hay wagon

With the recent lack of rain we have had to begin feeding hay to our livestock and this presented the perfect opportunity to do something that has been on my list for a few years now.  I have always wanted to rebuild an old farm hay wagon.  Well I finally found a frame and it really didn't take all that long nor was it difficult to do.  Below are a few photos of the various stages during the building of the wagon.

 Day 2:  The first day was just dedicated to getting the tires put on and the bearings repacked.  On day two  I replaced the bolts that hold everything in place.  Additionally, I had to rebuild the guide brackets that hold the main beams in place. 

Closeup of the main holders/guides with the holes already drilled.

Day 3: placement of the main beams is critical to make sure that the frame and the deck are square.  Once this was done the main beams were attached with 7/8 X 7 bolts to three of the brackets.  The fourth bracket is not bolted to the beam to allow for the wagon to flex as it goes across rough terrain.  The beam is simply chained to the frame with about 3 inches of slack in the chain for flexing to occur when needed.

The 4 x 4 cross beams were place 3 foot on centerdown the length of the trailer and were bolted to the    6 x 6 main beams by 1/2 x 10 carriage bolts. 

Day 4: the deck is made of pressure treated 2 x 8 's and will have to be cut to 14 foot.

After the boards were cut off all that remained was to cut the main beams with the chainsaw.

Wimberley warming up "Maddie" using the sled.

Maddie hooked to the wagon for the first time.  The wagon hitch is univeral in that it can be attached to the truck or to the single tree for Maddie.  The front of the wagon has three 2 x 8 x 8's going up to create fron push board so things don't go sliding off the front when you hit the brakes.