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Mini Hay Rack Build....

6K views 36 replies 12 participants last post by  Robert Webb 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I posted a link to some plans that I found a week or so ago while I was looking for ideas to build my Mini Hay Rack. Well I finally got around to starting on it today. I took the Hickory lumber over to my brother in law's house Saturday and planed it in preparation for building the deck.This is what the chassis looked like after I set it up on saw horse's (I have a bad back and I knew that I wouldnt be able to spend the afternoon bent over trying to get everything laid out. You can see the pile of hickory boards laying in the background waiting to be put to use...lol The actual chassis is a KORY 3000 chassis that was I was able to locate at one of the old dealers that carried Kory before they gave Rural King exclusive sales rights. It was ordered for a gentleman but he refused it when it arrived because the paint is chipping all over the place and it was originally painted Kubota Orange and then painted John Deere Green. Needless to say, it will be getting sand blasted and repainted in the spring! But for right now, it will have to do, as I have to have this project finished by the First Friday in December for our local Christmas Parade. But for what I paid for it, you wont be hearing me complain. It has been sitting in there warehouse for SEVERAL years collecting dust........still on the original shipping pallet.



Since I dont have a big shop like some of you guys, I had to make do in the 12X24 building that I have, and as you can see it was kind of cramped in there (I had started cleaning it out and trying to organize it when Kimme got sick and it got pushed to the back burner)


Once I got it up on the sawhorses, I laid out the 2X8 Main Beams of the bed. They are notched so that the 2x4 crossmembers set down in the 2x8's for added strength and rigidity. All of the joints are glued with "Gorilla Snot" aka Gorilla Glue and reinforced with 3 1/2" deck screws.

Here is one of the Hickory planks that will be used for the decking and edge bands. I was originally going to use them as is...1X7 but decided that it would look better with narrower planks. So, I will be ripping them down to about 3 1/2" (or whatever the width works out to be to use full width boards and them all be the same width.


When finished, it will something similar to the one in this link...............I still havent decided on the rail design just yet.

http://www.wengers.com/display_product.asp?category=tractor_equipment&equip_type=wagons&sku=60750
 
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#2 ·
Looks good! I Wish I'd have had your plans when I built my wagon. But it works!
 
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#12 ·
Daniel.................YOU KNOW BETTER that me painting anything RED.......lol

The hickory has a funny story behind it..............I have a brother that lives in Jacksonville Florida (that is a PACKRAT) and I had asked him about getting me some Cypress wood for its rot resistant characteristics..........well it was buried under the Hickory and he was too lazy to dig it out so he brought me the Hickory. I think I could park my 430 on this trailer without ANY worries about it hurting it.

Kenny, I really didnt follow any plans........I pretty much had an idea of how I wanted it built and in the beginning I had NO PLANS of putting sides on it but since I am going to be hauling a bunch of "crumb snatching curtain climbers" around for the Christmas Parade......I figured it would be a GOOD idea to be able to keep them IN the trailer.....

Willie.......the parade is a WEEK from this Saturday.......Gonna be a PUSH for time since I still have to get some kind of Exterior Polyurethane or some kind of sealant on the wood BEFORE I fasten it down. Still have to come up with a design for the sides too and then build them.

Once I get this bed finished, I will start back on my "Silage Wagon" bed............I will have until grass cutting season next year to get it finished......so PLENTY of time to work on that one......lol
 
#13 ·
Use a Urethane coating, not Poly. The Poly is for interior and won't last a year! Can't take the sun! Look for a marine grade. That will last a long time!
 
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#16 ·
Robert I will be following this and can hardly wait for the pictures of the finished product.

I'm also interested in you plans for the silage wagon.

I have one in mind myself to haul mulch for the garden. Though I was planning a tandem trailer, possibly with walking beams and hydralic dump. Of course I would have to plumb the axuilary hydralics for my Ford to run it.
 
#17 ·
JD, the BIG hold up on the "silage wagon bed" is trying to figure out how to unload it. I have a John Deere R manure spreader that was GIVEN to me but it has been sitting out in the weather for YEARS and the chains are pretty much rusted solid. I have come up with several ideas but they require hydraulic power of some sort and the 425 that I plan to pull it with has limited hydraulic ports and I am not sure that it has the capacity to turn a hydraulic motor to run the conveyor. I have also thought about one of those "Bed unloaders" that you see that is made to unload the bed of a pickup but that means that I have to get off of the tractor and actually go back there and Crank on it........that sounds like WORK to me and cutting grass is supposed to be RELAXING.......lol I have been thinking about another option for the last few days ........an electrical motor kind of like you see on the self contained dump systems. But to be quite honest.......with everything that has been going on around here, most of my "thinking" time has been while I was at work and that makes it hard to actually put any ideas on paper to work out the "kinks" or to source parts for a particular idea. The actual bed part of it is going to be pretty easy to build. Once I get the unloading system figured out, I can build the bed to accommodate it and then the sides and roof will be square tubing and roofing sheet metal.

