Halloween hayride

Last year I used my 52 8n to pull a buddy's 12-14' utility trailer (high wall mesh) around (on a paved street) for my kids and a few of the neighbors as our houses are a bit spread out. It quickly turned into a hit and the trailer was loaded with several kids and parents at least those who could find room as the rest were walking along side. It was a great time and we thought we would do another one this year. The past 2 weeks has had everyone at the bus stop asking if we are doing it again so according to the better half the answer is yes The question is this, my buddy has since sold the trailer and another friend has said I can use his (my guess) 16-20' car hauler trailer... can I use it safely. It has a metal floor instead of wood and twin axels. I have done some reading and searching on the site and it seems the 8n shouldn't have any trouble pulling the trailer or any number of people who want to climb on board. Safety as always is my biggest concern though. My current setup has the PTO covered and a ballhitch attached to a drawbar and drawbar lock, I did not have stay bars on it last year. The setup worked well last year, although I did find there was a little play in the drawbar where it had the ability to tilt ever so slightly. Did not seem to be an issue but looking for suggestions and the been there done that. The key is to make this a night to remember for the trick-r-treating not anything less fortunate. This trailer does not have sidewalls and I am not sure if it has brackets welded to the trailer where I can add some 2x4's to make a railing. In addition to any safety suggestions, who has pics to share of some great hayrides? I'm trying to search the phones archives to find any of ours from last year. We had some great, relatively cheap l.e.d. lights hooked up to a car battery (since i'm still a 6v 8n) which helped everyone see their way around and ensure any vehicles coming by would easily see us. As always thanks in advance.

For that I would NEVER use a draw bar on the 3 point since it sits back a long ways and can cause a lot of lift on the front end. I would buy a swinging drab bar that bolts on under the rear end and has a plate at the PTO area. That way your hooked up closer to the rear end. One big issue is stopping power and a trailer that big comes in close to as heavy as the tractor it self so being able to stop fast if you need to maybe a problem even when running in first gear. Also being 6 volt system limits you on many things like light dues to your generator may not have the amps to run many lights and for sure not the volts to work trailer brakes if it has them

Old is right. Sides on the trailer would be a good idea, keeps kids from falling off and from under the wheels. Have adults on the tail to keep kids from jumping on/off while tractor is moving. The kids will have awkward costumes on that might obscure there vision , so beware if kids are running/walking alongside. Make sure your brakes are the adjusted up and in good working order(not covered in oil) . Be safe

I used a 16' car hauler for years for hayrides. Finally all the kids in the family grew up.. so no more.

As others said. do stake pocket sides if you can.

I pulled with everything from an 8n, naa, JD-B, and a ford 5000.

If the car hauler has e-brakes, it's easy to toss a brake controller on your N and set a battery on the nose of the trailer and use the panic slider on the controller to give you brakes.

I always hooked up a flasher relay to that battery and made the trailer lamps flash, as well as stuck a SMV plaque on it, and ran headlamps on the tractor. We added an inverter and put christmas twinkle lamps on the side of the trailer too. worked out nice.

good luck, be safe.

Soundguy, did you go with the 3point and drawbar or the version described in the other post? Thanks

My grandpa used to pull a trailer around for hayrides on Halloween. He used a car battery and an inverter to run lights around the trailer and screwed down a 2 foot railing to the front and sides. He lined up hay bales down the center of the trailer and made all the kids sit down (facing the sides) while we were moving. I don't know how he hooked everything up but I remember the end result was that when he stopped all the lights on the trailer turn on so we could see getting off the trailer and there was a light to the right of the trailer so we could all see going up to the door of houses. When we finished and loaded back up gramps would turn off all the lights and we would drive to the next spot. The trailer also had brake, turn sigs and the tractor had head lights. My dad and his friend stayed on the back of the trailer and someone followed us in a vehicle with the hazards on.

Wish I knew how he hooked everything up.

And if anyone has pictures of their hayride set up and in action I would love to see them

Call me the Halloween scroge: Do you own a car house wages because your " Freinds" Lawyers will get it all if something happens. last year ME
Hayride

The hay ride he is referring to....Jeep pulling a trailer for a hayride. Jeeps brakes did not work driver hit a tree. Killed one injured others. All of the other "accidents" I found involved "Darwin Candidates". Tractor pulling two hay trailers one drunk genius jumps from trailer to trailer while moving, falls between them and got run over.....similar stories all over. Didn't find anything where good safety was being practiced and something happened

There was one fatality when someone put hay bales around the outside of a flatbed trailer for the kids to sit facing inward. One kid fell over backwards, under the trailer,
and was run over by the wheels . I think there was a similar accident involving low benches on each side with no back rail. A 2' rail may not be
high enough to be much use, as people may use it as a seat. You got to keep in mind whatever you come up with that kids will be leaping up, leaning over, squeezing
under obstacles, hanging their arms over the rail, and trying to stick their arms in the machinery.

Time to show my solution.

You would have to crowd a lot of very heavy-weights on the front to cause any lightening of the front of the tractor, and that draw-bar lock will keep your ball secure. I used to have a car carrier type trailer that we made sides for and used it to take the sheep to the fairs. They slipped easily in and out of the stake pockets.

I pull tandem axle trailers around all the time with tractors.
(they actually behave better than a single axle)
under belly drawbar only, those lift arms ain't made for trailers.
not the silly factory 8N one, a real swinging drawbar setup, pinned center position. dunno, about $100 nowadays.
I can't imagine a tractor without one...where am I going to hook my chain when dragging something?

road trailer? shouldn't be hard to rig it up so the electric brakes would work in a panic situation.
Here in rule for everything NY, we'd probably [i:683fc312b8]have[/i:683fc312b8] to.
Worried about weight? wheel on the trailer jack, cranked up to just give about 6" of ground clearance will give you built-in wheelie bars.

and most important, you need a no nonsense spotter, either on the tractor with you facing the trailer, or on the trailer.
everybody can have fun...but silly or dangerous stuff....knock it off or rides over...right here, right now..I turn the key off and walk home.

I do my hayrack rides with an actual hayrack that has a double row of bales down the center (so everyone's facing outboard). Flat ground, low speed. Children must be with an adult. Never had an incident and everyone always has a good time!



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