Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Long walks to get to the ocean at Shore sparked invention
Motorized cart helps ease the transit across the sand with hands full
WEST CHESTER >> The summer of 2022 turned out to contain a bevy of lucrative days on the beach for Ridley Township native Mike Mogan. His recent invention of a motorized beach cart called eBeach Wagon took beach-goers by storm this summer.
The design inspiration came from his desire for more stress-free family beach days with his wife, Tara, and their two young children, son Miles, 2, and daughter Stevie, 1, when they vacation in Cape May, N.J.
In addition to his own struggles carting the family’s beach accessories, Mogan also saw other beach-goers balancing their young children and belongings, as they navigated their way down to their spot on the sand.
“It all started with taking our dog Winnie to Higbee Beach in Cape May, N.J.,” Mogan recalled. “Tara would pack so much stuff and the dog, and there’s a 200-yard walk to get to the beach. I was tired of dragging all the gear in one of those foldup wagons with hard wheels. I started thinking about an electric beach wagon then. Later, when my first child was born, I started digging deeper into it. I found only one company making electric beach wagons and was convinced I could make one better and less expensive.”
Mogan’s former dream turned into a profitable reality this summer.
The e-Beach Wagon holds up to 300 pounds, can travel up to 6 miles per hour and has removable railings to simplify loading and unloading its contents.
Since it sports an electric motor, the wagon also has the bonus of containing dual USB ports to charge devices. The ewagon’s aluminum frame has tubes built into each corner that can be used to hold fishing rods, poles of a beach volleyball net, an umbrella, or a flagpole.
Also setting the e-Beach Wagon apart from other wagons are its low-pressure balloon tires that make it possible to almost effortlessly glide across dunes, shells and sand.
The e-Beach Wagon isn’t limited to summer beach trips, Mogan says. The e-Beach Wagon can be used year-round for yard work, transporting children, and in many other ways. Mogan said some of his best customers are young families, the elderly, beach homeowners, and people who frequent the beach often.
“We’re also discovering there’s a huge market for people with disabilities,” he added.
The e-Beach Wagon took several years to bring from a good idea in Mogan’s head to a durable product that basically sells itself when people discover its everyday usefulness and how “easy peasy” it is to operate.
“I built my prototype in about a month, preparing for our summer vacation in 2020,” Mogan shared. “After vacation, I made some upgrades that took another month. Then we decided to make it a business and hired a product development team to run the design using my concept. Product development started in November 2020. The prototype was completed by summer 2021. Afterward, we started sourcing a manufacturer and began sampling. More design tweaks were made during sampling, so the design wasn’t perfected until the beginning of 2022. We are patent pending in the U.S. and China, and anticipate receiving design patents soon.”
Mogan, a 1996 graduate of Ridley High School, attended the Florida Institute of Technology and Temple University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering.
The professional engineer is licensed in Pennsylvania and Delaware, specializing in highway design. He just recently resigned from Rybinski Engineering as a business line manager in Design to dedicate more time to e-Beach Wagon. Tara is handling the marketing side of their business.
Mogan said he was most influenced by his late father, Mike Sr., who was always tinkering with things around their Ridley home.
“My dad and I built many things together while I was growing up,” Mogan said. “Some of our larger projects included a concrete patio so I could park my first car, a 1969 Mustang, a snake enclosure in our garage because my mom wouldn’t allow my snake in the house, projects like replacing the HVAC or fixing a leak in the ceiling, or building numerous Halloween props in the fall like a guillotine, coffin or flying dummy.”
The creative engineer is not new to inventing. He also has a utility patent on a “CustACan” beverage can insulator. Also, many ideas for e-Beach Wagon upgrades and accessories are already swirling in the inventor’s mind.
However, it’s the e-Beach Wagon that has garnered the inventor the most attention as word spreads about the electric wagon’s ease, versatility and usefulness.
Mogan said that while he walked to the beach, his mother, Genevieve Mogan, has ridden in the back of the e-Beach Wagon, speaking with people along the way who are curious about the never-seen-before product.
His proud mom and sisters Rose and Tara have all helped to get the word out about the engineer’s invention because they’ve seen for themselves what an asset the wagon would be to own.
“Our family and friends are our biggest advocates,” Mogan smiled. “Especially our kids and our dog, who love it and enjoy going for wagon rides, even when it doesn’t involve going to the beach!”
For more information or to purchase the e-Beach Wagon, visit https://ebeachwagon.com or call 855-E-WAGONS (855392-4667).