traveling with a horse cart

Your cart looks good. Looks just like mine. Roller bearing hubs, wheels look good but of course I can't really tell, but definitely worth going to look.

Did someone else start to refinish it or it it weathered from being outside?

From what I gather the woman who is selling the cart has it stored in the mountains at her sisters house. I wouldn't doubt that it was in good shape a couple of years ago but, having sat through colorado mountain snow and weather it obviously isn't fairing well. I asked her about the condition of the wood and she said it was still in good condition hopefully that holds up. I love how beautiful it looks, I hope it's sound because I would love to give it a new chance at life.

Just saw the photo of the squeeky wheel, be very suspect of that wheel, it looks like the seal has broken and the bearings are rusty. I know nothing about bearings , I always have someone else look at mine.
I would think you want to bring a mechanicaly inclined person with you to look and open up that wheel to see what it looks like inside.
You might want to get a Whitmers Coach Shop catalog to see how much bearings are. And if the inside of the hub is very rusty and pitted, you might need a new hub or possibly a new wheel. Whitmer's has bearings, hubs, and wheels.

Clean the varnish from the spokes the hub were thay terminate looks like there is some play there is an old trick damp cloths or a drop of water to make the spokes swell a little as probley the wheel has dryed out that's why thay use to drive there carts in the river also check up on all the points what tc has said and surgested and tc will help you out on imformation on your medowbrook as tc owns one and her imformation on that perticular veichele is great.
And I will say a greatley valued driver and frend in the driving part of the horse forum with her knolage helping other drivers.

My dad will be accompanying me and he's an old school machinist and engineer I spoke with him about bearings and such and he seemed very unfazed by the prospect of it. Though I will be checking all points you suggested thank you all very much.

Thats good and thanks for your kind words as well I beleave every body who has contrebuted to this string wishes you all the best in your new perchase and hopefully you will be on the road and going to shows or driveing out with other drivers on the trails and camping out.
Its great fun with the horses and I wish you the very best to you and your horses.

Did you go and look at the cart?
Did you get it?
What did your dad think of the squeaky wheel?

LOL- she's holding out on us!

So I got the cart, it's in my barn drying out a tad right now. So I can begin stripping/sanding it after it's done.

When I saw it there was one piece of wood near the seat on the folding side was split and rotted, and the dash had what seemed like a split and slight rot.

However, once I brought it inside of the barn (from outside on a cement pad in the rocky mountains) the "rot" vanished and left what looks and feels like normal weathered wood with a slight split. Either way I'm replacing these pieces with new ones that I'm going to cut and bevel to match the old ones.

The wheel doesn't squeak but it does wobble in place because it's loose. My dad suspects it's because it is missing a codder pin which just wobbled off. Though the wheel itself is true not warped many of the spokes are slightly loose. Though the wheel spins several times (more than 5 or 6) freely.

The other wheel seems pretty solid and it's angulature is appropriate. It also spinds freely and doesn't wobble in place.

The rubber on both tires is completely free of cracking. Some of the floor boards are warped a bit though none of the metal bits (hub excluded) are rusty.

The fenders are in in good shape, not warped out of shape though one is slightly knicked up, I don't see anything overall, that a bit of fine grit sanding won't fix.

To top it all off, It's very very very well balanced. Though it weighs a ton, once you pick the shafts up it's night and day to my jerald/sulky which in comparison weighs a ton in the shafts. I was very impressed. It even gets lighter with people sitting in it imagine that LOL.

Overall I'm very excited about my "find" and the woman whom I purchased the cart from was beyond fair and reasonable on the price.

Sorry for the long post guys I will try to upload pictures as soon as I can. Though it's been quite the week here in colorado with all of the snow we've been getting! I'm behind on everything all of a sudden, LOL.

Hooray! Can't wait to see pics once you get it cleaned up and whipped back in shape. So excited for you!!!!