Moving chicken tractor with skis? Other ideas?

[Scifisarah]

So I am a biologist, artist and nurturer, but I am not an engineer or physicist which is why I have put off figuring out the wheels until last minute for my tractor. It is 5'x3' with a coop built out of plywood on a frame of 2x3s. The pen is underneath, with 2' tall space covered with hardware cloth. I don't have photos of it yet, but here are my early plans. I will try to take a picture tomorrow. I was thinking flip under wheels, but this sucker is heavy now that we have it built. I was wondering if anyone has had luck using skis for pulling tractors around, or if anyone has other suggestions on how to get this thing moving.

 

[LoneOak]

Check out this topic, Chicken Tractor Coop Wheels, and read my post in there-- #6-- about where to get the parts necessary to mount wheels to your tractor. f your tractor is so heavy that you can't lift one side, then go ahead and put 4 wheels on it one in each corner.

I made the post where you can click on the part description--blue areas--and see the actual part at the store. The brackets aren't very expensive at all and they are really strong and won't rust. All I used to mount my wheels was the corner bracket which I put on the back end of my tractor. I had drilled the forward most hole to 5/16" so I could use a piece of threaded rod to mount the wheel. I haven't tried to roll it around yet but will soon. I may have to add the straight bracket on top of the angle bracket to get a hole behind the wood and mount the wheel behind the tractor. It is still all trial and error until it works the way I want it to.

I don't have a good picture of the way its mounted now but if you blow this one up you can see the brackets on the back corner of the tractor and the wheels are already mounted on the forward most hole of the corner bracket. I hope it works!!!!!

 

[Scifisarah]

So I would need to be able to lift up the wheel end of the tractor while I flip the wheels under with a foot or something? Or are the wheels fixed? I don't want to do a fixed design that holds the frame above the ground, or it will be an invite to predators and I'd have chicks escaping. I can't see how this would work to flip the wheels, but I will show it to my husband. Like I said, I am not very mechanically inclined. The only thing that makes sense to me is a trailer jack, but the caster wheels on those are so smooth and small, I don't think they would work. Would love any other ideas and will take a photo of the actual wheel-less tractor after breakfast.

 

[aart]

Lone Oak...have you got your design tweaked out yet...could please you post close up pics of how it functions?

Wheel/Tire size depends on what surface you are rolling the tractor over, what the tractor weighs and what you are pulling it with.

Ski's might work but would still be a lot more friction to over come than tires... and might not hold up in the long run.


There's a couple of lever action wheel assemblies on here somewhere that looked pretty good...I didn't save the links tho, sorry.

Here's one I found with a quick search, don't remember seeing it before.

It can be laborious finding good info on here, but there is a lot here if you take the time to look.

Advanced search>titles only>tractor wheel

 

[LoneOak]

I'm not going to make mine where the wheels raise up and down, way to much work and complication for something I want to be real simple. I made it where only about 2" of the wheel is below the bottom frame of the coop and with the uneven ground I have it should be no problem having most of it touching. I plan on covering the bottom with 2x4 welded fence wire which will protect the bottom and still let the birds scratch and forage underneath the coop.

If I need to move it long distance I'm going to tie a strong rope to the front corners and hook it on my lawn tractor with the front edge just above the ground. For moving only 6 or 8 ft I will just grab the rope and lift then push or pull to where I plan on leaving it. I also have a heavy duty two wheel hand truck I could use to slide under the front end and lift it high enough to move it using the hand truck as front steering wheels. I haven't finished it yet and it still looks just like it does in the picture sitting on top of my lawn cart, this 4 wheel lawn cart I bought from tractor supply has been one of the best things I ever got.

 

[BStump]

Check out this Youtube video. This guy has wheels that jack up the coops so he can move it. Perhaps you could do something like this.

As far as skis go, i'm thinking water skis, not snow skis!

 

[Scifisarah]

I would love to have some sort of jacks like that, but they looked expensive! We ended up junking the flip around wheel idea since we needed the tractor mobile immediately. We are scraping our old tractor, so we stole the wheels from that and used treated 2x3's to make this wheel frame, with a bolt through it for the axel. Our old wheels used 2x4's anchored to a plywood plate, and I cringe every time we move this but so far it is solid. I can move it myself but it is pretty heavy! I like how our new handle works. Our last tractor just have a metal handle down by the ground that was not easy to use. Still have some finishing touches to add like some fleur de lis wood appliques, a pully rope to bring the ramp up, mount the 2x2 roost, and hooks for the food/water but it is more or less finished now.

 

[aart]

So how far do you have to lift the handle for the wheels to engage and start rolling?
Do you push or pull this tractor?
Nice construction!

 

[Scifisarah]

So how far do you have to lift the handle for the wheels to engage and start rolling?
Do you push or pull this tractor?
Nice construction!

My husband installed the wheels so they are about 1/4" above the surface of completely level ground (our garage floor). I am 5' 4" and have to lift the handle about up to my waist to clear our bumpy ground yard.