Building a Box Extender for XUV

[nmu98]

My township delivers free wood chips and I put them around the new trees I plant in my woods. They are also very useful for my rasberries and other stuff that is on the back of my 40. I have been using the tractor to load them in the XUV and taking them out. The issue is the amount of them I can take at one time.

I have been thinking of building a "box" out of OSB that would be 40" high, 45.5" wide and have some sort of removable gate. the XUV dump bed is 40" plus an 8" gate. I was thinking of building the new box insert out past that by about 20" or so. I would tie the box insert to the dump bed in the stake holes.

Anyone built anything like this or have pictures?

 

[2fast2]

You must be my twin. Your picture in your avatar even looks like me!
I've been thinking of doing the exact same thing for the exact same reason with the exact same machine. Only difference is I am making my own chips with my Wallenstein BX62 as our county doesn't provide them.
I haven't started yet, but I was thinking of using hinges to attach the front edges to the sides and not use a back so I wouldn't have to deal with the dumping problem and the hinges would allow it to fold up when removed. Tradeoff is less capacity without a back. I was thinking of having the sides fit down inside the box and use a simple bracket design to slide down into the stake pockets to hold it in place, then maybe a ratchet strap to hold the whole thing down so it doesn't flip out.
Now I'm wondering whether I like the idea of 4 sides better. In that case I'm thinking of a hinge design for the rear side with an "axle" across the top, connecting to the two rear corners of the sides, to support the top edge of the rear and allow it to swing out when dumping. The rear would hang down enough to tuck inside the gate to keep it shut, then when the gate was released for dumping, it would allow the rear to swing open to dump.
One problem with my whole idea is that I have the insert bedliner which has a little curve where the side meets the bottom and I'm not sure how well the whole thing would fit anyway.
I hope somebody else has already worked this out and will share their experiences so we can learn from them.
Good thread.

 

[nmu98]

well, I sat down last night and figured it out.... I am going to use 1/2 osb for the bottom, sides, and front. I plan to use 2x2's to frame the edges to glue and screw the osb to. The "gate" is going to be super simple. I an basically going to put 2 strips of 2x2's in and slide the gate on from the top. Since its only wood chips I will be able to get it off easy. The rear gate is going to be some 3/4 flooring I have laying around.

The box will be held in the XUV box with a strap that goes around the front of the XUV box. The total length of my box is going to be 72" as long as it wont hit the ground when I dump it...

Should cost me about 30 dollars to build... Then I can also use it for my chicks next year also.... I will post pics this weekend.... I need to move about 40 yards of chips now so I need to get moving....