quad timber trailer build

[DN22 Gardening]

Hi all,

 

Well the travelling, caravan dwelling, tarmac laying, transit driving, gits have spoilt it for us.

 

Been looking after a wood for a very good client, thinning, etc.

There's no vehicular access from their property but we did a deal with a neighbouring farmer to access through one of his fields ( 2 loads of split seasoned h/wood logs, cheap in my opinion).

However, last saturday night / sunday morning at approx 5.30am a transit was picked up on their cctv, driving across the field, through the gap in the hedge we'd cut (removing our temp fence) and three guys moving toward the house.

Fortunately they've got magic eye alarms surrounding the property and the intruders set these off before getting anywhere near to stealing anything.

UNfortunately, its spooked the client and his wife resulting in them asking us to permanently fence the gap and replant the hedge with as large Hawthorne specimens as possible. (Job done everyone happy)

 

The problem this leaves us with is the fact that we've got approx. 30 tons of cord on the floor, plus another god knows how much still to fell.

 

We've got quad access across their lawn so i'm going to get a small (ish) timber trailer built. ideally to carry about 500 / 750 kg's

 

My problem is, i can't decide between single or twin axle, suspension units or floatation tyres, pure quad trailer, or hybrid quad / road.

 

It would be handy to have a trailer for jobs when the timbers too nice to log to get back to the yard for milling ( got the design drawn for adding a 12v winch for loading), but would this compromise its 'wood going' properties?

 

Not too concerned about ripping the lawn up with the twin axles as the 2 acre lawn gives us plenty of scope for long sweeping turns.

 

 

Ideas please

[timtree81]

I use one of these , not so good for lengths but great for rounds

[monkeybusiness]

Have a look/chat with these people - they look good value to me and are willing to adapt designs around your wishes (they were when i spoke to them anyway)!

TCF ENGINEERING - tcfengineeringnew

[agrimog]

why not look at setting up a skyline and save a lot of hassle, allows you to take your logs out with no ground damage, and if you do it right you could even still take it out over the hedge and into your field

[DN22 Gardening]

Hi Timtree.

We've got a cracking little box trailer for the quad already, carries nearly a ton of rounds, but trying to get the cord out in lengths for the processor.

 

Monkeybusiness.

 

Quick price so far a twin axle (indespnsion units) built to our design c/w ramps for the quad to sit on the trailer for transport to and from site is around the £1000 area.

This is from the local agg. engineer who shares the yard with us.

Cant see TCF getting anywhere near that.

 

Aggrimog.

 

the skyline would have to be about 500/600 mts long, up a slight hill, round a corner, and up a small set of stairs.

we had thought about ringing it all up and renting one of the roofers conveyors to get it over the hedge and into one of our tractor trailers but i'm trying to cut manual handling down as much as possible.

 

thanks for the ideas / help so far guys

[Pumpy]

I use a similar trailer to the pic above, it started life as a tipping AG2000, someone had removed the electric tipping & brake mechs, presumably too slow, it's easy to tip by hand. It didn't come with the sides either.

 

I welded some 2" box to each corner so I could slip some 2 1/4" box removable posts over each corner, I fixed plywood sides to the posts, and had the front n back boards on the spring loaded hinges, so they could fold down or fix up on drop catches, or be removed leaving the sides on. I can also remove all the sides and slip a section of old steel scaffold tower on each end into the welded box looking a bit like a bedstead. I can load it as a box trailer, a flatbed, or have cord lengthways or smaller lengths sideways. I cut my cord in multiples of my desired log length so there's no left over bits.

 

I can easy get over a ton on it, it'll take more but it doesn't like to stop if I do

 

HTH.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Pumpy

[hiluxstihl]

quad + uphill = not great in my experience! i found a tracked dumper far better but wouldnt like a lawn much! i would definately use the walking beam system for the wheels, thus it could be illegal on the road... check out the avestawagen and the vahva jussi for ideal machinery

[Dan Curtis]

I built this for less than £60 quid, plus the odd bit of scrap materials I had lying about. It's taken over a tonne before now. The front bolster is adjustable depending on your timber length, the high sides are an addition from today (scrap sofa-bed frame). Being single axle and grass tyres it's pretty good at leaving lawns intact.

 

It'll tow behind a 4x4 or quad, or by moving the axle to the middle and adding a handle, you've got a large arb-trolley type affair.

[Dan Curtis]

An earlier version is here;

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/49841-arbor-trolley-eat-your-heart-out.html

[DN22 Gardening]

nice one Dan.

 

can't beat that for the price