Building my tractor bridge across the creek

[deezler]

^ haha yeah you're seeing it correctly Eddie. I probably should have had the poles a touch closer together, but the reason for this is: I also wanted to be able to drive my truck over the bridge, and possibly also including pulling a dump trailer behind me. Plus my neighbors tractor is larger and wider than mine, and I also hope to upgrade to a larger machine at some point. So I needed to balance the pole positions for a variety of vehicle track widths. I wanted the bridge to be at least 9 feet wide, but wouldn't feel too safe about cantilevering these 2x6s by multiple feet outside the poles.

The best solution would have been to have 5 poles going across instead of just 3, but whatcha gonna do.

 

[deezler]

Deezler, enjoyed reading this bridge build and great job on posting the pictures. Quick question for you can you please tell me where you got the tooth-bar for the bucket? Thanks, Stanley

I bought mine off ebay several years back. Pretty sure the manufacturer was "Iowa Farms", but I'm not seeing them on an ebay search now. A broader google search found this site selling them:
Bucket Tooth Bars: Skid Steers, Tractors: Lifetime Tooth Bar!

I did snap a single tooth off the first bar I bought from them, which they promptly replaced for me. Highly recommended! I could barely dig anything in hard pack soil with my blunt bucket edge before adding this bar. It's also great for hanging chain from when lifting things, such as my bridge poles!

 

[srs]

I bought mine off ebay several years back. Pretty sure the manufacturer was "Iowa Farms", but I'm not seeing them on an ebay search now. A broader google search found this site selling them:
Bucket Tooth Bars: Skid Steers, Tractors: Lifetime Tooth Bar!

I did snap a single tooth off the first bar I bought from them, which they promptly replaced for me. Highly recommended! I could barely dig anything in hard pack soil with my blunt bucket edge before adding this bar. It's also great for hanging chain from when lifting things, such as my bridge poles!

Thank you.

 

[fried1765]

Thank you.

I bought the teeth on-line, (E-Bay maybe?) and had mine custom made by a local welding guy.
Any number of teeth/spacing I wanted.
Worked out great!

 

[3gunr]

Great looking bridge. i have been planning one similar to yours, but my creek is more like 8 ft deep. My cub cadet 7260 looks exactly like yours.

 

[airbiscuit]

I like your creek, your bridge, your frugality and your son's adventures. The feature I've seen with others who have built bridges is spacing the stringers at (typical) wheel width. That way you don't have to worry about falling through the decking. If you could have scrounged up another length of telephone pole, you would have had 4 stringers, 2 right at wheel width.

Nice job though.

 

[Bearsixty7]

I like your creek, your bridge, your frugality and your son's adventures. The feature I've seen with others who have built bridges is spacing the stringers at (typical) wheel width. That way you don't have to worry about falling through the decking. If you could have scrounged up another length of telephone pole, you would have had 4 stringers, 2 right at wheel width.

Nice job though.

My thoughts exactly on a 4th telephone pole ,and everything else too! :thumbsup:

 

[tigers2007]

Does it freeze where you’re at? I’d be concerned with lateral sliding. A 4x4 on each side could help.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Re: Starting the Decking

I have to do exactly the same, telephone poles over the creek. My creek is a bit wider, banks higher and my tractor is a MX with a bh so, kinda heavy! Next summer I will be asking questions!

I happen to have a duke power easement, 2 acres, about 250 yards x 75 yards. Im building a driving range.

The duke guy was out there so I said hi, what's up.

Turns out they replace the power line poles every so often and I have 2 that are coming down.

I asked, can I buy the poles, appx 50 ft each. He said they would give them to me!

What I forgot to ask was........when?

 

[deezler]

Thanks gents.

A 4th pole could do as y'all say, but then you would have to remember not to drive down the exact center of the bridge (assuming I spaced them out uniformly across the bridge width). 5 would be best. But, I didn't have any more.

I think what I might end up doing is adding an extra 2x12" deck board on top on each side, going across the bridge spaced right at the tractor tire track width, if it ever seems like my 2x6 decking is starting to get sketchy. This will add yet more dead weight to the bridge, but help spread the load out over multiple 2x6 decking rows as I drive across.

The other thing I had considered doing was buying a pair of treated 16' 6x6 posts to use as additional beams going across, probably on the outer edges, but that would have been expensive and a little complicated logistically (hauling them home on my 12' trailer, or paying for delivery, and then my bridge abutment walls would have had to be located ~a foot closer together, too.)