Kicker Hay Wagon Build Question

For those of you that have kicker wagons for square bales and the deck running perpendicular to the main beams, how do you attached you're upright sides?

Any pics would be helpful.

Thanks!
Bill

I have rebuilt 4 of my wagons reusing the old sides. 4x6 treated main beams , 4x4 cross pieces bolted to 4x6. Treated floors from used treated lumber , uprights for sides bolted to 4x4 with 3/8"bolts. On 2 I bolted 18" pieces of treated 2x4 fo the uprights and bolted that to 4x4's with the old upright sitting on top of 4x4.This was done to get rid of rotted lower part of uprights. Sorry too much snow for me to get pictures right now.

Bill,
I use carriage bolts. I build mine with 3"x8" main beams, 2x6 cross pieces and 1-1/4" decking. I always cross brace the sides and the back to reduce wracking and install flashing on the top of the main beams, because that's where chaff like to collect. I pull mine with a pickup a lot, so I keep the rear wheels as far back as I can to reduce tail wagging. I'm not sure if larch is available in your neck of the woods, but it's great stuff
Pete


I use rough cut lumber, so it's full dimension

Thanks!

I'm not building a kicker wagon from scratch. What I've got is a wagon that has the deck made from 2x6's that are perpendicular to the main beams and fasten directly to it. What I want to do is attach sides to that existing deck.

Thanks again!
Bill

Thanks - I don't have 4x4 cross pieces to the main beam, but an existing wagon where the deck is 2x6's screwed directly to the main beams -perpendicular to it. I'd like to add sides to this existing wagon's deck.

Thanks again!
Bill

Run 4x4 on top and bottom edges and bolt though everything. Then bolt your sides to the 4x4s. That'll stiffen it up. You'll still probably need some bracing from the sides to the rails to reduce the tendency to spread.

You could try building sides on top of the floor, maybe run a 4x4 fastened to floor and uprights fastened to that outside of the floor .I dont know if this might cause the 2x6 floor to sag over time. I would try to go as light as possible with your sides to avoid this. If you arent going too wide it might be ok.

I agree with Timmy here. Or possibly just buy a metal rack and mount it on your floor. I've seen them built like this. 2 sides, a back and a front gate.

30 years ago I built my first wagons on some old running gears. I put 4x4s across the stringers and ran my floor boards length wise. But for the sides I used pine {2} 2x4s for the sill and 2x4s uprights with 1x6 pine boards for the side. Bolted bottom sills to the 4x4s. One of those wagons still exists as storage for used lumber under a roof. I realize this is not how the OPies wagons are built but I used lite rough cut pine like studded walls and it worked well. The point of the ends of your floor are well taken and a good point. I have a wagon built like OP that is in need of total rebuild with steel sides/rack. The floor bowed from the weight of the steel rack. If the wagon was in better shape I was going to scab in a pc of channel iron level with the floor and run it so the steel rack sat on the channel so the floor would not be under constant load if that makes sense? I would consider {if you can follow what I am suggesting} doing something in that order. The steel supporting the "walls or sides" would take the constant pressure off the floor boards. I use more lumber building my wagons the way I do and some of the others do too. But they are solid wagons where the one I mentioned of mine has failed as much from the floor being bowed down my weight as it has from rot. Next floor I am using treated lumber. I have learned my lesson on that part. Regards, John.

I had another thought. Bolt a steel C-channel down the edge with stake pockets welded to it to put the sides into.

I haven't done it because my boards run front to back and all of my wagons have had steel tube sides. If I were going to do it I would use 4x4 angle stock bolted to the ends of the deck boards and the bottoms of the uprights. I would cut the angle stock long enough to nearly span two deck boards in order to distribute the load. I would also cut 45s off from the exposed corners of the steel for safety.

Thanks for the replies everyone - much appreciated!

one thing you could do to strengthen the sides from flopping, is to run 3 or 4 of the uprights below the deck and tie the lower ends back to the bed pieces.