tractor shed

[WTA]

You guys sure are good! I really have a lot to think of now. It is looking more and more like a seperate building will have to go up. I love the pavilion idea but I'm afraid it would blow away. We're on the south plains and the wind can get pretty bad. 50mph sustained all day with 80mph gusts are nothing for us.

Bearhawk. Thanks a lot for doing that picture. If we do add on that's about what it will be after looking at it. I have to talk to the boss now and see what she will let me do.

 

[David Ferguson]

Bearhawk -- that is exactly what I was trying to suggest!

 

[bearhawk]

Bearhawk -- that is exactly what I was trying to suggest!

I know, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thank Google Sketchup for the visualization tool.

 

[RobJ]

Maybe like this?

Pretty much it. If you want to keep the new and old area separated, keep the existing rear wall in the garage, it's a nice support for the new roof to. Or you want to open it up, with the width of the 3 car garage you might have to add a post in the middle to support 2 beams. Put the beams(IE header, joists) in the attic and keep a full 8' ceiling between the 2.

My guess is you would need some support for the longer rafters, average garage depth is 20-22', you probably want to add another 10' at least (12' probably won't cost more because of lumber dimentions, 8' extension is the smaller magic number).

It's a weekend project!!

 

[WTA]

I think my wife made up my mind for me about the shed. She said I want to build a new one next to our horse barn in the back yard.

I guess I'll just copy that building but make it taller and much longer. I have a few telephone poles and can get more easy enough to put enough poles in to hold it secure. I will have to store my hay in the building she has in mind too. That makes me a little nervous keeping it in the same building as my tractor.
My last boss owned a big auto auction here and one weekend he had a few hundred bales of johnson grass hay stored in the auction barn. Along with a hot rod 65 GMC 4x4 I had built for him and several of the higher end cars that were to go through the auction.

Total loss!

I showed up as the firemen were just arriving and they all stood around looking at the fire. I had to tel one of them to go grab the bull dozer and push the hay stack out while the others kept several solid streams going on it. They wouldn't let me do it for "liability reasons" they said. No matter that I've fought more fires than they have seen on tv. These volunteers around here are why I have my own fire hoses at various places around the house and shop.

 

[RobJ]

Bad loss, what was the cause of the fire? You can build a wall to separate the hay from the tractor side.

But I gotta ask? Yall grow Johnson grass to bale? I thought that was a unwanted weed. Or at least it was in the cotton fields of Mississippi. Around East Texas most folks like a clean coastal or bahaigrass field.

 

[WTA]

My old boss was the only one I ever knew to do that with Johnson grass. I think it used to be an alfalfa field that got taken over. I spent a lot of time last year on my farm trying to get rid of a couple patches of it.

He has a large horse boarding operation and feeds it to some of the horses though. Go figure. I feed mine good quality alfalfa and bermuda hay that we grow and charge a quarter the amount that he does but I don't have any boarders right now and he has close to 30 that I know of. I'll never figure this business out.

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't know how much space you have where the trailer is, or behind it, but I'd add on where you have the livestock trailer parked.

I would change the roofline and make it big enough for your tractor to pull in easy. If you have the space, I'd make it as long as possible. 40 feet at least, but maybe 60ft or more. It's something that you can do easily in stages and over time.

The beaty of this type of building is that if you build it a certain length, you can easily add on to it to make it longer!!! Just set more poles and start framing off the back. Take down the back wall and rebuild it at the end after building the extended walls. Theoretically, you could make it as long as you have land.

With an existing building, it's cheaper and easier to add onto what you already have then starting fresh on a stand alone building. Pole construction would be the fastest, cheaperst and easiest. If you keep the width so something simple like 24 feet or less, then the roof trusses are also very straightforward. That would give you plenty of room for a 16 foot wide door that you can make as tall as you want it to be. Measure your tractors height and add two feet. Then add another foot for the header and you will know how tall to make the walls. Taller is always better, but that should really be plenty.

Then if you find you need more room down the road, you could easily add on to it again by mirroring what you already have on the other side. When done, this will give you all sorts of room for storage and working. It's a design that allows you to slowly add on to it and make it about as big as you want.

I took your picture and erased parts of it to show what I have in mind and what I would do if it was up to me.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Lloyd_E]

WTA,

Continuing with nasty's concept. I would go to right of garage. Add an addition with a little more height. The look reinforces the 'ranch style'.

You could leave it as a car port or build walls and add garage doors for trailer, tractor etc.

Congrats on your second tractor purchase - how did you hide it from the 'misses'?

Lloyd

 

[WTA]

That's really good. I wish I could get away with something like that.

I have to find out if we are required to leave an easement here. That side is my property line about 25 feet from the side of the garage. That would look great though.