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
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