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What Sie is Your Tractor Shop? Photos?

K

Ken Christopherson

Well-known Member
Hello all!

Well, soon enough, we are going to be putting our first home on the market. For ten years, I have been rebuilding my tractors and building Harley-Davidsons in a one-stall garage townhouse. Our next place, hopefully, will have a couple acres and enough space for me to put up my 'man cave', or in other words.. Space for tractors!

Currently, my stable is at 4: A '42 John Deere A, a '42 Farmall H, a '41 Case SC, and a '47 Farmall M with loader. I'd love to have enough space to comfortably keep at least 6 narrow front tractors inside. I have no issues 'stacking' them... Or pulling them outside to do work inside. I know that a person can never have 'too much' space, but I am curious as to everyone's shop size, how many you keep inside, etc. Ideally, I would like a 40 X 60 pole shed, insulated, with concrete... I just don't think I can afford it. I am looking probably more in the neighborhood of 30 X 40, or 36 X 48.

Thoughts, suggestions, photos are always welcomed! (And NO, selling my tractors is NOT an option! LOL) :)
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My shop at home is a 30' x 40'. Heated but no AC. Works fine but I wish I would have made the sidewalls a little taller. 12' sidewalls keep me from getting anything too big in there..lol! Bob
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I was thinking 12 or 14 foot sidewalls... Was looking at doing cold storage above if possible. Looks like a real nice job you did on that D!
 
That's why I am hoping to get this done before the children come along! I also do a lot of mechanics side work out of the garage, so more space to comfortably do that will only open up more opportunity for that.
 
Just a couple of thoughts that might help. If you don't need to store tractors in a insulated and heated space they are fairly happy in an open sided shed, just keeping the rain, snow, and sun off of them. This type of shelter is less expensive than the same square footage closed, heated, and insulated. Even if you want doors to lock it is still less $$$than insulated and heated. A high side wall and ceiling is nice for getting big/tall projects in, but the higher the ceiling the harder to heat, all the heat will be up there where you aren't, so the lower you can accept the easier to heat.
 
Mine is 30 X 40 x 14 sidewall with door clearance of 12 foot 6 inch. I wanted a place to put one tractor in to leave and to work on over time, another stall for smaller jobs / work area and one in and out stall. Have finished the benches with shelving since picture was taken.
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Thanks on the D. Luckily it was pretty nice to start with. 30x40 is about right with me, but if you are trying to work on a combine or something large you will need bigger.
The nice thing about 30x40 is it is pretty easy to heat in the winter.
 
I am thinking 30X40 should probably do me ok. I am just looking to grow my collection a little bit (and over the years some may come and go in search of others I'd like to do). It'd be a heck of a cool thing to own a steamer, but in all reality, if I do (maybe in my retirement years, 35 years from now), it will be a 1/2 scale. I can't afford the storage and hauling costs of a full scale steamer.

Ahh, it's nice to dream big!
 
Looks like a nice clean area to work, Alan! Nice MM, also. I just want a place where I can get them all inside. I have no issues moving a couple outside to do work. Most of the time, when I am home, one of them will be out anyways. I like to putt around outside as much as I can. More than likely, I will have one 10 x 10 insulated door, a 36" service door, and maybe 5 windows for airflow, and light.
 
I won't be heating the garage unless I am working out there. Maybe a wood stove if I can convince the insurance company, otherwise I'll have a gas Reznor or something. Thing about where we are looking to move is we won't be able to 'store' any tractors in view of the public. We'll be just close enough to the city to get to work in a timely matter, but far enough out to have our own space and shop.

I was probably going to install some ceiling fans to help push the heat down in the winter when I do work out there. Gets darn cold here in MN, and I am tired of running my hands under warm water to get feeling back in them.

Sure do appreciate all of the input fellas! These are things I will definitely consider!
 
