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Thread: Building a Mulch Trailer
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28th Jul 2015, 03:23 PM #31Diamond Member
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In an earlier design I did have the auger chute lower, as per the attachment, but then the issue of feeding it sideways arose, meaning a bit more height wasn't so bad, and it also looked a bit poxy. My other concern with having the chute too low is the possibility that the axle could come up and dent it.
I think I'm going to temporarily ignore the side feed design and get on and build the rest. There may be other, simpler, solutions, like a vibrating chute that doesn't need to be 45 degrees.
I probably will take on your suggestion of mounting the hopper legs higher, although I don't mind having things inset from the side of the chassis, as there's plenty to hit and catch along some of the narrower rows.
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29th Jul 2015, 11:12 AM #32Diamond Member
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Below is my latest revision. I've raised & widened the stance the hopper legs, except for the back ones as they can't line up with the RHS on the sides. I've changed the auger to 200mm and steepened the sides around it to 45 degrees. The middle two cross rails are now 50x50 rather than 75x50 for economy of stock lengths, and they don't actually do anything apart from hold the side rails together.
Having looked at a few other mulch trailers as per this page - http://www.seymourrural.com.au/secon...html#2nd-hand3 - I've noticed they set their wheels a lot further back, putting more weight on the tractor, which makes sense - a tractor drawbar can happily take a tonne or three. I'm not sure if I'll do that with this version, as it'd be handy to be able to move it (empty) with quad bikes, mowers etc.
The other thing I noticed is some of the commercial spreaders have extensions on their hoppers, which makes a lot of sense, so I'm going to have the 40x40 verticals open at the top to allow the option of supporting an extension assembly.
I'm going to get on and order the materials so I can get on and start making mistakes with steel rather than on the computer
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10th Aug 2015, 09:02 PM #33Diamond Member
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Bought home a truckload of sheet metal on Friday.
Sheet Metal.jpg
Had to go to the snow over the weekend so only got a start today - a couple of hours had the hopper tacked together and the outer seams welded.
Tacked up.jpg
Couple of things I noticed. I chose 1.5mm gal sheet as I thought it would be a decent balance between weight and strength, however it all adds up - just the hopper's sheet metal adds up to about 120kg which isn't the easiest kind of thing to move around, and it's only going to get heavier.
Also, I started on 75/25 gas and was getting pretty uninspiring looking welds, so I changed over to straight CO2 and it welds the gal so much nicer.
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10th Aug 2015, 09:22 PM #34Most Valued Member
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Hi Rusty, having the edges folded like you have, certainly makes it easier than butting the joints.
Kryn
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10th Aug 2015, 09:33 PM #35Diamond Member
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It was actually an afterthought - when I got a quote for the steel, it turned out the sheet size was 3050x1220, so to keep my 3m length, I turned up 25mm on each end, and made the end pieces 5mm narrower all round. As you say, it made it much easier to put together and allows for some error in the end sheets, which turned out to be about 4mm different in width.
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12th Aug 2015, 08:27 PM #36Diamond Member
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It decided to snow in Canberra, so got on to a bit of work inside.
I had no idea where I'd go to get a 3m long 200mm dia auger made quickly and cheaply, so I resorted to Ebay and came up with these:
Augers.jpg
The listing said 800mm long, which I took to be the length of the flights, which it's not - the flights are only 450-550mm, so the 4 I bought won't be enough - I've ordered another two.
With the ends chopped off they sit in the floor pretty well:
Augers Chopped Up.jpg
However I noticed that the central tube only has a 1mm wall thickness, and I expect there could be a fair bit of torque over the 3m length, so I'll have to work out some way of strengthening it. Only problem is that the inner dia is 45mm, which I don't think matches a standard pipe size.
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12th Aug 2015, 11:35 PM #37Most Valued Member
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Hi Rusty, Looking good. The only way I can think of to get around that problem is to cut the flights off the tubing and welding them onto some 40 NB pipe. Lightly tack weld on opposite sides of the pipe to prevent distortion, weld after everything is tacked together. There is a place that make the actual flights in Adelaide, in the Wingfield area, unfortunately can't remember the name, a mate of mine does seed cleaning and uses them.
Another way would be to cut some 45 dia bar approx 150 long, drill and bolt through the flight tube so they line up. Probably easier should a replacement be required.
