Hay wagon

Hi guys. I"ve been looking at the previous posts but can"t seem to find exactly what I"m after.
We brought home an old hay wagon yesterday that is adjustable for length. I would like to end up with an 8ft by 16ft wagon. How long should the wheels be for a deck this size (wheel center to wheel center)? I can"t figure out how much overlap there should be in the front and rear. This will be my first time putting a deck on a hay wagon and I"d like to do it properly with your suggestions. Thanks again.
One more stupid question (for now) the long stringers that go front to rear...is 16ft a length the local lumber stores (ACE, Home Depot) should carry?

A decent wheel spacing would be 8' center's,leaving 4' overlap on each end.Depending on how well stocked your local building supplies store is,they more than likely will have 16' length lumber,what you would be best off with though would be 16' 5"x 10"s on their edge.You would have to go to a sawmill to have those made though.Somthing else would work for sure,but if you don't want to have to worry about breaking your waggon,,,,,.pd.

I have found that it is best to mount the deck with the front edge about even with the front edge of the tires on the front wheels if you are going to tow the wagon behind the baler. Otherwise i don't think it would matter. I often have 3-4 feet of overhang behind the rear axle. I usually build the deck with 4x10 or 6x10 running lengthwise, 2x4 running across the and hemlock planks running lengthwise on top, but I have seen a lot of different configurations. 16' is a standard length for lumber stores, but a sawmill that sells rough-cut will be a better product at a better price for wagons. Just my thoughts.
Zach

Kelly C has a detailed "how to build a hay wagon" on his website. It suggests one way...


http://www.mnfarmall.com/

I would hang it over about 3.5 feet on the back and 2.5 feet on the front so about 11 feet from axle to axle. If your wanting more than 16 ft you should be able to get some 3x8 sills from a saw mill

Off topic / but one time the boss had us pull the hay wagons (thrower boxes) in the shop and renail everything as it was all wood.

Second load on each wagon had boards laying in the bed deck. We used pole barn nails, and when the bales hit the boards the nails snapped off because they were brital. Something for you to consider.

I wouldn't go with lumber yard pine. You need some good rough sawn oak. Jeff Badder in Ionia sells some real nice pre made racks that might end up being as reasonable as building one yourself.

Some of the overhang on the fornt depends on the length of the toungue on your running gear. On ours, the toungue sticks out about 4' from the front edge of the wagon.

For overhang over the back, I wouldn't go past 4'. Even that is a little much for me. I try ot make the running gear as long as possible within reason. About 3' overhang is my prefered.

I agree with the others that Pine is not the preferred wood, but it will work. Either 2 2x8's, or 3 2x6's bolted/nailed together, or one solid stringer each side. I use 20 penny ring shank nails when I build one, and no problems so far.



This is the last wagon I built. The stringers underneath are 6x6 pine that was under a green feed wagon that fell apart. I used treated 2x8's across them, instead of using 4x4's and running the boards length ways. I prefer to use 8' long boards instead of long 16' or 18' boards.

Feel free to poke around my pictures, ask questions, whatever.

Donovan from Wisconsin
some of my projects

I was thinking 2.5 feet from the beginning of the tongue so that makes it about 3 feet which makes the final answer 10.5 feet.

How did you make that tri merle?

The Merle is Olivia- the tri is Gus. They live at home with my parents, and used to sleep in my bed before I moved out. Olivia was from another pair of dogs we had (Merle named Diamond & Tri named Bogart), so we've had her from day 1. Showed both her parents in the fair too.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Everybody seems so concerned about having over size sills under the bed. Standard factory wagon beds were made with 2 x8 yellow pine sills and unless you left then to rot they never had one break and 2 x 4 was used for cross members. Oak is wah to heavy a material for a bed, years ago an oak bed was known as a horse killer because they were so over heavy, if do not want to use a pine then cotton wood is ideal as it is lightweight enough that you can move that wagon by hand and either pine or cottonwood will hold all the load you would ever want to put on that gear. And you do not need 8' wide for bales, all factory made ones were 7' unless they were the small 6' X 10' beds. And stop to think about it if you go that wide how are you going to change a tire if it needs to be done, the wheel track for your wagon is 56" and the ones that use 8' beds generaly use a 72" wheel track wagon gear.

Lots of those wagons didn't hold near as much hay, so they were lighter. I personally have never seen a wagon built with just 1 2x8 per side for stringers. Atleast 2 of them fastened together, absolutely.

Most people who use wagons now don't have such small tractors anymore (8N, 2N, 9N...) and nobody who builds these wagons pulls them around with horses.

Myself, I would rather overbuild and be able to overload without worry than underbuild and tear it up with a load that's about 10 bales too big. Whenever 1 of the 2 hickory trees go down that we have in our feild, it's going to the sawmill and getting turned into usable lumber.

Bigger wagons are much more usable than small ones. Changing a tire isn't any worse than a wider running gear on soft ground. On a solid surface and with the wagon properly kept from rolling (hitched to tractor for example) you can easily change a tire under a loaded wagon with a bottle jack of the right size.

In this area, as well as many others, 8' is as small as wagons go. Kickers are almost exclusively 9' wide, atleast 18' long. Flats are ussually 8x16. We use 2 that are 8x18 and they hold 1 more row of bales.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Gus

Olivia

Link directly to the projects page (wagon) I hope- othewise click on projects from my main album.
projects

I like a 20 foot flat on 6 and 8 ton running gears, and 18 foot deck if its a 5 ton gear. Mine are all spaced the same, 18 inches from the center of the front axle to the front of the flat, 4 feet from the center of the rear axle to the back of the tailgate.

For runners, or sills, I used to use 3x10 white oak but, when I started making some silage bales I broke a few 3x10s so I went to using 4x8 white oak. I like them a lot better. For the flooring, I use 1.5 inch x8 foot, variable width or 6 inch width rough cut white oak, nailed to the runners with 2-3 twisted, case hardened masonary nails (not galvanized, they are way too soft). 2x6x20 sideboards, white oak, bolted with 3/8 inch carriage bolts. I space the floor boards 3/4 of an inch apart to help keep the deck clean.