40x60 is a nice size. Last year I had a 40x60x12 put up. Divider wall inside so half has concrete with insulation and heat. Back half is dirt floor cold storage. As I knew beforehand, bigger would have been nicer but this works and was within the budget!
 
Yes, I agree. 40x60 would be the ultimate for me, but I think 30x40 is much more feasible. I found this photo online (along with thousands of others), and feel like this is pretty much what I will be looking at. Would be nice to have two doors but it's not necessary.
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Mine is 30x32 and of course not big enough but it works for two wheel drive tractors. One bit of advice is to locate the building so the roofline allows you to make the building longer some day if the need arises.
 
Just two pieces of advice from me:
1) If you're in snow/cold country -put the main entrance and apron facing south for the sun to do the work of cleanup. Suns rays melt more snow than I could move in my lifetime.

2) Use clear lexan/poly panels up high on the walls to let in sunlight. My dad built two sheds - one with panels, one without the clear panels. Guess where he spends his time? In the shed that's light inside! There's no electric bill from the sunlight.

Try to use the elements to your advantage, instead of fighting them. Sun, wind, soil don't have to be enemies.
 
I've been working on my barn for about 3 years. I finally got it dry back in July. Its 44x50 with 9 foot sides and 12 foot in the center.
Scott
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My building is 30x48x14 and it's a nice size area for working. However, if I had it to do over again, I would have finished the inside of my building at the same time I built it. I built the building, and then planned to finish off the inside for heating within a few years. A few years has turned in to 13 years, and still not likely to do it any time soon. Once kids came along, life got busy and money got tighter. The way building materials have gone up in price over the years, I believe I would have been money ahead to have just borrowed the money I needed to finish the interior the way I wanted to when the building was constructed, plus I would have had use of the building the last 13 MN winters. Now it just sits packed full of stuff, but no desire to go out and work 4+ months of the year as it is not heated.
 
Mine is 30 x 32 with eight foot walls and a 12 x 32 drive through. I have room to add on the other side and the back if need be. When the barn was built 20 plus years ago I did not have 5 tractors. I added the drive through on after getting two tractors. I heat with wood when I am working out there. Have a ceiling fan installed to help circulate the air. I keep telling myself I will concrete and insulate but the mad money keeps going else where. One thing I know is after you built it, it will fill up fast.

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Mine is 32 X 24. Not as large as I would like, but as large as I could make it.
9' sidewalls, 8 x 16 OH door. Two windows on the South side let in alot of light.
Insulated it this Fall and working on storage shelves on the sides and back.
It's the nicest shop I've ever had and beats the heck out of a drafty, dingy, dirt floored 16 x 16 that I had before.

Make it as big as you can afford and add the bells and whistles as you can later.

Larry
 
You people make me wish I had a shop or a garage. I had sold my property and moved up where there is no garage. Right now almost all my tractors are at my dads house and it looks like a used tractor lot. I am still waiting to be able to move on the property I had bought.
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Mechanical shop is 36X36. Woodworking and storage is 30X48. Both have 12' walls.
 
Never had a heated shop but am in the works of converting an old hog house that is 20 by 35 into my shop, was planning on putting up pics when done, got the door cut out but the ceiling needs removed yet and sides braced and need to make the entry door yet, but making progress slowly!
 
This my shop with storage!!! The actual shop is 30X50 with 14ft side walls!!! The first two pictures are as I bought it then 30X100 then a year ago I added 30X60 onto the back as pictured!!! Last 2 pics are inside the the shop!!!! The shop area is insulated and I heat it with propane hanging furnace!!! Entire area has cement floor!!! All but shop area is tractor storage!!! Last pics are storage area!!
 
Well here is mine a 36x30x12'. Yes it has an outdoor wood burner inside it.....I heat my house, the old garage and the inside of this new building just using the heat that would be lost if the furnace was outside. The building is well insulated.

