Anybody do it? If so, any tips? We were going to put a post rack in it and go. Also, any suggested alternatives to 11L-15 tires? I would like to be able to run the gear at full weight (20,000 lbs), so I would need 5,000 lb tires, which are hard to find. I don’t know what tires would have been on it from the factory.
I believe most of the running gears for gravity flow wagons run that size & up to 16”. 12L’s as well. I will do some looking today on tire size on the hay trailer & smaller wagons.
Should be a good firewood/log hauler. Only caveat is backing them up if you’re not accustomed to it. I’m so out of practice now that I’m sure I would be a swearing frustrated mess
Imo, the trick with Ag wagons from what I've seen . If used in the woods is uneven ground like roots, stumps . The front and rear can rotate some if setup for it . And the front and rear bunks are only attached to the their set of trucks .
As a kid we ran trains pulling two and three wagons. On neighbor could back them up but preferred to use the hitch on the front of the tractor to push them into the barn for unloading. I could pull them but never got good at backing them up. But we quit putting up squares so I didn’t have the years of practice.
I worked for a neighbor farmer in high school...his farm manager could back a silage wagon in the shed, still attached to the chopper...it was impressive.
Ahh...... memories... In high school I was given the opportunity to get pushed down a good sized hill on a too small tractor with a much to heavy grain cart. Owner neglected to say that it occasionally pops out of gear. The pucker factor......
High, very high! The neighbor farmer I worked for in high school had an old worn out JD 2020 loader tractor, it was really only used for cleaning barns (scooping manure) and occasionally putting a round bale in the feeder for the dry cows. The steering was VERY loose, and it was almost anybody's guess what gear you were gonna end up in next. One day another one of my fellow farm hands was to take a round bale to the dry cows using the "drop on" bale spear on the front bucket. The problem was that these were 1000 lb bales, and this tractor had no ballast on the rear, so one of those balls hanging off the front of the bucket was all she wanted! (Light on the rear!) When he stopped to open the fence it was a slight downhill and the tractor started to slide a bit when he put it in park. The sliding made the loosey goosey trans pop outta park right when he stepped off the tractor, it ran up his leg and across his chest...it didn't kill him, but he was never the same after that! The farmer has since passed, but his son took over the place, I still see him sometimes...he said they still have that tractor, but it's been all rebuild and much safer to operate now.
I have a friend who stacks all his wood on hay wagons. He then parks them right next to his owb. He is 6'3" so he is tall with a long reach. Only problem I can see is he can only reach so much of the wood then he has to get up on the wagon, and pick all the wood up and move it over to the empty side. Personally I would spin the wagon around and use a pick-a-roon to bring them closer. The hay wagon's with original tires can definitely handle the weight. He stacks about 3-4 ft high on the wagon. He doesn't tow down the road, He only tows 100 ft or so from his processing area to his owb.
I have a friend that took an old (covered) silage wagon, mounted an electric motor in place of the pto drive unit. He chucks it full then parks it next to the owb, when he can't reach the wood anymore he plugs it in and flips the switch to convey wood forward. Been doing it that way for years
I have been toying with the idea of building a firewood cutting deck/table on an old wagon running gear. easier on my back & portable on wheels.
Running gear very often used for hay wagon. Hitched directly behind the baler then one or two on the wagon to get square bales from the chute and stack on wagon. When wagon is full, someone is bringing empty one down to hook up and full one goes to the barn/hay loft for bales to be unloaded and stacked.Keeps several guys real busy all day I was much younger then too!!