Kryn
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13th Aug 2015, 10:21 AM #38Diamond Member
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I think you might be right about replacing the centre pipe - I did consider it initially, then thought I was overdoing it for what it a prototype, however the alternatives aren't great - putting in some kind of joiner, whether it be a length of 45mm square bar, or some pipe turned to size, will certainly make the joins strong, but the wall thickness is still very thin everywhere else.
The flights are only welded to the existing pipe with a couple of tacks, so removing them will be easy, and given the forces involved, and I don't think they'll need much more than that to connect them to a new pipe. I guess my concern is making sure the whole thing ends up being a consistent 200mm dia, but I think some kind of jig should help ensure that. I'll have a hunt through my pipe collection and see if I can find something close to the existing 46mm ext dia in a 3m length...
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13th Aug 2015, 03:45 PM #39Most Valued Member
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Hi Rusty, just looked up on Google 40 NB pipe is 48.3 OD and 32 is 42.2 OD, so you'll have some grinding to do or some filling to do.
I'd be inclined to go the 40 as I think there will be a lot of pressure on the flights, particularly when full. Have seen an Acco bogie drive tipper, make a cork screw out of a 100mm diam tail shaft.
Kryn
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13th Aug 2015, 03:54 PM #40Diamond Member
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I got that pipe size all mixed up - the ID of the existing pipe is actually 35mm, and I found some 25NB gal pipe that has a ~34mm OD and chopped a 3.1m piece out of it - it fits nicely inside the auger tube, so I think it'll be a good solution and the least amount of work.
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13th Aug 2015, 09:29 PM #41Diamond Member
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Moving onwards and upwards, the frame for the hopper is done, or at least tacked up:
Hopper Frame.jpg
I popped the frame off the hopper and will weld all the connections out at some point.
This evening I put the chassis together - very quick & simple, apart from getting the damn thing square.
Tomorrow, if I get the time, the springs will go on, followed by the drawbar and hitch, then bolt on the axle, flip it onto its feet and add some tyres.
Gonna have to guess where to position the axle - the chassis is 3,000 long (haven't quite worked out how long the drawbar is going to be) so the axle will be "a bit" behind the 1,500 mark.
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13th Aug 2015, 11:25 PM #42Most Valued Member
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Hi Rusty,
As a general rule I put the axle centre 1/2" per foot of trailer length behind the centre of trailer, 3m = 10' X 1/2"= 5" behind centre, but because there will be the auger at the rear which will be added weight, so to offset this, I'd go 200 mm behind centre.
At a guess, you would be doing sharp turns at the end of the rows, so you wouldn't want to long a draw bar, I'd go 3m and run it back to the spring hanger, which would be around 1600 from the front X member at a guess. You could draw this on the shed floor to see how much you end up with.
Interesting to see how close my guestimate will be.
Kryn
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14th Aug 2015, 10:41 AM #43Diamond Member
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I'll go with 200mm behind centre. It's not that critical as the tractor hitch can happily take 1 tonne or more, and the commercial spreaders often have the wheels almost at the back, but I want to be able to move the (empty) trailer around with small vehicles such as a quad bike, so it makes sense to aim for a towball load of a conventional trailer.
Overall length is kinda critical for the reason you mentioned - some of the turns will be pretty tight. On my sketch I set the hitch 1,000mm in front of the crossmember. I'll lay it out and see how it looks.
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14th Aug 2015, 09:22 PM #44Diamond Member
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Welded out the chassis, added the spring hangers and installed the drawbar:
Chassis.jpg
As mentioned, went with 200mm behind the centre line. Wasn't planning on running the drawbar all the way to the front hangers, as this isn't a road-going trailer, and the stresses and forces involved would be nothing compared to a fully-loaded trailer doing 100kmh, but it didn't add much length to have it do so.
Then added axle, greased up bearings and put on hubs, then a pair of boots and flipped it onto its feet:
Chassis Complete.jpg
Gotta say, quite a bit heavier once everything is on there.
For the moment the springs are above the axle to maximise height, a little concerned about this as the fish plate is sitting on the concave side of the spring, meaning when the spring flattens, the u-bolts will loosen up. If I ultimately go with the spring-over option, I might make up some packers to fill the void between the plates and the curve of the spring.
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14th Aug 2015, 11:19 PM #45Most Valued Member
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