Truper

Truper wheelbarrows, shovels, hoes, sledges and splitting wedges are for moving soil, gravel and debris and for the digging, chopping and striking that come with yard and site work. Homeowners, gardeners and contractors buy them for a fair price. Truper builds its wheelbarrows, striking tools and long-handle tools in its own plant.

Truper is a hand-tool maker, importer and exporter based in Mexico, and it has more than 60 years of history. The company is privately held, its founders control it, and it reinvests its profits year after year. One company system handles production, sourcing and distribution, and Truper sells its name on value for money.

Wheelbarrows

Truper makes its wheelbarrows at its own industrial complex, the same place its striking tools and long-handle tools are built. One of its factories is in Jilotepec, State of Mexico, and its engineers run more than 250,000 lab tests a year. The imported part of the catalog comes from factories around the world. The wheelbarrows, sledges and long-handle tools are the lines Truper makes itself.

For gravel, use the steel wheelbarrow, because loose stone gouges a light tray every time you dump it. Load it over the wheel, not back by the handles. The most common mistake is piling the load at the back of the tray, which leaves your arms holding up half of it. Put the weight over the wheel and your arms only have to steer. Keep the tire aired up, since a soft tire makes a full load feel dead. When you’re pushing wet gravel up a slope, stop at about two-thirds full.

Shovels, hoes and the tamper

The square-point shovel is for scooping and leveling: gravel off a pile, the bottom of a trench, a slab that needs cleaning off. For digging holes, use a round point, because the tip is what cuts in. The mistake seen most with this shovel is someone trying to dig a post hole with a square point.

The mortar hoe mixes mortar or concrete in a tub or wheelbarrow. Pull it toward you in short strokes, working the dry mix in from the ends toward the middle and adding a little water at a time. The action hoe cuts on both the push and the pull just under the surface, so it clears weeds from gravel paths and between rows without bending. The garden hoe is for chopping: breaking up clods, cutting sod edges and pulling soil up around plants.

The tamper packs a gravel base under pavers, a shed pad or a walkway, and it packs backfill around posts. If you pound the full depth at once, the top packs hard and the bottom settles later. Tamp the gravel slightly damp, a few inches at a time.

Post hole diggers and replacement handles

For fence and deck posts, the post hole digger does what a shovel can’t: it lifts dirt out of a narrow hole without widening the top. Spread the handles to close the blades on a bite, and loosen rocky ground with a pick or digging bar first so the blades don’t bend.

Truper also makes replacement handles for shovels, rakes, hoes, forks, picks and axes, in wood and fiberglass. A broken handle doesn’t mean a new tool. Take the old head along and match the handle by length and by the socket or eye it fits, because a 48-inch long-handle shovel and a 30-inch D-handle take different handles. On a socket tool, drive the new handle fully into the socket and set it with the rivet or screw; on an axe or pick, seat the head all the way down and drive the wedge in tight before the first swing.

Sledges and splitting wedges

For firewood, start a splitting wedge in a crack in the end grain and drive it with a sledge. Never use the back of an axe to hit a wedge. An axe isn’t made for pounding steel, and it will chip or spread at the eye. Wear safety glasses. When the head of a wedge starts to mushroom, grind the curled lip off before a chip breaks loose.

Clean up after every job to make the steel last. Hose concrete out of the wheelbarrow and off the mortar hoe the same day, before it sets. Store steel heads out of the weather over winter. In spring, knock off any rust and wipe the heads with a light coat of oil.

Truper’s other lines

Truper’s catalog also covers home products, taps and plumbing, steel products for the hardware trade, cleaning supplies, locksmith products and electrical products. The home products are made for light use and housework. For heavy loads every day or jobsite work, choose from the wheelbarrow and tool lines.

Truper at a glance

Item	Detail
Company name	Truper Herramientas S.A. de C.V.
Catalog	More than 15,000 products, 7 specialized brands
Markets	More than 70 countries
Associates	More than 18,000 worldwide

Frequently Asked Questions

Should you get a poly wheelbarrow or a steel one?

Get a poly tray for mulch, topsoil, leaves and mixing concrete, because it won’t rust, it weighs less, and set concrete pops off it more easily than off steel. Poly gets brittle in hard cold, so don’t drop rock or frozen chunks into it in the dead of winter, and leave it upside down so water can’t freeze in the tray. For demolition debris, rock and anything with sharp edges, go with steel.

How do you keep a Truper wheelbarrow wheel rolling smoothly?

If the wheel squeaks or drags, the axle bearings are dry, so grease them at the start of each season and after you’ve pushed through mud or standing water. Air pressure drops when the weather turns cold, so a tire that was fine in September can be soft by November even with no leak. If it keeps going flat, put in tire sealant or swap it for a flat-free tire before the next big job.