Mobile tractor plans

[Penpal]

If the coop is elevated it will give your chickens more outside space, and it will give them shade.

 

[mendozer]

yeah plus it keeps food away from mice. Plenty of field mice in my yard.

 

[mendozer]

got the base made up and hoop. That tarp is not the roof, it was just raining as i was welding. I used Makerpipe fittings for the 3/4" conduit bases and I got 1" galvanized chain and cut them in half with an angle grinder to make little half loops to tack weld the cattle panel to the conduit so the hook can technically shift a tiny bit during moving to prevent breakage. Got the door framed up in conduit and used Eye bolts to wrap over the cattle panel pieces and screw down into the conduit.

 

[mendozer]

finally a weekend without rain. Got the wood backing and floor in. I chose to suspend the flooring with the same conduit and fittings. Angling up from the base, it seems very sturdy. The middle hole will be for them to walk down a ramp to the grass. Getting the hoop lined up with the domed wood took forever doing this by myself.

 

[Huntmaster]

Looking good

 

[mendozer]

worked at it all day again. I used the plastic corrugated board (like yard sign material) for the water proofing of the coop roof under the tarp. lightweight and 100% waterproof. welded up a latch mechanism with some extra conduit, bolts, and a nut. pretty clever if i may say so. This is why I liked the conduit idea. easy to tack something on. some washers welded on the prevent the door from swinging inward. Hinges for the door are made for 3/4 conduit and bought them off a guy from the makerpipe community who 3d prints them.
Added a rain gutter to one side which si where the water tote will live. Plus I won't have to go inside to fill the water if needed, just dump a bucket into the gutter.

 

[mendozer]

i finished it but it's too damned heavy! The waterer must be close to 100 lb so maybe that's putting it over the limit. Otherwise the conduit and cattle panels should only be 175 lb or so.

 

[mendozer]

i mounted trailer jacks to the side with a wooden bracket i had to attach to the conduit, got a trailer dolly for the front and moved it about 4 feet until the conduit fitting in the corner came off. re-attached it and it happend again. also the conduit flexes way too much. i just think it's too heavy for conduit. dammit. now i have to scrap the whole thing and start over. I added some nice features I want to keep, but it looks like i need to make it out of wood now, maybe 1x4 cedar

 

[mendozer]

I swear I'm gonna lose my mind. first the conduit failed sop i rebuilt it out of cedar. It is solid. Its 7x10 now, so slightly smaller. I cannot for the life of me figure out a retractable wheel option. I've done:
-cantilever wheel design - fail
-superstrut channels to add vertical rigidity to the trailer jacks - failed
they keep swiveling out of the way crooked
-superstrut with cantilever arm, too much twisting, fail

i have poured hundreds of dollars into just figuring out this f-in wheel design. the coop itself is done and great but I can't move the damned thing out of the driveway. I could just mount wheels through the bottom wood frame but it's off the ground and a predator risk. Nothing is working and I'm ready to burn the whole damned thing down. I've contemplated so many designs for this but once tested they keep failing. I can get it to lift but the wheels either twist crooked or the vertical support of the jack bends inward or both. Not having a wooden frame is truly the achilles heel of this hoop design. I don't know how people with hoops are moving them

 

[mendozer]

I got the coop in the back now, took me over an hour to get it from the driveway to the backyard because the unlevel ground caused the mild 4" lift to get stuck at times. The wooden hoop is still too heavy. I'm just gonna do an open tractor design like Suscovich but I'm not bending conduit so i bought a greenhouse kit off Vevor and i'll use that as framing. So here's trial 3 incoming...