Malunggay Life's Very Own Three-Wheels

Malunggay Life's motorized three-wheels

Our moringa (malunggay) farm is growing, we need to bring more tools and equipment inside, plus we need to harvest those moringa leaves that we prune, so we asked someone to fabricate a motorized three-wheels for us.

Initially, we wanted to just buy a kuliglig. The regular kuliglig is a vehicle which is composed of a two-wheeled tractor and its trailer at the end. A kuliglig does not need to be registered because it is considered a farm equipment by the Land Transportation Office of the Philippines (LTO). But since we do not need the tractor and our farm is not a rice field, we opted for the three-wheels. Although both kuliglig and three-wheels have engines powered by either gasoline or diesel, there are some differences:

1. Body - As I mentioned above, a kuliglig is composed of a two-wheeled trailer pulled by a two-wheeled tractor. The tractor's handlebars are used for steering the kuliglig. The motorized three-wheels, as the name implies, is composed only of 3 wheels: one in front where the engine is attached, and the two wheels attached to the body. The motorized three-wheels uses a steering wheel to steer the vehicle. 

2. Uses - A kuliglig can be used as means of transport, and as tractor in ricefields. The engine of the kuliglig can also be attached to a water pump to irrigate farmlands. Since the engine of the three-wheels is attached to the vehicle's body, I'm not sure we can use the engine in other ways. Right now, we use our three-wheels as our means of transport to bring our workers and farm equipment and other tools to our moringa farm. When we harvest our moringa leaves, we will also be using our three-wheels to transport the fresh moringa leaves from our farm to our drying facility.

Both kuliglig and three-wheels are prohibited on main roads because they are slow and cause traffic congestion. Here in Palawan, you will see them plying the National Highway in the rural areas, but you might never see them in Puerto Princesa City. 

For comparative purposes, you may see some pictures of kuliglig here and here.