Building hay wagon

[Keith Molden]

I am building a new hay wagon, it will be 8'x16'. Question is distance
between the holes in the center pipe (old one was bent pretty bad and I
don't know if it was a 14 or 16' wagon). Question 2, length of stringers in
front of front wheels and behind rear wheels. Help would be appreciated,
thanks, Keith

 

[showcrop]

Do you pull it behind your baler or no? The rear axle always carries far more weight than the front so I always get the front of the wagon as far forward over the front axle as I possibly can, but clearing the thrower or chute is the issue. You have to plan for low places that you may have to go through. The distance between holes always seems like a lot so I have made holes where I wanted them. Another tip: put roof flashing over your cross members to keep them dry.

 

[Keith Molden]

I will probably be pulling it behind the baler

 

[Janicholson]

2-1/2 foot rear overhang from axle is about max to keep from being light on the front when loading against a rear standard. Depending on hitch/chute relationship, three feet might be OK, but figuring tongue length, and turning limits it may need to be mocked up with the running gear to be correct. Jim

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Most 8x16 hay wagons around here were built with the front end right at the front of the wagon.

This was mostly due to the length of the wagon tongue being too short. If your tongue is long enough you would set the front end back between the second and third cross members. Rear should be the same, in the second "bay" from the absolute rear of the wagon. Drill the reach to match.

 

[Leroy]

Been years since we baled but always wanted only about 6 of bed on front of front tires. Get farther back and seemed like would not be able to follow baler as good in making turns in keeping the bed in place for the bale chute for hand loading and when we got a thrower kept things same way and it still kept the baler still in proper alignment behind baler. I have seen some with the axle set so far back it was 3'+ in front of front wheels for the bed. I could not see how it could be kept inline with bale chute on turns. And was about 2.5-3' in back of back tires but some of my wagons were not that far but by that time was no longer baling but they were shorter beds of 12 to 14' length used mainly to store things on. I suppose front length could be farter back in hitch on baler was centered under bale chute-thrower but our hitches were to right side of bale chamber.

 

[paul]

Its going to be more stable with the wheels closer to the ends.

It will be more maneuverable with a shorter wheelbase.

Pick your choice....

You dont want too much rear overhang, or the wagon tips over when you stack up a couple rows of heavy hay on an empty wagon.

Paul

 

[Bruce from Can.]

Picture of my 8x16 flat rack, you can see

about how much over hang on each end. Works perfect

 

[farmallboy15]

Here is my design I made in 14 and 16'. I believe my front offset is 42 from the center of the hitch hole to the front of the bed. I can check this when I get home.

The front of the bed usually ends up right above where the tongue pivots up and down, which is around a foot ahead of the axle center. You can always hook the gear up behind the baler to see, which is what I did. I wouldn't want more than 3-4' behind the rear axle, 2' would probably be perfect. So ideally 12-13' from center of axle to center for a 16' bed.

 

[Hay hay hay]

If you are planning to pull the wagon behind a square baler and stack from a chute, the distance from the hitch pin to the front of the bed is very important. Since chute lengths vary by brand and model of the baler, careful measurement with the wagon hooked to your baler is important. The end of the chute needs to be at or a little bit over the edge of the wagon. I have one wagon that was built wrong. The chute is too short to reach the wagon and it is very dangerous for the stacker. Don't make that mistake.

If you are just going to load bales off the ground it is much less important.

 

[Keith Molden]

Thanks a bunch guys for all the info. The info is about what I remembered but I wanted good feedback before I screwed up from not remembering. Seems like the older I get, the more I can't remember stuff.

 

[ASG]

60 pin hole to front of wagon, with most wagons this works out to 25-28 in front of wheels. If your front overhand gets mush over 30 the chute side will get into the wagon on tight turns. Most wagons will stretch out to 10'6, we build a new reach and stretch it to 11'6 for a 16'8 wagon (we use 20 2x10s 10 on center for the deck)

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Keith,
Is it possible to ever build something too strong?
My dad would add a second set of wheels on the rear to carry more. Just took the rear axle form a wagon.
He overloaded his wagons and blew tires. Or maybe he would buy use car tires form a gas station instead of buying heavy duty tires. OR both.

 

[ford1956tractor]

If you loading wagon by hand use 2 cross members vs. 4 and double the number. You wont sacrifice strength and 2 makes a difference at the end of the day!

 

[Doug Wi]

i build quite a number of hay racks and we load by hand behind a NH315. I try to have the distance from the pin hole on the hitch to the front of the rack 48 to 50.

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 16:38:10 07/16/21) If you loading wagon by hand use 2 cross members vs. 4 and double the number. You wont sacrifice strength and 2 makes a difference at the end of the day!

Ford1956, is this what you intended to enter? Only two cross members?

 

[farmallboy15]

My dimensions were 54 from the front of the deck to the hitch pin. This lines up perfect with my NH 273. Chute is a couple inches in front of the deck.

Front of the deck comes out to around 20 from center of the front axle which is gear dependent. Rear of decks were from 20-40 from center of rear axle. I wouldnt make it stick out much more than that. Even stick out between the front and rear would be ideal. I couldnt get the reach on mine to pull out on the gear with a longer overhang