home made bale trailer

[Renze]

We had a customer, a drainage contractor, that was too tight to pay for a registration fee when he bought a new 2 axle trailer, 20 years ago, to pull behind his Landrover. Since a few years, all trailers above 750 kg need to be tagged and licensed.
Because this trailer was never registered and therefor had no chassis number, it could not get license plates. Customer got a fine for overloading his 750 kg trailer (everything with no license plates nowadays is concidered max. 750 kg by the cops) and in the end, he ordered a new trailer from us. (he is still tight, we built a new trailer but he insisted on transplanting the old axles and turntable to the new one, to cut cost)

Anyways, to make a long story short, i got myself a nice trailer deck of 6x2 meter, for only 25 euro. Later, i bought an undercarriage of an old manure spreader, with a walking tandem on 10-15 tires.

I am building a bale trailer out of it, by welding a bridge underneath the chassis, to beef it up from 2 ton to 6 ton.
Though this deck used to be a 2 axle turntable steered trailer with surge brakes, I chose to go with the walking tandem, and about 1000kg tongue load, for several reasons:
1000 kg tongue weight allows me to pull of with 2 bale wagons in the field, without damaging the sod from spinning tractor wheels, it gives easier control of the wagon if you back it up through a muddy, rutted field, and it is safer when there are no trailer brakes.
Also, i can build it lower because the wheels stay in the same position, and dont have to turn underneath the frame beams.

It has a deck height of 87 cm, so i can stack 4 rows of big silage or straw bales, and still be within the legal height limit.
Also its much easier when loading a wagon by hand, and a lower center of gravity makes it more stable.


The undercarriage is a walking tandem, from an old manure spreader. As soon as i brought this manure spreader home, i cut the body off and sold it to the scrap trader.
The tongue and axles are separated now, each individually mounted to the frame because of the longer wheelbase.

The original trailer had 185R13 tires, so i had to move the main frame beam closer together where the tandem is located, to make room for the much wider 10-15 tires.

The original chassis was built from square tube 80x80x3mm, way too light for my intended use. I built a space frame under it, with another lengthwise tube 80x50x4, and lots of gussets.

This afternoon i mounted the drawbar and took her for a ride in the spring sun, to take some photos.

 

[Renze]

again the photo of 3011 and bale trailer, just this time horizontally

Building the space frame from tubes and gussets is labour intensive, but it gives a lot of strength with little weight: With todays steel prices, every saving is welcome, and reducing the empty weight increases the payload, and transport efficiency.

I need to weld in some reinforcements here and there, and beef up the drawbar to be able to transfer the intended 1000kg tongue load to the tractor.
When its done, it will get a bituminous underbody coating, a new 18mm epoxy plywood floor, the deck side Zetor green paint, and the rims Zetor red paint.

 

[wushaw]

That is a beefy mid section you fabbed up there.....Cool

 

[chh]

Very neat looking job. It looks like it should serve you well.

 

[irwin]

Looks good Renze! Just a mention, I'm sure you took care of it already. In this pic there's a weld missing behind(?) the nearer wheel, bottom of the v shaped support square tube.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...d1207427273-home-made-bale-trailer-afb006.jpg

Great project, better price.

 

[Renze]

Looks good Renze! Just a mention, I'm sure you took care of it already. In this pic there's a weld missing behind(?) the nearer wheel, bottom of the v shaped support square tube.

Yes, i noticed that when uploading the photos... Missed it while making them
Will do that tonight after work.
.... Would that be what they call "photo welding" in the offshore industry ??

 

[Renze]

i did some work on my trailer again:
I took it out into the daylight, not just to make some good pictures for you guys, but also to get a better idea of what i was seeing was correct:

Yes i did see something: The right side is hanging down 2 inches... when moving the main beam aside to make room for the bigger wheels, i didnt weld it back straight. This is only a wagon to haul bales through the mud, but being a trailer builder by profession, this shouldnt be acceptable to me..

I decided to cut it and reweld it under tension. After i cut it, jacked the rear up and supported the front, the grinder slice didnt close... After i took a chain tensioner (normally used on lowdecks to secure 40 ton excavators) and spanned it to the max (the chain was so tight that slightly tapping a hammer against it, didnt even make it vibrate !!) the rear end was finally moving up a little.
I made 2 cuts, and welded them both. When the welds cool down they shrink a little, so this gave it a bit of extra tension after i stretched that chain tensioner to the max.

When measuring again, the difference in height is only 2 centimeter. This is acceptable to me, because you must know it before you see it.


