Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span

   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #1  

mattg43

New member
Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Messages
21
Location
DFW, TX
Tractor
Kubota L3130 HST
Good day! I have some property with a winding dry/wet weather creek that I need to cross with the tractor. I can cross on the east side of the property, but I dont always want to have to drive the extra distance to get around to the west side of the property.

Here on the western side, the area I want to cross is at the edge of the property the creek starts going north/south, so the crossing area I need to span is closer to 35ft, and is about 4ft deep. The creek bed itself in this area is widely spread, and not very deep, but I want to get up above the whole water shed area and onto solid ground on both sides, and that portion of the property is only cleared about 15ft wide with lots of trees, so I cannot simply move over and cross the creek directly without removing several trees.

The creek bed is dry most of the year (and all summer long), so I have plenty of time to consider options, and I have been kicking around ideas from finding an old semi trailer to drop in place (havent had much luck for less than several thousand bucks), trying to find some old power poles and lay them across, as well as finding some steel I beams to use.

Then the other day an idea struck, and I wanted to get thoughts on it, or what may be the best way to move forward.

What about using pallet racking shelves? I can dig and pour some "footings" out of concrete, sinking the supports into those a bit every 10-12 ft, and then get shelf supports (ones I have been looking at are 144", 4400 or 5700lb per pair.

If I did this with supports every 12 ft for the "uprights", cut off at the height of the bridge, then ran two parallel about 2 ft apart (assuming 3ft wide racking), that would give me a ~8ft wide bridge, with 4 support beams spaced out, and should have a theoretical load of about 11k lbs. Then top with material to make it a solid bridge, and use it to cross with a tractor (about 5klbs with loader and brush hog or box blade, etc).

So what are the thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on how to do this, or what will or wont work with the above ideas?

Best,

Matt
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #2  
Before I cobbled one up out of pallet racking I'd seriously look harder for a semi trailer first. Need to get one at an auction. Steel ones aren't in high demand and go cheaper. I bought a 48' Great Dane flatbed road worthy with current tags / title fully fully functioning brakes and lights that I only had to replace one tire on for $3500 at an auction about six months ago. They aren't hard to find you just need to do a little searching and pay attention to the auction calendars. There was a steel yard liquidating not long ago near here that had probably 100 plus that all sold cheap cheap.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks Dusty, that would be my preferred method, but all I have found so far were about 3x that price in decent shape, or very poor shape around $4-5k (bad tires, stripped, needed to be hauled on trailer).

Were you looking at individual auction sites, or something like tractorhouse.com or another site that pulls from multiple locations?
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #4  
I look at them all but Proxibid is a good one to check every few weeks.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #5  
I would go with the trailer, 35 ft is huge span to guess at load capacity
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #6  
At the very least, find out how those pallet racks are rated. They may be a "distributed load" rating, IE, evenly loaded over the full length. Your loading would be more of point loading near the mid-length, which would have a lower rating. Designed in safety factor is something else to consider.

And those closed components might rust out from the inside eventually.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #7  
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #8  
Based on your description, is there any reason a series of culverts wouldn't work?
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #9  
Before I cobbled one up out of pallet racking I'd seriously look harder for a semi trailer first. Need to get one at an auction. Steel ones aren't in high demand and go cheaper. I bought a 48' Great Dane flatbed road worthy with current tags / title fully fully functioning brakes and lights that I only had to replace one tire on for $3500 at an auction about six months ago. They aren't hard to find you just need to do a little searching and pay attention to the auction calendars. There was a steel yard liquidating not long ago near here that had probably 100 plus that all sold cheap cheap.
we have a guy near me giving a steel 53' dry van away for free.
Would make a great bridge.
Kicker is not road worthy so the cost is having the right equipment / person to move it.
Maybe you can find similiar near you.

Also heard old mobile home frames can work for light bridges like atv/snowmobile clubs.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span
  • Thread Starter
#10  
The trailer is the best option, but best options and availability and ability to get here are part of the problem. I have a couple family members with CDL's that drive or drove and could haul, but I dont know when they may be available...
I hadnt even thought of a culvert, to be honest, based on the size - but im looking now and that may actually be the easiest and cheapest option as well! Off to the drawing bench again!
 

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