building a hayrack

I just bought a Green Chopper and I wanted to build a quick flat rack to feed the green chop on. I have a kewanee running gear from a forage box we had. Somebody walk me thru the process as I have never built one of these racks. What do I use for the stringers? and the boards on top. Any good sites with pics or do you guys have pics. Any help would be great.

Joe

just going to rebuild on also, this is what i have, 2- 4 by 6 main beams, then 4 by 4's across. then 16 ft, 2 by 6 longways. just like building a floor.thats the general idea. going on a john deere wagon, thats the only wagon i have seen that you can pull at highway speed and not have it weaving all over the road.

I went with 4x8s for the main stringers simply because I have seen so many sway backed wagons around. Make sure that you get the front ends of your stringers close enough together so that your tires can cut all the way for sharp turns. (Don't ask me how I know about this part)I used hemlock for my frame parts and It has held up well for nearly twenty years. Leave a good space between deck boards so that it will hold less moisture. Bolt your stringers to the gear only in the front, and put light chain around in the back. Use some good heavy 2 inch or so angle stock to attach your front and rear spreaders in between your stringers. Hope this helps.

Should be some plans here.
NDSU plans

I nailed roll flashing to my main beams, and stringers which are both oak, to help prevent them from rotting when hay chaff builds up on them. This is on one of my kicker wagon racks. The running gear is made by electric wheels.

For sure, I put old oil on the top of my stringers, and put tin flashing down each one, then nailed the boards over the top.

These are stringers dad did the same to 40 years ago, wagons sit out a lot, stringers were still good as new. Protect those cracks from buildup & moisture, good to go.

--->Paul

Yes, that was my point,but I forgot to say that, lol. It helps with the moisture, rain and snow on the deck. Wet hay on wood =s rot. J

I used to use 3x10's 20 for the runners but recently changes to 4x8's 20 after I broke a couple hauling silage bales. Decking is 1.5 thick, variable width, 8 feet long nailed with twisted shank hardened masonary nails crosswise to the runners with 2x6x20 side rails bolted on with 3/8 inch carriage bolts. All wooden materials white oak.

If you search this site under "Kelly C hay rack" you will get a link to his web site and he has step by step pictures there. Very nice site.

You say a green chopper so I figure you must be meaning a flail chopper and as I have not heard of any being made for years the John Deere 15 & 16 being about the newest that I know of they all are a design that is 30-40 years old and with those older models they will not load a long wagon like the new forage harvesters will. We had a John Deere No.10 flail chopper and it had trouble filling the back of a 14' bed. We had some shorter leg type of cattle so height was an issue and we wanted the bed as low as possible and the wagon gear was a wood wheel gear with rubber put on and with the fifth wheel type of steering we had to use a low height sill to clear tires while turning and still not get it too high the cows could not reach in the bed to eat so we used 4 X 6 treated posts with just boughten 2 x 6 lumber for the floor nailed cross ways of the sills so as to not add any aditional height. We also only made it 6' wide so the cows could reach the middle to get the feed, we made a V hopper the length of the bed with about 2' open on the botton for the feed to drop down thru. Only used treated lumber where the cows could not get to it, rest standard lumber yard material and lasted for years and sold the bed when the dairy heard left along with the hay machinery. We had 3 16' and 1 18' wagon and the 18' was the last to load as was way to much walking to load. Before we got the feed bed built we tried loading on the 16' flat bed and it just did not work and the chopper would not get the feed to the back of the bed. Everybody is talking about way overdoing the beds, no way do you need anything that heavy.