I keep 2 tractors and my new round baler in there during the winter and also my extended cab dually, a small trailer load of firewood and my wood working tools. In the summer the truck stays outside and stuff is rearranged so that I can keep my tractor and baler in one side and another tractor on the other side.
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Sorry no pics, 40x60 shop on the end of driveshed that measures 100x60. I don't own it but it is my workplace.
Overhead door is 16x30, radiant tube propane heat.
 
Here is mine. First is the original building where the tractors are parked. Second is the 40 foot addition. Building is 100x36x12. Still not big enough lol
JG
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Right now I am working out of a three car garage but have this comment to add. If you are working on auto a lot a hoist will help you more than you can imagine. 10 foot side are way to short 12 is the minimum and 14 to 16 is the best.As I get older crawling around on the floor gets harder to do every day. Just saying:)
 
Mine is 60X75 with 14' to the square, if I had it to do over I would go 18' to the square.
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I don't have any pictures of my shop handy. It's block, with a tin roof, and was built by the previous owner here. It's an odd size, something like 33' deep and 35 feet across and has a 12' high ceiling. It has 2 9 foot tall garage doors. If I was going to build it now, I would have liked 10' high doors. I can fit a 4020 with roll-gard and a canopy through these 9 footers, but only with about an inch to spare. And if the tractor ever gets 38" back wheels instead of the 34's it has now, it's not going to fit. And you never know what you'll end up buying one day!

Other than the doors, I'm pretty happy with the size. Bigger would be nice sometimes, but small encourages you to keep things organized. I nailed plywood on the ceiling and insulated the attic with R-30. The walls are just 8" block walls, no insulation. I have a woodstove in one corner and can keep it 65 degrees inside when it's in the 20s outside, no problem. I've found that any hotter is too hot for me when I'm working in there in the winter.

My brother put up a 40x60 pole barn. It also has a 12 foot ceiling, but 1 wide 10 foot tall door. He insulated the walls only I believe, but it's also easy to heat with a woodstove. My first thought was that this is the perfect size for a shop, but now that I think about it he has it divided roughly in half. Half a woodshop and half for the tractors. So the tractor side is only like 35 wide and 40 deep as you pull in the door. Inside it has- a 4020, 730, Farmall Cub, Forklift, and all his tools and supplies. There's easily room for all of the tractors parked beside each other along the back wall, still allowing him to pull his truck in infront of them at night.

Whatever size you build you'll adapt to. I'd definitely recommend the 12' ceiling and 10' tall door though.
 
Well my man cave/shop isn't very big, only 24 by 36 ,10 ft celing. It has 2 man doors and two 7 by 9 garage doors on the 36 ft. side. heat is a propane torpedo 175 btu heater for the first 5 or 10 minutes ,by then I get the wood/coal stove going. It is complete with tv and beverage cooler. The golf cart takes up one bay most of the time as it needs to be next to it's charger. My Ford 9-N sets in the other bay waiting for the snow. Just behind have a 18 by 20 carport for the wife's SUV and my poor old truck sets outside.
Way out back I have an 18 by 40 carport with 3 sides closed and one end open. Next to that is another 18 bt 40 steel "carport" bulding that has one roll-up door and one man door. Both only have gravel floors and no heat or electricity.But house my toys. Being retired and limited in what I can (and want) to do , I don't do much restoration any more, just fix what is needed.
joe
 
If you are heading into or in retirement, consider the future, what will make your property more valuable when it comes time to sell or pass on to the next generation. Something that allows a motor home or bigger boat to fit in might make your property $20,000 more valuable than a tractor shed that is too low, or too short.

If you are younger, consider what your future is, are you going to be doing some bit of farming where you are, farm equipment tends to get taller and wider as you shop for good deals, you can't make a door too big..... Will you and your kid use it, want to work on tractor and cars, a little bigger is sure nice, but especially make it high enough. Allow for some growth.

But, if a person spends too much on the building, can't afford to put anything in it! Argh.....

So....

