Building A Log Hauling Trailer

I don't know because I live in the country now or maybe I've been hanging around my good buddy Matt Carmona too much but I really want to get into milling up my own logs next week I'm gonna be building a chainsaw mill and then an early 2019 I'll be tackling the giant Matt Cremona bandsaw mill and if I'm gonna get into this I'm gonna need a way to snatch up a log and haul at home so I modified a trailer to have a pick'em up arch and give me the ability to do just that so stay tuned and I'll show you how I did it the concept is to make an attach an arch the back of a trailer that can pivot forward and backwards I'll be connecting a winch to the arch then can tilt it forward to grab onto something then winch the arch back to pull it up and onto the trailer now this project might seem big and I suppose it is in size but it's actually a pretty simple build also I'm using it in this case to haul around logs but it's worth mentioning that this design would be good for lifting and hauling anything that's big and heavy that you can get a chain around I personally have a lot of rocks on my place so I'll be going after next I started off by cutting the tubing that I'll use for the arch to link I'm going with quarter-inch material for almost this entire build we don't have the seller tree diameters that you in the north do but I still want to build this thing hefty so I'll always have the power should the need arise for the meantime I only cut the four bottom parts that make up the arch I didn't want to weld the complete arch on my shop floor then risk it not fitting exactly right on the trailer so next I started prepping these parts to be welded I started by sticking each one of my super jaws to hold on to it so I could grind in a bevel on all the edges that would be welded to another joint then I moved the parts back down to my floor and stuck them together I first talked them into place then welded them close for this project I'm using my power mig 210 MP machine and if you've been wanting a welder it's worth noting that this machine is currently on sale you can save over 400 dollars until November the 8th by using the promo code PM 999 at checkout over at lincoln electric calm now Cremona has his arch mounted permanently to the trailer but not yet knowing how often I'll be using the trailer I wanted mine to be removable I've been traveling so much here recently I asked Cody to tackle the design mock Kayson for me he not only did that but he also cut out all the parts needed for it at the plasma cnc and he even got footage of it what a guy now of course if you don't have a plasma C&C then you could do this by hand and if you're interested I have the DXF files available for download over on my website these mounting brackets have a bottom plate that will be attached to the deck of the trailer then two vertical plates that will sandwich either side of the arch all three components will get a hold so a pen can be placed all the way through this will create that pivot neat edge but also make the arch removable should we want to use the trailer for just regular hauling assertive these off by lining out the placement on where these side plates needed to be placed the important thing here is to make sure that they are parallel to one another you wouldn't want that arch trying to pivot up and having interference issues I'm using a one-inch diameter pin and to give it a little bit more support than the quarter-inch plate material I welded on some callers just cut from one-inch steel pipe onto the outside of both of those side plates next I set it onto the trailer and through a level on it not surprisingly the deck of the trailer needed some attention before the plate would be level and no you do want to make sure that your trailer is level before real level of this bracket to fix my own level situation I used my 4 inch belt sander to take down the high spot on the deck then after fine-tuning the left and the right I went ahead and moved on and the next step was to start reinforcing the bottom side of the trailer with some steel for this part I'm going with quarter inch angle iron and the important thing is for the angle iron to line up with a hold in these mounting brackets instead of welding the brackets to the trailer they're gonna be attached with nuts and bolt and this is to make them removable as well so the pen will make the arch removable then the nuts and bolts will make the brackets should we ever want to also take them off to use the trailer for regular hauling so back to you placing this angle iron our first transfer over the hole location from the mounting brackets to the side of the trailer then I cut the angle iron to length and stuck it in place on this be sure to leave room for not only the bolt put the washer size that you would be placing on it you can see that I use some scrap wood to build the decks um so that I could get a clamp in place and hold it while I set up to weld I placed a piece like this in line with the front holes as well as the back then started drilling the holes through the debt and through this angle iron I'm going to be going with half-inch hardware but started off with a small bit and then stepped it up a few times until I got up to the half-inch fit oh and the important thing here is to make sure that these plates are parallel to one another just like the plates on the brackets you want everything on the same line so there's nothing running into each other as it comes up or goes down once all of the eight holes were drilled I stuck in the hardware and tighten everything down while I was working on all of that brian was inside at my puny drill press punching a hole through both of the uprights for me it is a one-inch hole going through quarter-inch material so it was a job that required a little bit of patience but by the time I was done with the deck he was done with the holes so I could take the uprights and smooth out my wells before pinning it onto the trailer I smoothed out