How big a machine shed?

So how tall are the more modern combines and tractors? We want to have enough clearance to handle those too, without digging out the floor later.

So, we're thinking about 30 feet wide or so, and 13 feet from the ground to the top of the door or bottom edge of the roof. Are these figures unreasonable?

You mean like this? This is my new antique tractor storage shed. It is 48*72, 14' to the square. One 20*12 overhead door on each end. And 3 10*10 overhead doors on the side. This was taken at the end of the 3rd day. The carpenters have now worked on it 8 days.It now has the cement floor poored and most of the siding on.Heavy rains have caused serval days delay for we can not get the cement trucks in Due to soft ground. More pictures to follow when finished.

Totally & completely unreasonable.

You need a 14 foot high door, 16 foot high ceiling then - laws of physics. It would be better to have a 16 foot high door, but how much does one spend..... .. ;)

You need a door 22 feet wide, a building 30 feet wide????? What good is that? Can't fit a door on it. Pointless. You are building a tunnel, not a shed. If you have a 22 foot door (for the common 20 foot bean head/ 8 row planter) and drive in, you want some room on each side to put a corn head, or the gravity wagons, or a tractor.... So you wan it 22 feet wide for the door path, plus 12 feet on each side to park stuff out of the way - or something near 46 feet wide. This gives you the endwall to put the doors on to close up the 22 foot door.

Plan some on paper, figure how to use your square footage. 30 foot wide is just useless. A real waste of space.

imho - it's easy for me to spend your money. :) You have to know what works for you. :)

I'm stuck with dad's 'big' machine shed. 16.5 foot wide door, 11.4 foot high. Got the concrete grooved for the wheels & the header cut out 2 inches to get the combine in. Too narrow. Just hard to do or go anywhere with it.

Don't limit yourself - save for another year if you have to, rather than build too small. Once it's there, you are stuck with it for 40 years.

--->Paul

we purchased a shed off the neighbor when he quit assembling motor bikes for honda--- it is 60 x 140 and you know its full ( it only has 1 usable door though...)

oh if your putting congcreat in it... make sure its got footers on every pad.... this one is only 6yrs old and the pads are floating (because some poor water control)

www.amsteelspan.com

I am not connected with them in any way. I heard Lou from Steelspan Buildings Inc. interviewed on the Derry Brownfield show a while back. As far as I am concerned, steel sounds like the way to go. Fast and easy to put together, easy to add on to at a later date, MUCH stronger (wind rating of 100-150mph. Yet the price is comparable with a pole shed.

• Side by Side Comparison: Steelspan Buildings vs. traditional pole barns. Who is better? Read this and you decide.

If necessary down the road, and it sounds like you plan on extending the length anyway, you can increase wall height as needed.

Good luck.

Bill

Three years ago I went around getting bids and my drawing with specifications clearly said 14' door height but virtually every salesman quoted a 14' eave until I kicked his posterior pointing out I really wanted 14' to clear the top of a fifth wheel trailer or a combine.

Road obstacles like cable TV and telephone only have to give 14' so machinery may not grow much taller and still move, though I've seen discussion on other forums that point out it is nice to have the trusses high enough to allow folding up the combine bin extensions or to fold a field cultivator or vertical fold planter inside which can need to move the bottoms of the trusses up to 16 or 18' above the floor. Or to have room to work on the combine cab roof from the outside.

Gerald J.