Make it tall enough. You gotta have a 10 foot door or why bother. 12 foot would be better. Overhead tube heater, overhead lights, a fan up there, working on the top of a tractor cab or implement you sure like the head room to work. (And the next owners motor home will fit, making your property more valuable....)

Make the door wide enough. I would rather have one wider door than 2 narrow doors. Funny how a person wants to drive in with a mower on, a baler on, duals even on the little tractors, etc.

Yes, a big door lets in more cold air when you open it, but I've never seen a door 'too big' for a building.......

It sucks to heat a big building and use it for just storage. So your smaller actual shop size works, but:

Allow room to build a cold storage building down the road. Or a lean to as some have pictured if you built a nice 14 foot building with 12 foot high doors, or add on to the end to make a longer building. Just, allow room for expanding, somehow.

Again, it's easy to spend your money and say bigger bigger bigger..... If it's just you working and having fun thrn the size you mention works fine. Save a little money for a second, cold storage building, lean to maybe, someday. But make it tall enough and the door big enough to be a useful building! Those two items are hard to change after you build.

Paul
 
My present shop is about 30 x32 ft with 2 8X10 overhead doors also with tubes in the floor to heat it with.Very well insulated and heated with an 18 gallon electric water heater which keeps it about 50 degrees all the time We have very low electric rates. I'm 74 years old and go out there almost every day to work on garden tractors so there is also a small Reznor gas furnace hanging from the ceiling, so I can get it as warm as I like.
Back in the 90S I lived in Wi. and there I built a shop 24' X 40' also with a heated floor and lots of insulation. 14' ceiling and aircraft hangar type 12'high and 18' wide Told myself then I would never build another shop without heat in the floor. I could park snow covered stuff in there and next morning it would be all melted off and the floor would be dry. That was heated by a 40 gallon water heater. You could lay on the floor to work under something and feel warm. I got the plans for floor heat from North Dakota State University. I don't have pictures of either right now because my computer died a couple of weeks ago.
 
I had to do a double take - that's not my shop but you stole my machines (although I can't see the numbers on some they look close in size)! 8430, 4440, 7800. My 4440 doesn't have FWA and the 7800 has a loader, but it's pretty darn close. I don't see my 4020 or IH 886 in there anywhere. Then there's the Farmall M hooked to the JD grinder and the Farmall A for running augers. Never mind - I appear to be more mixed than I thought
 
Ours (me and dad) is "different! Dug into a hillside and built about a 26x80 in the hillside. Back and end walls are steel reinforced poured concrete. Ends are about 8 feet arched to near 15 at center. I can clear a semi tractor pulling into center bay. Currently we are "packed" for winter. E3 Co-op UTS Moline puller,Moline GTB, UTU Moline puller, 950 Ford on one side. 48 Diamond T pickuo, Moline jet star and Dad's oliver1365 w/loader other side leaves center open for quick jobs
 
Built mine this summer 32x72 with 14 ft walls and 2 12x12 overhead doors. In the process now of insulating the heated shop area of 32x40, the rest will be used for storage of some of my favorite Farmall tractors.
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(quoted from post at 12:02:36 01/04/17) Hello all!

Well, soon enough, we are going to be putting our first home on the market. For ten years, I have been rebuilding my tractors and building Harley-Davidsons in a one-stall garage townhouse. Our next place, hopefully, will have a couple acres and enough space for me to put up my 'man cave', or in other words.. Space for tractors!

Currently, my stable is at 4: A '42 John Deere A, a '42 Farmall H, a '41 Case SC, and a '47 Farmall M with loader. I'd love to have enough space to comfortably keep at least 6 narrow front tractors inside. I have no issues 'stacking' them... Or pulling them outside to do work inside. I know that a person can never have 'too much' space, but I am curious as to everyone's shop size, how many you keep inside, etc. Ideally, I would like a 40 X 60 pole shed, insulated, with concrete... I just don't think I can afford it. I am looking probably more in the neighborhood of 30 X 40, or 36 X 48.

quote]

My 40 x 84 with 13 x 84 lean-to's on each side...doesn't look that big does it??
Click to expand...
 
