Trailer Coop on the Cheep

[MadGardener]

As a budding homesteader and lifetime cheapskate, I wanted to chronicle my adventures building a mobile chicken coop with used and salvaged materials. Reclaimed sounds classier, but I’ll freely admit I’m repurposing trash. It seems like homesteading has pretty different meaning to different folks. At my place, we try to “do more with less.” Spend little, reuse much, make it work by staring at it for a long time and hoping for an idea...

There was a time that my main reason for salvaging was spending less money, but more and more the environmental implications are appealing to me. During this strange new phase of my life I see it as part of my full-time job. Striving for self-sufficiency, and keeping chickens on pasture is a big part of that to me. I hope to give inspiration to folks who are looking to make do with what they have. Or maybe someone can help me determine if this is stubborn or stupid.

Unfortunately I do not have the luxury of a workshop, garage, or basement. Life’s interruptions, seasonal chores, and weather make everything take much longer than you initially expect. Much, much longer. Hubs is an experienced builder and is going into this project without a firm plan. I will try to detail as much as I can and stick it into an article later.

I gladly welcome feedback from any who wish to offer it. And am glad to answer any questions.

 

[MadGardener]

The Plan

I am planning a 6x8 coop with a monitor roof. I will be adding poop boards down both 8’ side underneath roosts of the same length. Part of this is to even weight loads on my slopey terrain. The poop boards will be 24” above the floor, beneath one side will be a containment zone for isolation. Four nest boxes will jut over the tongue (one nest box accessible from the containment zone). I may splurge on an automatic pop door, but will add a people access and pop door to the back of the trailer. This creates a 24” “alley” up the middle of the trailer and will be 60” tall. I could stand between joists if I was careful. I plan to use deep bedding and will crawl in for yearly clean outs.

Side doors are not very settled yet. I like the idea of top hinge doors for poop board access. I believe the boards will be about chest height once this is all together - and if the trailer was on level ground. I like the idea of leaving doors propped open during hot days. I plan the lower portion be accessed through a small side door, but may opt for 2 in the “containment” area side.

I drew up plans but they won’t show well. If anyone has a suggestion for user friendly programs I’ll give it a try as projects permit. The 3D one I tried was not fun at all. So I printed graph paper lol. If I draw anything better up I’ll put it in this post for ease of converting to an article later.

 

[Lor]

Nothing wrong with reusing what you have. I'm looking forward to seeing how things turn out.

 

[MadGardener]

The Trailer

I found a good deal on a used trailer thanks to Facebook marketplace. It’s a “Harbor Freight Special” as Hubs has dubbed many a “good deal but not the greatest quality” items we get there. The trailer is designed to dump, and to fold. Which we obviously don’t need with a coop on top.

I stripped off the wood, wiring, brake lights, and other unnecessary attachments. There were a lot of rusty bolts and I was glad to have a breaker bar. A longish pipe that fits over your socket wrench handle also works in a pinch, and is great for a lady to get extra leverage. Hubs handled the angle grinder and cut the bolts that we couldn’t wrench off. Not fun.

As you can see, the trailer has a good deal of rust and peeling paint. No biggie, I thought, just a good scrape and spray paint it, right?


Wrong!

This little hole is in a pretty bad spot. This is where the axle is bolted to the frame. We both really wished one of us knew how to weld at this point! So, Hubs called me over for my urgent help in his patented “let me stare at this until I get an idea” stare. I don’t think my stare is as developed as his yet.

This stage of a project varies. And can be repeated several times. Hubs is definitely the main fix-it guy around here. I can sometimes lend a novel idea. He has a very good stare.

But scraping can proceed! Hubs has taught me a lot about building and fixing. One of the most important parts seems to be bringing every possible tool you can think of to the job site. You’ll still need to grab more, though. Hope your yard is flatter than mine!

I cannot recommend the “safety stare” for some projects. Using the drill to assist in scraping is definitely an eye protection job. I also opted for a face mask since my last paint scraping project ended in an allergic reaction. Ain’t nobody got time for a Benadryl coma.

I opted to scour the tops and sides first. Then we can make our repairs and flip to scrape the bottom, followed by paint on all sides to delay future rust. The tires came off and we did our best to get the trailer relatively level for our repair job. We have lots of scrap lumber and I think leveling things is the most frequent use we make of some of it. Don’t throw away every short wood scrap, they come in handy sometimes. Different sized cinder blocks suit us nicely in the mountains as well.

So now we have a project we don’t want to buy much for. Neither of us weld. Looking for cheap but sturdy. Luckily, Hubs doesn’t believe in throwing things away. This has come in handy too many times for me to fight anymore. I ask that there be no junk piles visible from the kitchen windows and so far it’s been an ok compromise.



The U beams that go across the trailer (short, 4’ span) fit inside the U beams that make up the frame where the axle blots on (long, 8’ span). Convenient! The short beams fit right into the rusted parts after some scraping, grinding, pounding, and drilling new bolt holes. That sentence makes it sound way easier than it was.

