My new hay wagon

I just finished building it on Saturday. I still need to chain it to the runnning gear, which is an old Better Built that"s been on the farm for quite some time, and it still trails straight as and arrow.

The wagon is 8x18", and I used a pair of stringers we had from an old green feed wagon I tore apart because the rest of it was rotten. We used 2x8 pressure treated pine (plus one 2x6) spaced 1/2" apart. I nailed them to the stringers with 20 penny ring-shank spikes and made the back out of 1 x whatever we had rough sawn lumber we got for free from a friend. I made pockets that bolt to the stringers to accept a 4x4. The stringers are 6x6 so I nailed a peice of 2x4 to the 4x4 to take up some space. If I need to remove the back, it just lifts up. If I snag something, one of the 4x4 will break, and the rest of the back will we fine.

I dunno about you guys, but I"d rather replace 1 or 2 4x4"s vs. the whole back.

I"ll post more pictures when I get a chance.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I built mine the way you did . I used all white oak from the local sawmill cut to order . 4x8 stringers and a full 2" x 8" crossboards with 2x4 down the sides and two carridge bolts with washers below per board . The rough cut cross boards where ring shank nailed ( don't remember the size but they were 6" long and stainless steel ) two times per board per side with a 3/4" gap between boards because the lumber was green more or less . I used 4x4 ( also white oak ) as spreaders inside the stringers and bolted only to the front bolster which is a rocker . It's on a westendorf 6 ton gear with titan 11L15 tires all around that I picked up at an auction for 300 bucks . The tires still had the nubs on the tread they were so new . For the back I used 2"x 10" uprights bolted to the side of the stringer to a height of 7' above the deck which gives me 6 supported bails high with one or two above that . I made the bails only 24" long for the second cutting but we put 165 bails on the rack 3 times for it . BTW it's 7x16 . And that wasn't full up in front because my wife can't thow them up and stand on the extra six inches of deck up front while stacking from the bailer :) but she try's . The rack is supposed to hold about 120 36" bails and that works out with the 165 2/3's bails to 111 fullsize bails or close to 2-1/2 - 3 tons of hay . I made a few mistakes in the engineering but it works good anyway . I have way to much rear overhang ( about 4' ) and the tractor tires just barely catch the front corners in a very sharp turn . I have pictures but not on this computer and the other computer is broken . The rack never goes anywhere so the tires will never wear out or come apart . But after this cutting I realized that one rack isn't enough so I'll have to start looking for another gear to build on this fall . Take care ...Randy

How much did the White Oak run you? I tried talking my dad into getting rough-cut lumber from a sawmill, but I used what he got me.

I think you'd be much happier with an 8' wide wagon, much easier to stack 36" bales on. For example; You've got 2 bales wide on your wagon and now you've only got 1' left. You can overhang the bales a little each side but you've still only got 2 1/2 bales wide on the wagon. With an 8' wagon, you can stack 3 wide and overhang the edges 6" each and get away with it. Our bales must be closer to 34", because we only get about 2-4" overhang on each side.

We normally stack 6 high (we're short) but we have gone up to 9 just because. With 1st crop, we've been getting right around 160 bales per 8x16' wagon 6 high. I have no idea how much weight we get on them, but some of the lighter car tires definately squat some. (most are LT tires, try to go with all 235-75 R15's. Some are 7.50-16 truck tires though, like this wagon has.)

In a sharp turn we normally catch the front corners of ours as well, as we ussually have them 4' from the toungue of the running gear to grab them off the baler without stretching.

I'll post a picture of how I make the backs. I make a pocket and bolt it to the stringer, and the back just lifts out. NO extra braces on the side, they just get in the way and will cause more damage to the back if you snag something. This way ONLY the 4x4 will break, so you can bolt a new one(s) to the back and be back in business.

Donovan from Wisconsin

The way I see it, it"s just more material to buy and the boards seem to fall off easier. I"m no amature at farming and this isn"t my first wagon either so I don"t think I"ll have any problems.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I'll try to get a few pictures of it loaded this weekend.

Donovan from Wisconsin

We also use 4x6 and 4x8" beams and carry 8 or 9 tier normally with as high as 11 tier when in a bind. The tires do not like that.