Mine is 40x60x16 with warm floor and loft.

Whatever you do, insulate and put tubes in the concrete, do not have to use them, but put them in.
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Consider building it expandable. In other words if you build a 30x40 to start with, make sure you have the roof line such that you have space continue the roof line to add on the building. Then you can take out the existing outside wall or leave it as you desire. Other considerations insulate it well. I have 6" wall and 18"in the attic. Id recommend floor heat in the concrete. The floor will always be warm. That is more important the older you get. Id also put in at least a 100 amp if not a 200 amp electrical service panel. You will never need less power. Welder, exhaust fan, air compressor, lights, ceiling fans, high output lights, air conditioner, other power tools, computer, refrigerator, stove, TV, stereo (you did say mancave) etc.. Some of this stuff you might think you don't need but 5 or 10 years from now you will think why didnt it plan this for more power.. I have a 16 1/2' ceiling with 15' doors. Ive used every bit of the height a time or two. Back to the floor. Don't for get a floor drain. You will regret if in the winter time when you bring in a snowy loader after pushing snow. IMHO
 

How to build a shop that you can HEAT ECONOMICALLY. My shop is 40 50 with 17 foot ceiling. The key to heating is that even though the whole building is insulated, I have an insulated inner room that is 16x22x10. That is where I put my projects in the winter to do most of the work. Here is a pic of my 9000 in the inner room.


43869.jpg

You can see my non-vented catalytic propane heater in front of the tractor. I keep the inner room at 50 and bump it to 60 when I go in. The heat that escapes from it keeps the main part above freezing on all but the coldest 3-4 nights a year. Here is my truck in front of it. I kept the truck inside all winter.

43870.jpg


I keep my pick-up, three tractors, sometimes a car in the case of a storm, plus my current project in there pretty much all the time. I HEAT as described above

FOR AROUND $450 a year. Oh and I also have pallet racking and a mezzanine, and a forklift for getting pallets of stuff in.and out of upper storage.
 
56*120 with a loft.

This photo was of a really lousy day involving skid steer loaders... there is enough oil on the floor to rival the Exxon Valdez!

Bottom one is of a chess set under construction.
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Thank you. I havent dusted in a while though lol. Where in Minnesota are you located? Im in SW part of the state.
 
My shop is 48x48, 14 foot sidewalls, with another 48x48 added later, with open front. Shop has been a work in progress for 30 years. 24 foot doors on two sides. One side has 32x24 cold area and a 16x24 heated tool room, with one bay, 10 foot ceiling with loft storage. Other side 24x28 is lined, insulated, and has a furnace ready to install. Also has a 2 ton hoist on I beam that pivots 90 degrees, covering most of the work area. That area has shelves floor to ceiling, except where the 24 foot door is.

Pic is of the air recycling system...4 inch PVC perforated sewer pipe, four runs across the tool room ceiling, ducted into an extra plenum fan, so it draws warm air off the ceiling and pushes it past the stove pipe and out the plenum. Tool room has two walls covered with shelves and cubbyholes.
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looks like a central boiler you have in there. I was curious does it draft ok in the building? I have one just like it and there hard to beat.
 
Here is mine it is 42x50x16 it was an old sheep barn I hired an amish crew to raise it from 8' to 16' then I insulated it, took the old siding and put it on the inside and built an office, storage room ,bathroom and a 14x24 paint and sandblasting room inside with loft storage. I put 4 ceiling fans and a reznor hanging heater in it. I have a little finish work to do inside but got busy with projects.
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30 by 60 with a nine foot ceiling. I don't work on large equipment anymore. I let our son do that in his new modern shop.
Richard in NW SC
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Main shed is 46 x 88 with a 32 x24 x12 insulated and heated shop in the middle part, with a secondary 22 x40 shed where the 'old' stuff is stored. Ben
 
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