Copious amounts of JB Weld were added. This took several days to get the best angle by propping the trailer and allowing for proper drying time. Hubs cut an old bed frame to replace the beams we removed.

Yay, you can only see through the spots you’re supposed to! I power washed the trailer at this point to prepare for paint. We will be building floor joists a foot over each side. The repaired spots should never get direct rain, but we want to get a good coat of paint on every side of this thing to seal it up. It will never be this easy to do it again once it has a coop on top.



I selected a tractor & implement spray paint in green. The hubs were wrapped in grocery bags. Unfortunately the time between coats was 24 hours. 2 coats with the trailer upside down, then 2 more right side up. Looks good as newish!

 

[MadGardener]

Framing the Floor

Hubs scored a great deal last summer for free lumber. A couple had a mini farm and were moving. They had tons of stuff free for the taking before they listed the place. They even gave us our first 3 hens and 7 pullets (and coops/accessories) in exchange for bringing a dead pine the rest of the way down. Almost all of our lumber will be from this haul.

Hubs decided the 4x3 oak beams from the long pallets would make the for a stable floor. He also wanted to try his hand at some joinery for additional stability. We hope it will help with torque on our hills.

He started with the beams that go across the 6’ span (4’ of trailer beneath). One was placed over each metal trailer beam, with a short piece between the tires. Hubs drilled holes into the metal trailer beams, then lined up the 4x3s and countersunk the holes. This allows us to use bolts and locking nuts to secure the floor joists to the trailer and still remain flush to mount the floor.

Hubs measured out for a long 4x3 to be laid perpendicular to the 6’ joists just attached. He set his saw depth to cut half the height of the long 4x3 and measured its entire width. Then he cut several times close together to notch out the cut.

I chiseled these out carefully, going until the saw lines disappeared and everything looked relatively straight. I went over with a rasp, and rounded the corners just a touch.

We repeated this process on the long 4x3, marking every intersection and removing half. After much hammering, clamping, and trying to go straight and slow, we were able to get the long 4x3 down and tight. Each intersection got a structural wood screw, and a few exterior screws set at an angle.

Hubs then pulled out our plywood. The piece the trailer came with is pretty rough, but salvageable. However it’s now too small. He laid out his pieces and figured out where joints would be. Hubs added some short pieces where needed to make sure every piece of flooring sits on 3 members. (Note the stare.)

He also used some more of that bed frame to make corner brackets. All 4 outer corners and the “wheel well” have this additional bracing.

It looks like a floor!

 

[3KillerBs]

What a great start on a cool project!

My tip for getting plans onto these forums is to either hand sketch them or print them out then go over all the lines with Sharpie markers before photographing them.

Tedious and the results aren't as pretty as what my daughter can do in her CAD system at work, but effective. Google Sketchup has too steep a learning curve for me without someone to teach me. (My daughter says that her actual CAD stuff was easier to learn and use -- which doesn't surprise me knowing how Google Docs resembles a 1990's word processor).

I am planning a 6x8 coop with a monitor roof.

I love a Monitor Roof -- such excellent ventilation!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have that same trailer, only aluminum. Yes the axkle point and hinge are poorly designed.

Best of luck on the build!!! With the timbers you are using, that's going to get heavy fast. OTOH, it won't be falling apart any time soon.

 

[Percheron chick]

... make it work by staring at it for a long time and hoping for an idea...

This made me laugh. I suffer from the same condition. I have bouts of insomnia and manage to work out the details of the project while starring at the clock at 2:30 in the morning.

 

[MadGardener]

What a great start on a cool project!

My tip for getting plans onto these forums is to either hand sketch them or print them out then go over all the lines with Sharpie markers before photographing them.

Tedious and the results aren't as pretty as what my daughter can do in her CAD system at work, but effective. Google Sketchup has too steep a learning curve for me without someone to teach me. (My daughter says that her actual CAD stuff was easier to learn and use -- which doesn't surprise me knowing how Google Docs resembles a 1990's word processor).



I love a Monitor Roof -- such excellent ventilation!

Thank you! It's sad because I used to use a very simple building sketch program processing real estate appraisals. Can't remember the name of the softwar e anymore. I'll give Sharpie a try when rain moves back in.

Your Little Monitor Coop article has been so helpful getting this planned out. Thank you for taking the time to put it together!

 

[MadGardener]

I have that same trailer, only aluminum. Yes the axkle point and hinge are poorly designed.

Best of luck on the build!!! With the timbers you are using, that's going to get heavy fast. OTOH, it won't be falling apart any time soon.

We saw that trailer at a decent price on sale but by the time we were ready the sale ended. I'm glad we could find it used at $200.

We got the framing off in one piece and propped for washing. It's heavy, but not as bad as I expected!