I own 14 trailers and not one of them is really well suited for moving logs. The ones with high capacity axles are either too wide or too tall. The narrow, low ones only have one axle, etc., etc. So I'm headed to the shop to build a narrow(5') low one with 4" channel and 14000 lb axles. I hate to re-invent the wheel, however, so I'm seeking ideas and pictures if available.
TIA, Quinton
I built my own logg trailer for the same reasons you decribed.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=14452.0
IT WORKS GREAT!
I finished getting it decked last week and will try to get some pics up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12216/logt4.JPG)
This is not all what you where asking about, in fact it is just the oposite. I don't go after a whack, I just saw a little for myself (99% of my logs are delivered) and do a little custom. I kept getting calls from people with 1 or 2 logs they had to get rid of and it was a pain to load up the skidsteer and big trailer for 1 or 2 logs. Or I would get a call from a guy wanting 1 log sawed, but no way to move it, could I come get it? I passed on alot of sawing 'cause I wouldn't drive an hour to saw for 1/2 hour. Now I just tell them come get the trailer and bring me the log. Or if I get the call for 1 or 2 free logs down come get them, I just buzz out with this little dude and pick them up.
It is an old propane moving trailer that sets 6" off the ground and tilts flat to the ground. I put the arch overhead with a roller on top. There is a place at the tounge an electric winch hooks to. I just throw the cable over the roller on the arch and wrap the end of the log. The winch picks it up onto a long roller on the end of the trailer. Then I straight hook the cable and drag it on. There is another strap winch on the side, I just strap it down and go. No more tearing up yards going after them with a tractor or skidsteer, just back up to it and load it.
I have hauled many 16' log with it. It is 36" between the riser bars of the arch so I can get a decent sized one on. Even if my cheap winch won't do it, if I chock the tires good enough and get a bite with the 4x4 I can drag them on since the trailer tilts and it has the roller at the back. It is rolling weight.
Daren,
I love that trailer, perfect for urban lumber. 8)
I echo rebocardo. I love that trailer. Now to find an old propane tank trailer ???
That's a nice trailer, Daren, for road work. Is that something you have to license? Should you be concerned about liability lettin' it out? Don't want to be a downer but wouldn't want someone else's goof up blamed on my equipment. Maybe I'm just touchy that way............ :-\
Lud, I live in the boonies more or less. Stick an orange triangle sign on it and it is "farm equipment". Go down the road around here and there are more unlicensed vehicles (tractors, buggies, grain wagons, hay wagons...) on the road that cars. I have let the town Sheriff borrow it to go get a log for firewood, he has also used my unlicensed utility trailer :D . I ain't (maybe I should be) worried about liablity, everybody borrows everybody elses stuff around here. There isn't a locked door in this town, and everybody leaves the keys in their trucks just in case someone needs to borrow it. I have an old truck with a dump bed I have not filled up with gas for months, I look out and it is gone, pretty soon it comes back used but with a full tank ;). I don't let total strangers use the trailer, but they would not know I had it anyway unless I told them. The "out of towners" that use it are other woodworkers or guys I have known another way. I don't advertise my mill, just the people I want to know that I custom saw do, that is enough for me..
Daren, what mearsurements is your trailer? How big a log can you haul with it? I've been thinking of building an arch to haul logs with, but yours may be a better way to go.
Rockn, I will get some better info up soon or send you a note, it's dark and I don't remember the specs I just threw it together. Basically the "bed" is 36" wide and 8' long. The tounge runs back to the axle and the whole thing is 13' ? long. The 2 good things about it are it is light, you can get a heck of a log on it and not be pulling too much. The other one is with the little bed I can saw a log for someone and stack the lumber back on it and they can haul it off. I found the thing in the weeds and just added the winch and the arch. Anyone can make one from junkyard parts, the straight axle with the drop spindles to let it set low is the most important part to this setup. The rest is just 3" x 3" angle, some 2" channel iron and a little expanded metal. If a guy doesn't want to fabricate the whole thing I know in Illinois there is an org. called I.P.G.A. (Illinois propane gas ass.), they help distributors and consumers. I called the office and the guy there had me a used tank mover found for cheap, but I found this one for free (knocked on the door and spent an hour with the guy drinking coffee). I got this idea a long time ago, I used to help my uncle who owned a rural gas business set tanks, deliver fuel... He retired and sold out long before I ever got into milling, but I remembered using his tank mover to load 1000 gallon steel tanks full of propane and figured it would work for logs too.
Daren
Yours is the first tank mover that I've seen that didn't cradle the tank between and below the framework. Didn't know they slid them on and off a low platform trailer like yours. Or did I miss something in the translation?
beenthere, the ones I used with my uncle were like you said. It was more like a rig you backed over the tank and picked it up. That would work for a really big log and was what I was first looking for. I just got talking to a guy I swap with alot he said he knew a guy with a bunch of stuff in the weeds 3 miles out of town and he had both, the sling under carrier and this one. I figured this one may have more uses so I drug it off. For a tank carrier this kind seems like alot more work, but for logs it really works good with a couple mods.
I agree, the one you have looks great for logs, especially with the arch to lift and the roller to roll them on.