Just something to keep me busy during the cold winter months.............lol

I could always hook it behind the JD430 and run a pump off of the PTO but that would mean having to put the deck back under it ............NO THANKS......lol Besides.....what fun is there in doing it the "easy way"
 
#18 · (Edited by Moderator)
JD, the BIG hold up on the "silage wagon bed" is trying to figure out how to unload it. I have a John Deere R manure spreader that was GIVEN to me but it has been sitting out in the weather for YEARS and the chains are pretty much rusted solid. I have come up with several ideas but they require hydraulic power of some sort and the 425 that I plan to pull it with has limited hydraulic ports and I am not sure that it has the capacity to turn a hydraulic motor to run the conveyor. I have also thought about one of those "Bed unloaders" that you see that is made to unload the bed of a pickup but that means that I have to get off of the tractor and actually go back there and Crank on it........that sounds like WORK to me and cutting grass is supposed to be RELAXING.......lol I have been thinking about another option for the last few days ........an electrical motor kind of like you see on the self contained dump systems. But to be quite honest.......with everything that has been going on around here, most of my "thinking" time has been while I was at work and that makes it hard to actually put any ideas on paper to work out the "kinks" or to source parts for a particular idea. The actual bed part of it is going to be pretty easy to build. Once I get the unloading system figured out, I can build the bed to accommodate it and then the sides and roof will be square tubing and roofing sheet metal.

Just something to keep me busy during the cold winter months.............lol

I could always hook it behind the JD430 and run a pump off of the PTO but that would mean having to put the deck back under it ............NO THANKS......lol Besides.....what fun is there in doing it the "easy way"
Robert: Those chains can be a paint to get unfrozen. New chains should be available at Farm Supply stores On a smaller scale I think a rubber belt attatched to chains would roll out the load in a neat loaf. Much as you describe and I agree a power drive would be a serious consideration. I think you might get by with using a heavy duty automotive starter with a chain drive to drive a wide belt under the load. If needed angle Iron could be riveted to the belt for load traction..

In a previous career I had a hand in building these Hay Stackers and they were PTO Driven chain unloaders. We Sold them on the Western Plains(Colorado, North Dakota Montana Etc) where their relatively dry climate allowed loose Stacked Hay. After the hay was cut and dried, This machine ,chopped and blew the hay into the wagon forming a closely packed loaf that was simply unloaded with chains onto the ground. We also made a Stack Mover which was a flatbed trailer that picked up the loaves dropped in the field.

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#22 ·
Due to time restraints, I am going to have to change my plans on the deck. With only a week left to go and issues with my table saw, I am going to use PT 5/4 X 6 Deck boards to deck the trailer with and then when I have the time to get the hickory ripped up like I want it, sealed and ready to install I will take the PT off and use it for a platform in front of my workshop. No waste of materials and I wont have to be working like a mad man trying to get finished. I can take my time to get the Hickory Deck finished properly! I am going to route all of the edges of the railings and edges of the deck, sand them nice and smooth, coat them with several coats of Spar Urethane or whatever finish I decide to use, and then assemble it all and probably put another coat of sealant on it. That way I wont have to worry about it and I will be happy with the way that it was built. It never fails, when I get in a hurry, I do something that I regret for a long time afterwards. I have to take Kimme to Chemo on Tuesday and back to the Cardiologist on Thursday so I wont be able to get much done on those days and I plan to be loaded up Friday afternoon since I am going to have to make several trips to get all of the tractors, trailer and carts to the parade staging area Saturday morning.

I plan to get the PT deck installed tomorrow so there will be PLENTY of pictures to share!
 
#24 ·
Sounds like a good plan to me Robert.
 
#25 · (Edited by Moderator)
Well I had planned to spend the better part of the day finishing this build but forces greater than myself decided that it was going to be. Kimme is back in the hospital and I have had all of about 2 hours sleep since I got up YESTERDAY morning. I will go into those details in the prayer thread.

I did go home for a little while this afternoon for some "ME TIME" and got the trailer out of the storage building. That was HUGE feat in itself! This is the first time that it has seen daylight since I put it in there about a month or so ago.

I got it out and finished putting the "rim joist" around the outside of the deck. I just layed the decking on it just to see what it was going to look like. I went to Lowe's and bought the lumber and "THOUGHT" that I had 2" deck screws at home but found out later that they were 1 1/4" instead. so that put a screeching halt to installing the actual deck boards.

I couldnt resist unloading the 430 and pulling it around the yard a few times to take some pics. (just to show you how hectic my life has been, my 430 has been sitting on the trailer since the day I came home from the Alabama Plow day.....and that was back on Nov 12th I 'think)

I decided to pile the decking in a pile in the middle of the trailer just to take a few pics.

The trailer chassis had a hitch plate on the rear that allows me to hook other trailers to it like a train so I couldnt resist dragging out the 20 cart and hooking it up.

Here is the hitch setup.kind of hard to see though.

One last picture after I parked it for the night. Hopefully I will get away long enough to get the decking finished tomorrow and then I can start working on the sides for it. Depending on how this week goes, I might just have to TIE the kids to the trailer to keep them from falling off :bigrofl:
 
#26 · (Edited by Moderator)
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