Refurbishing an old firewood trailer found on new property...

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OH_Varmntr

Burner of stored sunlight
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Location
NW Ohio
After 10 years at our previous place, it was time to downgrade the dwelling and upgrade the property so in August of '21 it was goodbye to our 3.7 acres and hello to 34 acres. 10 tillable including the house, leaving the remaining 24 acres to hardwoods for the 3 kids to roam. Logged recently in 2019, the remnants of the skidding roads make great access to the tops left to rot. Cutting the tops to feed the wood stove will be somewhat bittersweet as they provided great cover for the whitetail. I managed to kill a buck and a doe with my bow, and my wife managed to kill her first whitetail with her crossbow.

Amongst the junk piles scattered throughout the wood was this gem, entangled in a mess of old fencing and barbed wire. She was overlooked when things were green and thick and only showed herself once the wood bared all with the turning of the season. One tire still held air, the other off the bead but I was able to get it back on and inflated tonight. Bearings are smooth and a bit of penetrant on the rotating trailer jack and it was free and operational. She has no suspension, just a (previously sleeved) cast I-beam axle welded to the frame and a drawbar hitch. Any remnants of the 4'x8' wood deck were removed with a few screws still needing to be cleared away. Our 28x40 pole barn had some miscellaneous rough-sawn lumber from what I believe to be old livestock stalls which will be repurposed for the decking.

The neighbor next door is the daughter of the folks who, now passed, built the house and barn in 1972 and said this trailer was used by their dad to bring firewood up to the house. The tillable was once all pasture for horses but has been row-cropped for the last 12 years or so. It will be nice to reclaim the tillable back to pasture for raising beef and using the woods for hogs.

Anywho, follow along if you please as I give this ole girl new life and get her back to what she was built for. She will be spending her days as a companion to my John Deere 4600 tractor.
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Taming widow makers and making firewood this beautiful evening with my MS460 wearing her 25" B&C.
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Get some floor boards in her and start stacking that wood! I just redid floor in our old converted manure spreader wagon. I spaced the board’s 1.5 inches apart so that bark and dirt fall through easier. Something to consider, cleaner floors last longer.

You got your work cut out on this new property and lots of opportunities. That wagon should help you quite a bit. Look out for farm and equipment auctions in you area, never now what you might find. Congratulations and Good Luck!
 
Congratulations on the new property. Sounds like an exciting time in your lives!!

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Thank you! It is a blessing especially in these times where property such as this are hard to find on the market still after only a day or so. Being in our early 30s, we have a lot of time to enjoy.
Get some floor boards in her and start stacking that wood! I just redid floor in our old converted manure spreader wagon. I spaced the board’s 1.5 inches apart so that bark and dirt fall through easier. Something to consider, cleaner floors last longer.

You got your work cut out on this new property and lots of opportunities. That wagon should help you quite a bit. Look out for farm and equipment auctions in you area, never now what you might find. Congratulations and Good Luck!

Great idea, thank you for that. I'll take that heavily into consideration.

Being in farm country we have a few used equipment dealers around, with one being a mile down the road. My 4600 is a 43HP 4x4 tractor and while she's got 43xx hours on the clock and needs some hydraulic pump work, she has been a great addition since we picked her up in either '13 or '14. We will be adding an International 656, 756, 706, something of that sort to handle a round baler and haybine. Anything with green paint around here demands a premium which is why we went to Missouri to pick up the 4600.
 
After 10 years at our previous place, it was time to downgrade the dwelling and upgrade the property so in August of '21 it was goodbye to our 3.7 acres and hello to 34 acres. 10 tillable including the house, leaving the remaining 24 acres to hardwoods for the 3 kids to roam. Logged recently in 2019, the remnants of the skidding roads make great access to the tops left to rot. Cutting the tops to feed the wood stove will be somewhat bittersweet as they provided great cover for the whitetail. I managed to kill a buck and a doe with my bow, and my wife managed to kill her first whitetail with her crossbow.

Amongst the junk piles scattered throughout the wood was this gem, entangled in a mess of old fencing and barbed wire. She was overlooked when things were green and thick and only showed herself once the wood bared all with the turning of the season. One tire still held air, the other off the bead but I was able to get it back on and inflated tonight. Bearings are smooth and a bit of penetrant on the rotating trailer jack and it was free and operational. She has no suspension, just a (previously sleeved) cast I-beam axle welded to the frame and a drawbar hitch. Any remnants of the 4'x8' wood deck were removed with a few screws still needing to be cleared away. Our 28x40 pole barn had some miscellaneous rough-sawn lumber from what I believe to be old livestock stalls which will be repurposed for the decking.

The neighbor next door is the daughter of the folks who, now passed, built the house and barn in 1972 and said this trailer was used by their dad to bring firewood up to the house. The tillable was once all pasture for horses but has been row-cropped for the last 12 years or so. It will be nice to reclaim the tillable back to pasture for raising beef and using the woods for hogs.

