Big Hand Truck

Just can't get enough of that big, big stuff!

Yankee Supply Company, 2140 Hartford Avenue (Route 6), Johnston
(866) 350-8623
www.yankeesupply.com

It would truly take a big, big man (or woman) to use this hand truck. In fact, he'd have to stand about sixteen and-a-half feet tall.

The hand truck was fabricated by a former employee of Yankee Supply in the mid-1990s to help advertise the company's material handling business. The twelve-foot-tall machine, referred to by Yankee Supply workers as the "Paul Bunyan hand truck," sits on a pair of car tires. Sometimes the hand truck leaves its perch above Route 6 to make appearances at trade shows.

Vice President of Sales J.R. Harper told us he believes the hand truck is structurally sound and that it could be used if a large enough person were found to operate it. The tallest person on record was Robert Wadlow, who stood eight feet, eleven inches tall. Yankee's hand truck would have been unwieldy even for him.

Ordinary hand trucks of similar design to the Paul Bunyan hand truck are about three-and-a-half to four feet tall and have a load capacity of between 500 and 900 pounds. Can we then assume that the Paul Bunyan hand truck can carry up to 3,000 pounds? Maybe, maybe not. What do we know, we're not engineers.

We already know that better nutrition has led to taller humans over the last couple of centuries, and the use of drugs and gene therapy may be untapped sources of additional inches. Bone growth technologies have been used to give short people more height. So who knows but that a sixteen-and-a-half foot tall human isn't possible in the future? If Paula Bunyan ever shows up, and needs to move objects weighing up to 3,000 pounds, there's a hand truck waiting for her at Yankee Supply.

Other Big Things in Rhode Island

• Big Blue Bug
• Big Coffee Mug
• Big Ice Cream Cone, Lakewood Ice Cream, 140-152 Chambly Avenue, Warwick
• Big Milk Can
• Big Paint Can, True Value Hardware, Route 44, Greenville, Smithfield
• Big Roosters
• Big Rosary Beads, Jesus Savior Church, 509 Broadway, Newport

Cost: free

Hours: open year round, dawn to dusk

Directions: From Route 295 take exit 6 to Hartford Avenue (Route 6). Take a right at the bottom of the ramp. The big hand truck is perched in front of the first building on the left.