In the rest of the photos, you can see i made a rear trailer hitch (to hook up another, turntable steered trailer behind it) and welded an extra longitudinal tube in the middle, to support the quite weak crossmembers.
I welded some tubes to accept the torsion forces of steering the tandem axles, and they also help overcome the weakest part of the frame: the bend above the walking tandem pivot shaft.

I hope to get it painted with bituminous silo paint this week, and put on a new deck of 18mm plywood, premium quality Finnish birch.

 

[irwin]

Very nice, thanks for taking the time to post pictures. and for explaining the process. looks great...

 

[KYErik]

Nice job on the trailer!

Just out of curiosity- in the 4th picture of the last set you posted, what type of roof covering does the house on the right have? The one that is covered with moss? It almost looks like a smooth roof, and the coloration is interesting... is it a multicolored slate?

 

[Renze]

Ha ha i was already expecting comments about the houses in the back ground, because they are quite Dutch and not what you'd see in America...

The house on the left is our neighbor's house. You might find that type of house elsewhere in the world.
The house on the right is our house, built in the traditional local style. it has a reed roof. The house was totally redone, with new windows, and partially a new roof, in 1986 when i was just a little kid.

At this time the reed is running on its last legs, it has surrendered to the elements of nature and is simply beginning to ROT. In 1986 the layer was between 22 and 25 centimeter (9 to 10 inches) but it deteriorates over time, depending on the amount of sun (to stop moss and dry it as soon as possible)
We have cut some big trees that kept the roof in the shade. This will give the new roof about 20 years more life expectancy.
Our neighbour, age 79, has the most traditional house/cattle barn in the area: his reed was renewed 5 years ago. It had been sitting since the 50's, because his house has no shadow trees nearby.

The reed layer contractor has been called last year, but he is a dying breed, and has more work than he can get done. We hope to get him in April, and we also hope to get some of the governmental subsidy on traditional reed roofs to take about 30% of the costs

 

[kbuegel]

Actually the road was what caught my attention. The herringbone brick pattern is nice, but a brick road is very expensive in the US. But I've been considering building a brick road because we can probably make decent bricks on our property due to the amount of sand we have.

But your trailer looks great, and very practicle. I agree, the increased tongue weight should help keep it from sinking in soft soil. I think its not common because of the pain of getting the trailer on and off the hitch with all the weight on the tongue. But once its on there, it should tow very nicely.

Did you hook it up to your drawbaw on your tractor? Or did you consider using a bar across the lower arms of your 3-pt hitch? Since you can raise and lower the 3-pt, it may make the hitching process quicker and easier, and I think it can take the weight.

 

[bigballer]

is that a norwegian fjord in the background? nice looking horse, my friend has 3 of them.. good on the trails, they have stamina..

 

[Renze]

Actually the road was what caught my attention. The herringbone brick pattern is nice, but a brick road is very expensive in the US.

I know brick roads are much more common in Europe, especially Holland.
Over here, the local town municipality usually pave asphalt over old brick roads because its costly to repave by hand because of the labour involved.
The best thing about the brick pavement is that if you buy it used, it will hold its value. second hand concrete or asphalt is worth nothing, you have to pay to get rid of it. Its also easy to repave when you need a street drain or electric fencing cable to go underneath. Or even when heavy trucks drive ruts in it after some years.

The road i live on used to be a dirt road but was paved 15 years ago, asphalt would be cheaper but it would be very impractical, because all utility lines (gas, water, electricity) run more or less in the middle of the road, because of all the big oaks on both sides, the middle of the road was easiest to dig back then. With bricks, the utility lines stay accessible without destroying pavement.

I agree, the increased tongue weight should help keep it from sinking in soft soil. I think its not common because of the pain of getting the trailer on and off the hitch with all the weight on the tongue. But once its on there, it should tow very nicely.

That is also a difference in common practice on your side of the Pond: In America you see many turntable steered silage trailers. In Holland you'd see none, because tandems are easier to back up on old narrow farm yards, give increased traction on soft soil because of the tongue weight.
Most commercial manure tankers nowadays, have so much tongue weight that they are using a hydraulic cylinder connected to the point where normally the 3pt hitch top link is, to distribute the load to the front axle.
This to transfer even more weight from the dead trailer axles, to the driven tractor axles.

Most bale trailers over here are still turntable steered, but i chose to build it this way, because i can build it lower: A tandem has the axles in a fixed position, so i can put the crossmembers in such manner that the tires can pivot all the way up to the underside of the floor. With a turntable steered trailer, i would have to add the height of the frame rails to the floor height because the axle on the turntable, would have to be able to turn underneath the frame rails...

