Anyone tried putting tractor wheels *under* house part?

[Uzuri]

This comes with pictures so I can explain what I mean

Not to scale

The blue thing is a wheel, the gray box is the house, and the white box is the run.

Anyway, I'm thinking there are two advantages to this. One is that the wheels can be flush with the bottom of the run portion, thus allowing the whole thing to sit flat, but the run will clear the ground when you lift that end to wheel it. The other is that the weight of the portion of the house that is beyond the wheel should act as a counterbalance to some of the weight on the run side. You'd still have to push that weight, but you wouldn't have to lift it.

One con to this design, of course, is that you lose area that could have been used as run space.

Thoughts?

 

[DarkWolf]

Be it under the house, to the side of the house or at the back of the house.. A wheel is a wheel is a wheel. So long as it's touching the ground, it will roll..

 

[Uzuri]

In a general sense, yes; in the realm of physics, not so much. Placement makes a big difference in how easy something is to move.

 

[DarkWolf]

Quote:
Unless you're putting the wheels too far to the inside, or not back as far as possible it should be fine..

 

[Uzuri]

*pokes the bit about weight counterbalance*

There's more to it than just inside vs/ outside, though. That's why I'm curious to see if anyone has ever done this. All I've seen only have them on the outside corner.

Not sure what you mean by back as far as possible.

 

[DarkWolf]

The placement that you're wanting to do is in the same general area as every other coop out there with rear wheels. It's still to the back of the tractor and, albeit not as much, still along the outside.

There is no counterbalance to factor in. Not like it's a balancing act.

 

[patandchickens]

No, Uzuri is right, it will be easier to lift and move with the wheels under the house part like that as opposed to under the far end as is usually done. That way most of the house weight is on the wheels, not on your hands (you don't have to lift much of any of the house weight, just the run weight, when you go to get it off the ground to move it). If you put the wheels even further underneath, you'd get even more benefit.

It looks sensible to me. I almost wonder (at the risk of overcomplicating things) how hard it would be to make flip-down panels to allow you to enclose the part under the house after all, so you woulnd't lose that run space. I am not convinced that's necessarily a feasible idea, but it would be nice wouldn't it

I like your design. If the run space is adequate, I'd build it for my own use, if that counts for anything

Although I am not certain whether it gives you maximal chicken space for your $-and-weight.

JMO,

Pat

 

[Uzuri]

Maybe I'll have to build it just to see how well it works so I can report back

I hadn't thought about flip-down panels to enclose that far end, but I don't imagine it'd be difficult at all, certainly no more difficult then, say, framing a door. Or perhaps just a three-sided piece that could be slid under once it was at rest and held on with the turnbuckle assembly that kycklingar! uses for her two-piece tractor. Hmm... I'd best go buy some more graph paper

Heheh, I'm having fun and my peeps haven't even arrived yet