Hacking an umbrella stroller
Ted of Slingwheels.com wasn't satisfied with his daughter's umbrella stroller (what hacker-at-heart ever is?). So, what started as a few homemade upgrades has turned into a two-year project. The result: this sweet toddler transportation.
To attach larger wheels to the stroller, I invented (a real patent-pending parent-invention!) a device that ostensibly does this, on paper at least. Took a while to get to the prototyping stage, where I'm at now. In prototyping, it kinda/sorta works, but will require some additional engineering to become something I'd actually give/sell to others. There's really no other way of doing this, unless you go down the wholesale "SurfNTurf" route, which is a bit much, in my opinion. [It looks like a stroller crossed with the Michelin Man! -- Ed.]
To attach other accessories to the stroller, I (A) found them after much Internet research, and bought them, and (B) made sure I had the best items by visiting every known stroller discussion and pet stroller discussion (!) group/bbs there was.
So here I am now, with a tricked-out stroller that nobody but my kid will actually ride in, around the garage. The whole effort served all kinds of purposes, among which I can actually tell the boyz in the hood that I'm doing my part from the parenthacks perspective, and the Dad-inventor perspective (i.e. taking back some respect from the swelling ranks of Mominventors out there -- just type in "www.dadinventors.com", and see what you get (!)).
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