Keep our friend Mark in mind when loading trailers with logs. Seems his efforts dislodged the tranny out of Park as he was winching a log onto his trailer, and the whole rig rolled downhill, dragging and pinning him underneath. We miss Mark, and remember his tragic death.
Man- sorry to hear bout that accident. I try to remeber to chock my truck when doing anything like that cause I don't trust the tranny, and it's hard on your whole drivetrain pullin' against it.
THat trailer is the ticket. Maybe you could draw something and sell some plans?
My wife works for a propane co up here, but they all use boom trucks for tank sets.
Quote from: Lud on January 05, 2006, 04:18:37 PM
Should you be concerned about liability lettin' it out?
Course if it doesn't have a plate it'd be tough ta' say who's it was if'n some city boy hit with his Escalade. ;)
Qweaver, I sure didn't mean to highjack your thread, sorry about that.
I had actually started another trailer, that some day I will finish. I got a set of running gear from a company that hauls anhydrous tanks and stuff. They were getting a new style, the old ones were still good. It has the big soft tires for pulling out into a field, so I thought that would be a good deal. It has real heavy spindles and 3" x 5" tube steel for axles. I was going to make one of those drive over and pick it up deals. I got about 1/2 done and thought I ought to just drop the frame low and make a low roll on trailer. I cut it apart, then found this one and modified it. The other running gear is laying in a pile behind the shed. That is a spring project to at least put something together and maybe deck it and put a for sale sign on it, I have to much junk laying around. My wife hates it.
Here is the plan that I settled on for my log trailer. It's a little taller than I wanted and I may drop the axles a few inches. I wish we could put a little larger image here as the details are hard to see. I'm using 3500 lb axles which will allow me to carry at least 6000 lbs which is about the limit for the tires. I should have it done by Monday to take to the galvanizer. I rarely paint trailers anymore because a proper paint job actually costs more than galvanizing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13195/LogTrail2.jpg)
Daren,the trick is to make your wife something out of all your "junk".I made mine a water hauler out of a 50 gallon barrel to water her plants by our 500 foot driveway.Only cost me $15 for an old pop-up axle and some "junk" I had laying around.Don't hear much about my "junk' any more.It is all out of sight too. I have also made her a few hangers for her baskets too.
QWeaver,
I lost count of how mant trailers :o
I use a triple axle deckover (15,000gvw) and a double axle deckover(10,000gvw) for logs and also an BIG arch. I would recommend an extendable tongue if you can pull it off with the surge brake. That would allow you some variation in log lenth. I have winch mounts up front as well. Don't forget parbuckle points on either side as well, those heavy d rings can work well for that. Standards (removable side stakes, which now need to be fastened in place when used, I haven't figured that out yet.) are important, a new Pa. law says two feet over the highest log >:(. I reccommend the 2x4 c channel welded on for the pockets and then "skirting" outside of that of 1/4" x 3 flat bar(cold roll) as it takes punishment, run it continously down the outside. The skirting is then a good place for the DOT reflective (makes it look GOOD). The 2x4 pocket is consistant and then put a 2x3 inside for your standards. Weld on a stop so the standard doesn't fall thru and grind slightly for a tight fit were the fit together.
REID
Reid, I sued a 3 1/2" clevis pin with a cotter key to hold my removeable a stakes. Put them where you want them, drill the 1/2 hole through the stake and trailer and put the pin in. The cotter key goes in from under the trailer and now you have secure and removable stakes.
Pics will have to wait till I get back. Buzz and I start our adventure this morning.
Hey Reid, good ideas all.
I have two trailers with 14000 lb GVW that are great for hauling loads over the road but are almost impossible to get through the woods. I'm selectively sawing on my own land and trying to pickup logs sideways with my tractor and get them out of the woods is really hard. This narrow trailer will mostly solve that problem. I'm sawing mainly 18" to 22" dia. trees and rarely more than 18' logs and with two 3500 lb axles I'll be limited to about 5 to 6 logs. I usually put an extendable tongue on boat trailers and I may do the same on this trailer to accomodate that occasional 20 footer that I may cut. By using 4" tube for the tongue, I can add the extension at any time. BTW, using all new materials and galvanizing and buying everything wholesale through my welding business, I'll still have $1100 in this trailer...more if I buy new tires.
I'll also add some sort of lifting frame to fit into the standard holes so that it can be easily removed but I haven't thought that out yet. One of the problems with galvanizing is that after-thought changes are bad. Well enough of this...time to get back to the shop.
Quinton
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13195/Tongue.jpg)
Kirk,
I think I will drill and tap each pocket from the reflective sticker side thru the flat bar and then thru the pocket, then tap it and pinch the standard. I will make the 1/2" x 2 bolt captive to each standard that way they are always present (military style).
QWeaver,
Sorry, I didn't realize it was a woods trailer. Reid
Well Kirk, it's not really a "woods" trailer. It'll work fine on the road but I also need a trailer that will allow me to get logs out of the woods as well.
But the plan has changed. When I got to the shop today my memory of what metal I had up on the wall was obviously out of date but what I had out on the scrap rack was OK. So what was going to be a 10' bed out of 4" and 3" channel is now going to be a 12' bed out of 4x4x1/4 angle. So I'll have a lower loading height and no need to drop the axles. I sawed all the pieces today and I'll weld it up tomorrow.
Quinton