Anywho, follow along if you please as I give this ole girl new life and get her back to what she was built for. She will be spending her days as a companion to my John Deere 4600 tractor.
View attachment 956733

Taming widow makers and making firewood this beautiful evening with my MS460 wearing her 25" B&C.
View attachment 956735View attachment 956734
What is the brand name of that marking gun? I want one of those!
 
OP good choice on the International, my grandfather had an 856 and I still miss that tractor. Don’t be afraid to go a little bigger if you find a good deal on an 8,9, or 1056 International. The bigger they are the better they sound :rock::rock:
 
Looks like a Mingo marker.
It is indeed.
I would repack the bearings while I was at it
That's on my list of things to do but for no faster that I'll be lugging it through the woods, it will have to wait a few days.
OP good choice on the International, my grandfather had an 856 and I still miss that tractor. Don’t be afraid to go a little bigger if you find a good deal on an 8,9, or 1056 International. The bigger they are the better they sound :rock::rock:
Although I wouldn't mind having a tractor that large, those are mostly a bit more than what I'd like to spend on one, not to mention just all around larger than my needs. There's a cabbed 1086 just up the road but it's just too much tractor for my needs.
 
Well my memory was lacking and I didn't have quite the stockpile of rough sawn i thought I had. I opted for function over form and stabbed some 5/4 deck boards in to make it work. I've had a Linn Lumber bandsaw mill on order since September and once that arrives I'll mill up some new decking and build some stake sides for it.
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Pulled a few more widow makers down with the 4600, one being a gnarly, stringy elm.
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Things were going smoothly until I saw a few sparks and found some barbed wire. Apparently this was an old fencerow in the woods. Located an old t-post as well.
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Nice little load and noticed the old welds on the hitch were cracked. Add that to the list of things to do.
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Ronaldo, I do plan on cutting that mess off and starting over. The upper and lower halves of the hitch are no longer aligned.

I have a few other trailers but are both 7' wide and therefore aren't trail worthy. I suspect this one will provide years of service given I don't abuse it.



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@OH_Varmntr , congrats on the life change.

Get yourself a grapple for that 4600 and a whole new level of wood work will open up for you. Look for a light weigh one to maximize your lifting capacity. Also go for one that has two thumbs instead of a long single one. The grapple I have cost me less than a $1000 shipped from the manufacturer to a local truck terminal. It opens wide enough to grab a 30" log. I made a detachable fork set up, but for your lumber stacking when the band saw arrives you may want dedicated forks instead.

My 4710
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Forks ride in the rear for extra ballast when not in use.
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BTW I haven't found a use for the forks in the woods. The grapple does all the log handling - stacking and loading.

Ron
 
@OH_Varmntr , congrats on the life change.

Get yourself a grapple for that 4600 and a whole new level of wood work will open up for you. Look for a light weigh one to maximize your lifting capacity. Also go for one that has two thumbs instead of a long single one. The grapple I have cost me less than a $1000 shipped from the manufacturer to a local truck terminal. It opens wide enough to grab a 30" log. I made a detachable fork set up, but for your lumber stacking when the band saw arrives you may want dedicated forks instead.

My 4710
View attachment 956933
View attachment 956935
Forks ride in the rear for extra ballast when not in use.
View attachment 956938

BTW I haven't found a use for the forks in the woods. The grapple does all the log handling - stacking and loading.

Ron
Years ago I built a single hydraulic arm for my FEL forks. Worked great but was limited by design.

With the brush handling and the sawmill I agree it would be an invaluable tool to add. We utilize a lot of wood chips in our gardening and livestock and plan on stockpiling large amounts of brush, renting a Vermeer once a year or so to handle the chip making. I can easily justify having one but not sure it would be worth building one vs buying. We have a manufacturing center nearby that will take custom drawings and cut them out with a laser. That's a ways down the road unless I stumble across a used grapple.

I like how your forks stow away on your 4710. My rear tires are loaded with cast weights as well so I'm good for rear ballast. I usually have my box blade on the 3pt too.



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IIRC I have between 800 to 1000# on the 3 point hitch and 300#+ on the drawbar. I decided against filled tires given my experience with my other smaller tractor ( a 4400). I wanted wheel weights but the cost of new was $$$ and I couldn’t find any used ones.

Ron
 
The tires on mine were filled when I bought it, and unfortunately it is calcium chloride. The guy I bought it from lived in hill country and was deathly afraid of a tip-over.

I've done 2 rear tubes and have one that currently leaks. That stuff never stops eating things. I may end up doing beet juice but it is expensive. I may just ditch the CC and run the 300# of wheel weights per side and call it good.
 
Brought the trailer in the shop tonight and remounted the top hitch tang. The bottom tang is about 18" long and is welded in numerous spots along the underside of the tongue and not worth the effort of cutting all the welds to fix the "custom" angle of the hitch, at least at this point in time.

Cleaned it up and beveled the tang.
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Outta hold for a few years.
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