I find it easier to hook up this trailer, than our other turntable steered 2 axle trailer: With this tandem i can turn the parking stand to height, back up the tractor, slip the pin into the drawbar and turn the parking stand up...
with turntable steering, the drawbar triangle would require man muscle to lift to drawbar height, and to push it aside into the drawbar mouth.... (or an extra man, to hold the drawbar triangle while the other backs up the tractor)

Another reason for me, is that i dont have brakes on the trailer: A tandem cannot jack knife when the tractor wheels block, or when you back up an empty trailer through the mud and the front wheels just slide away...

Transferring weight to the tractor would bring 1000 kg to the tractor, and take that off the tandem: Its not just the floatation, but also: When i try to take off with 2 bale wagons, the tires spin because they dont have enough traction. With another ton of wheel load, i have a lot more traction, so i can take off easy with the old turntable 2 axle trailer hooked behind my new tandem...

Did you hook it up to your drawbaw on your tractor? Or did you consider using a bar across the lower arms of your 3-pt hitch? Since you can raise and lower the 3-pt, it may make the hitching process quicker and easier, and I think it can take the weight.

I dont like towing on the 3pt hitch, because the carrying point is so far behind the rear axle: It will bounce like an idiot and make it drift all over the road. Not really a safe way to hook up 2 trailers with 12 tons of bales to your tractor

My plan was to build a pickup hitch, as is standard equipment in the UK and scandinavia. It is operated by the 3pt hitch, and once its up, it is locked in place by a latch. Its closer to the rear axle, so safer to tow.

 

[Renze]

is that a norwegian fjord in the background? nice looking horse, my friend has 3 of them.. good on the trails, they have stamina..

Yes i think its a fjord, but i'm not the horse guy... My brother lives next door, and has stables for rent... He gets the money, i just take care of the logistics (getting silage into the yard, taking horse sh*t out )
We have about 30 of them GrassDiesels now, of which 15 or 20 owned, the rest are stable guests...

 

[Renze]

I used the new trailer for the first time yesterday, to bring home 7 heavy wet bales of silage that we bought on the other side of the county.
I just threw the old plywood floor back on it to have a temporary deck.

It tows nice, and you can take off at full torque with no wheelspin due to the tongue weight. Because of the walking tandem, it runs as nice as the other 2 axle leaf spring trailer...
I just have to make sure to take wide turns on grassland due to the tandem friction...

After i got home, i hooked it onto the 3011 to see how it would take the tongue weight: I think i have to reinforce the drawbar, but it runs very smooth and the 3011 keeps the front wheels on the ground. When i braked very hard, the deceleration was very good, without blocking the tractor wheels !!

Later that day i went cultivating the horse pastures, for reseeding.
I attached the pictures to give you an idea of the size of the 3011, and because its just a beautiful scene.

 

[Renze]

Project completed: in this post, the last pictures:

I sprayed the wheels with a red colour of an old PZ mower we had at least 15 years ago... It might be 20 years ago that this mower got painted, but the 20 year old paint was still good so i used this half a can for the wheels.

I bought a 1 liter can of zinc phosphate based paint, because this sticks better to the galvanised side rails of the trailer.
The underside is painted with black varnish, a bitumen based product, alike car underbody coating from Tectyl, only black varnish looks like paint and not like molten plastic
I put on a new deck of 18mm coated plywood, and also put black varnish on the cutting edges where i sawed the sheets to size.

a friend of mine offered to mount the lights, an offer i'll gladly accept because i hate wires

 

[bake321]

Renze, enjoyed your post, I'm looking at the land of my fore fathers.

Bake

 

[case685]

Renze Really enjoyed your post too! My parents emigrated to Canada back in the 50's. My mother from Flakkee were her father grew beets and potatoes and my dad from Steenbergen were his father was a blacksmith. Gerry

 

[Renze]

Just in case you miss it the curve in the road on the most right part of this photo:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...d1210256394-home-made-bale-trailer-afb003.jpg

is where this photo is taken:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...d1207427968-home-made-bale-trailer-afb004.jpg


the first picture was taken at 5th of april, the latter at 3rd of may: You can see how only a month of time, changes the trees.

 

[case685]

Renze Beautiful looking farm you have there. Looks like spring is off to a good start. Ours has been warm and dry but we have had a couple good rains lately. Our trees have started budding this past week so were a little behind you. Gerry