the weld because later I'll add some gussets all right to attach them to the trailer I set it in place between the two vertical side plates on those mounting brackets then move to the end of the leg so that I can lift it up align all three holes and shove the pin through after getting the other side mounted the same I squared up both uprights to each other and to the mounting brackets then I took a dimension for that flannel art piece I cut it to length and welded it in place building it this way it's not only easier moving the arch into place but it's also a safer bed over fabbing it on the shop floor moving it into place on the trailer and just hoping everything lights up with that welded up the last set on the arch was to weld on some gussets over each one of those seams these I went ahead and hand cut it with my tomahawk plasma cutter because they use spinner material for these I went with 3/16 material simply because it's what I had on hand I only place these on the front of the art so I have four total the middle two were coarse easily done with the arch laid down but the fender wells on the trailer got in the way of those outer two so I had to stand it up in order to complete those now while I was working on that Cody and Brian were figuring out how to mount a winch to the trailer to attach to the arch and I actually went out of town the day that they were working on this portion and unlike earlier they did not film it it is easy to forget to film if you're not used to it so here's an overview of the system for you Cody cut out a giant plate on the CNC plasma cutter in order to fit into the tongue of the trailer for the ones to sit on and what I thought was a good idea is he welded it to the bottom side of the trailer so that when the winch is under load its pulling that plate up against the trailer instead of just pulling against the welds the winch and battery were mounted then a heavy duty dude ring was welded to the art to create a grab point now before I get into the footage of using the trailer let me talk to you about this video sponsor which is Wix com most folks know me as a builder creator or a maker definitely not a website developer however in my line of work a website is such an essential powerful tool that it cannot be ignored fortunately for people like me Wix offers a simplified and free web building service designed to take out the stressors that come along with web development and I speak from experience as I've used Wix to build my own website to showcase a product that I sell which is a granade stool in both metal and wood they have a crazy cool drag-and-drop interface I hope you designing on the front end additionally Wix can support your product sales by helping you list products collect payments send invoices and they even have a default thank you email template to send out to your customers following up on they're completed order big thank you - wakes for making it so easy for me as a creator to sell my pieces online but also for supporting my channel have you been thinking about setting up a website I definitely recommend trying it it's free so you have nothing to lose go to Wix calm / go / April Wilkerson or click the link down in the description alright now let me show you how this trailer works a friend had two good-sized Oaks down on his property so we backed the trailer up to them they both still had their root systems attached so I first cut them off to make hauling it easier next we just pulled the winch out and hooked it on to a train looped around the log then pulled it not only in line with the trailer but also up close to it once it was close enough we engage the arch biting the winch onto the arch then connecting a chain from the arch to the log now as the arch moves back it picks up the log and gets it over the lip of that trailer then sets it down on the deck now we could lower the arch choke up on the log some more it can raise it back up to get the rest of it planted on the trailer deck then switch back to using just the winch and pull it up where we wanted it to rest and one modification I will be doing right away and I recommend for you if you tackle this project is welding on some hard stops to keep the arch from just falling over in both directions because there is a range where the arch will stay engage either from the winch or from the load of the log but then it just flops over which of course can be dangerous but also it then requires you to pick it back up for the winch to engage it but hey I am still calling this one a success and I think that's it for this one of course I'm already thinking about a few modifications somebody on instagram suggested adding jacks to the back end and i think that's a great idea and i'm also entertaining the idea of ramps with rollers just to make getting the log up and over this lip a little bit easier but we'll see of course if i do any modifications i won't bring you guys along now if you have any doubts or questions about how much an arch like this can handle be sure to check out matt Cremona instagram and youtube channel as he looks weird the beast tree throw and he hasn't come across one yet that he hasn't been able to tackle the plus he's been doing it for years and is very knowledgeable on the subject so that's it for this one stay tuned next week we're at build a chainsaw mill and actually slab up these logs I'll see you then

Channel: April Wilkerson

Views: 750,711

Rating: 4.8697848 out of 5

Keywords: april wilkerson, diy, triton tools, wilkerdos, wilker dos, how to, home improvement, shop project, wood, diy project, woodworking shop, outdoor project, female builder, diy shop project, april, female woodworker, female carpenter, diy projects, woodworking project, women who build, do it yourself, how to build, woman builder, trailer modifications, logging videos, logging equipment, logging trailer, DIY logging trailer, log hauling trailer, matt cremona, log trailer

Id: uI6kC2YN1Oc

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2018