100+ lbs of tools to run out to a down aircraft that needs fixed to make a mission.

Also in shipyards, for similar reasons.

I can't talk about details but I know of large industry-leading aerospace manufacturers who don't use MMC for flight parts because they need batch-level part tracking for failure investigations, and MMC doesn't offer that.

Pretty sure the USAF doesn’t care too much about the batch number for the tricycle the tech uses to get to the plane…

But I also wouldn’t be surprised to find out that a government auditor complained about it too

I wasn't talking about using MMC for aviation parts; I was referring to the industrial tricycles.

The best tool for moving a person and up to about 300kg of stuff at 2-20km/h over nice surfaces.

Never need to charge/fuel it. A coaster brake model out of the weather can go years without any maintenance. Will work for decades with $50 worth of parts. Some models fit anywhere wheelchair accessible. Cheap enough that you don't need keys. Stores anywhere.

In an industrial setting they are extremely useful.

Big adult size tricycles with a cargo basket or saddle bags. I’ve seen them used in big factories/plants for maintenance crews.

Something breaks and the maint guy hops on, loads up his toolbox and cycles out across the plant to go fix it.

Almost every large manufacturing facility has vehicles for their maintenance staff. Sometimes they use golf carts. Sometimes they use tricycles.

An automotive assembly plant can easily be 10 million square feet.

There is! IIRC, the first item McM ever sold through its website was an industrial tricycle (I think it was to an engineer at CERN, which has very long tunnels).

They don't have European operations so I'd imagine it's probably an accelerator in the US like Fermilab or SLAC, but otherwise that would make perfect sense.

https://www.worksmancycles.com/media/businesscycle8pgcatlog2...

https://www.worksmancycles.com/movers.html

It may be hard to find but there is a very good episode of 99% Invisible (are there bad ones?) that goes in depth on industrial tricycles. Only thing I can say to help you find it is that I think it was a 2015 episode, sorry.

Basically they are used to transport parts around large warehouses or factories.

My company owns one of these. I’ve never seen anyone use it but it’s there.

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