How should I build it?

[Aviatordave]

Hey folks,

I’m noodling over what kind of a trailer to build to pull behind my JD sub compact. It’s about 25hp with lawn tires on it. I’ve got a small Craftsman trailer that’ll hold enough split wood for one good bon fire to sit around but that’s about it. I’ve also got a 5x10’ utility trailer for pulling down the road. I’m looking to build something in between for the tractor to pull around the property. I live on about 10 thickly wooded acres that constantly needs attention whether
it’s clearing paths or dealing with dead and down stuff or cutting down the occasional tree and hauling the pieces away. I’m thinking about something along the lines of a 4x6’ trailer that’s not too heavy but I’m not stuck on that size. Maybe permanent walls or removable in case I need a flat bed for stuff that may hang over the edge. I’ve got the tools and the skills to build just about anything. The big limiting factor for now seems to be the horse power of the tractor and the wooded terrain.

Have any of you bought or built something along these lines? What did you wind up with? How did you put it to work? What kind of axel did you use? What kind of tires? Does it dump? I’m interested in hearing about your experiences!

-Dave

 

[bigtiller]

Go to Northern Tool and buy a 2000 pound running gear and build the bed with deck boards and dimensional lumber.
kind of like this.

 

[js5020]

Like you I think 4x6 would be a nice size trailer for a sub compact or compact tractor. I looked into MUTS trailers, King Kutter, and other options but every one had things that I wanted or didn't want so I had decided I would just build my own. My plan was 4x6 bed, powered dump, single axle basically. I'm about 2 weeks out from ordering materials and the estimated costs were around 800 to 1000 dollars? As it would happen one of my quad riding buds had a home made single axle 5x12 trailer in good shape that was no longer being used since he bought a new tandem axle 20',,, 100 bux and I have everything needed to construct a 5x6 single axle dump, soon as I get to it I'll be starting a thread on the build.

 

[jaxs]

I was full of ideas after reading you posts and not seeing any mention of budget constraints,,,,,,,,,then boom,there it was,$100 trailer to recycle. I don't blame you,I salvage and recycle on a regular basis. I've built several using old boat trailers. Here's my thoughts. For use off road,I like torsion axles for the extra ground clearance while keeping deck low to ground. To help prevent side/fender hang-ups while weaving through trees,I put low profile tires beneath deck and build drive over fenders (add's usable width as well). I'm a fan of removable sides so in order to follow above plan for a slick side without anything to get hung on trees,I put stake pockets inside the side rail. Heavy angle iron does double duty as skid rail and deck frame. Dump bed is very pratical because after hand loading firewood,tree trimmings and trash,it can be dumped,not to mention how much easier it is to drag heavy objects onto deck if it's tilted. I can usually find better quality 1" treated material than what's available in 2x so I use 1" for deck.
As admitted from the beginning,I salvage and recycle to afford projects. Around here,free boats are plentful so I occasionally take one if it has a good trailer. I've been experimenting with motor trim and tilt units as power on small dump trailers. There's room for improvement so I'd be interested in what others have to say on the subject of low budget dump power. I'm still tweaking. One system I use trims to start picking bed up then finish with tilt cylinders. The other system use's 2 short but large bore cylinders to partly lift bed then finish with long cylinders.