Diy meat bird or grow out A frame tractor (step by step build pics)

[aart]

Is this for meat birds?
DUH, never mind....it's in the title.

 

[CindyinSD]

Thanks! I'm going to add two handles out of scrap to pull it. Considering a hinged HC skirt for added security. It's fairly heavy tho. Definitely going to hang water and food. I may try my luck how it is security wise. Some people have success with tractors like this just moving it everyday so holes can't be worked on two nights in a row.

Moving it every day is a must, even without predators. I have very uneven ground, so when I move my tractors I wiggle them around to find the best seal and then lay scrap 4x4s (cut off from a pole bldg project) along any gaps.

You might find this fairly large tractor difficult to pull, esp uphill. You could put some bolts through from the inside to the outside at the very back like this:

You can't see well on the photo, but there's a metal strap (meant to strengthen joint angles) fixed to the wood where the bolt goes through to keep the hole from being eroded with use. You would need bigger wheels than mine since you would need to place the bolts within the tractor's body @ the back end, rather than beyond it.

My big (Suskovich) tractors will not move without wheels. Yours probably will, but even so there will be times you need to move them more than a tractor length or two... when putting them away at the end of summer, etc. Wheels are very nice to have. I use a rope at the front, just long enough to lift the base front off the ground when I'm standing at a comfortable posture to pull the tractor (walking backward).

 

[Tre3hugger]

Would you please (if you have them recorded) share the ridge and base angles & lengths for your A-frame?

I iwsh I had recorded the final results but I did not. I honestly just cut an 8 ft length in half with a 45 degree cut on my compound miter saw. So then I had two four foot lengths with 45s on the end. I can't remember what the base angles were. I got the final lengths by just lining it up and marking it and cutting it. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. It was a relatively haphazard process lol, and I am not sure how I made those angles work.

 

[CindyinSD]

I iwsh I had recorded the final results but I did not. I honestly just cut an 8 ft length in half with a 45 degree cut on my compound miter saw. So then I had two four foot lengths with 45s on the end. I can't remember what the base angles were. I got the final lengths by just lining it up and marking it and cutting it. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. It was a relatively haphazard process lol, and I am not sure how I made those angles work.

I did that guestimate method, too. I was working on tall grass, & uneven ground, so it's my own fault I had trouble. Next time I'll have to kick the tractor out of the garage so I can have a flat, even surface where it's possible to just trace those base angles.