Another McMoonter scrapheap challenge. Log trolley stylee

In a bid to retrieve some logs in long lengths from a sustainable source without having to carry them individually for a hundred yards or more I’m going to have a bash at building one of these.

Their list price is £400+. In McMoonterworld that was never never going to be a goer, so I will try and make one myself. The wheels were £40 from Machine Mart and after an hour or so at the blacksmiths this morning I’ve got £40 worth of cut and drilled steel.

Wish me luck.

Nice tyres 😀

Nice tyres

Noddy approved and puncture proof.

*tunes in to The Wood Channel, turns off phone, closes the curtains*

Noddy approved and puncture proof.

Must be tubeless then 😀

Welding time 😀
I have a big mower (400kg) on the back of the tractor that fairly regularly breaks the wheels it runs on so I have to weld them back together. I have to use stick welding as the steel is more than 10mm thick and as I’m a bit crap the repairs don’t look very pretty but they stick together pretty well.
Have fun MCM, look forward to seeing the results – I’m presuming you’re using a glue gun MIG?

BTW that price for the steel sounds great – it’s the cutting and drilling that I least enjoy!

What’s wrong with the trolley all the materials are sitting on? 😉

I think that is the tricky part done. We bored the long box section for the axle (a length of 19mm rod), the hub ends are capped with a piece of plate also bored to accept the axle. The wheels have bearings, so I have a thrust washer and a snap ring pin to hold them in place. I thought about welding the axle in place but I don’t think it needs it.

I’m just using a mig welder. It might not be the best tool to use outdoors, but it stops welding and grinding sparks hitting the ‘ tool shelf’.

The wheels are parallel, my phone camera lens gives them positive camber.

The trolley the materials are on is from a station platform. It weighs a ton and has solid tyres. It’s near impossible to pull even unladen on rough ground.

is that the back end of the ‘tool shelf’ peeking out of the barn door?

It never seems to rain in Mcmoonter world, the pictures are of a sun dappled idyl where ideas bear fruit and I am deeply deeply jealous

is that the back end of the ‘tool shelf’ peeking out of the barn door?

Yes.

*drums fingers waiting for an update

Oooh – are you going to brace that at all? All of the load you put on that trailer will go right through those welds. Run it over rough ground and you have the addition of short sharp shocks on the most brittle part of thr trailer.

Oooh – are you going to brace that at all? All of the load you put on that trailer will go right through those welds. Run it over rough ground and you have the addition of short sharp shocks on the most brittle part of thr trailer.

Ponders bracing as I head back to work…….

yup i wouldve put the longnitudinal bar on top of the axle if it were me..

Pigface – Member
It never seems to rain in Mcmoonter world, the pictures are of a sun dappled idyl where ideas bear fruit and I am deeply deeply jealous

Poetically put, and so very true 🙁

the stein one is rated for 500Kg and relies only on abutted welds

No muffins baked in between welds? I’m dissapointed. 😉

And +1 for the welded joint. You want the load path to run as smoothly through the fabrication as possible, from frame, through the chassis to the axles and wheels. Ideally through the web of the box section and not through any welds

There is some bracing vertically down to the axel…

Plus we all know mcmoonter will be loading a ton onto his! 🙂

That’s the steering end sorted and half braced. Just the cradle to do now. The small faffy stuff takes forever.

I tried a very unscientific jump up and down in the middle of the cruciform and didnt feel or see any deflection.

Do you need something to tow it with?

that is crying out for an old pair of bike handlebars

the stein one is rated for 500Kg and relies only on abutted welds

Looks like it’s made of 80 x 40 RHS rather than the 40 x 40 SHS that mcmoonter is using. Strapping transversely underneath the cross section of the axles will help beef it up a bit.

mogrim – Member
Pigface – Member
It never seems to rain in Mcmoonter world, the pictures are of a sun dappled idyl where ideas bear fruit and I am deeply deeply jealous
Poetically put, and so very true

Sorry for my shocking spelling BARE

It doesn’t rain because its a parallel universe unfettered by the time/money/skill Cerberus that savages most of my “ooh, that would be useful” ideas before they get any where near the back of the metaphorical fag packet!

Time for an update…

Tea time pit stop.

I’ve got the cradle sides on, just the greedy sides to add.

I’m making it from 50mm box section. When I was in the States I noticed the logging trucks had a single box section spine. The logs add rigidity. As it will be me that’s towing it, I can’t imagine it’ll be that overloaded.

Sorry for my shocking spelling BARE

should’ve stuck to yore guns, piggles

That’s a cracking pic CaptJon.

The blacksmith ran out of 50mm box section so that’s as far as I can get today. Hopefully they’ll have some in by the end of the week. I will try and get a coat of primer on it before then.

Some of the log lengths are eight feet long so if they are counterbalanced over the axle they should still be towable. I don’t need to make it collapsable as I will just fire it in the trailer when I go to fetch the logs. The blue one above is just too short for the logs I have in mind.

looking good!

as said above, handlebar grips on the handlebar part will set it off!

Interesting project as usual Mc

Stupid question, do you balance the weight of the logs between the wheels, or do you place most of the weight on the trolley but drag the remaining logs on the ground

As a parkie we use a two wheeled trolley for lumbering soil, brash and rubbish about in the park and balancing the load is a real art 😉

On the flat it does not matter much but add a slope that you need to navigate and it gets a bit more fun/tricky

Why don’t you use the trolly you already have???? doh 😀

What is the blue car behind door number 1?

Ski, I looked at the Stein on YouTube, they suggest balancing it over the axle with a slight bias towards the operator. The place I need it for is perfectly flat and a good surface. They fenced in the park with gates too narrow to get a Land Rover through.

The other trolley has rigid tyres and weighs a ton. It’s all but impossible to pull it over anything other than polished concrete.

Where’s the engine go ❓

the wheels, are FAR too small diameter!

What is the blue car behind door number 1?

It’s my folk’s old Corniche. It needs a ton of bodywork seeing to. It currently serves a the ‘tool shelf’ 😳

Unless the site is a bog, skidding them out with a tractor could be more beneficial for the site, our best re-gen is where we extract as it turns the soil and seed source. If the tractor don’t fit, it’s a great excuse for a winch.
Obviously, that’s not what you want to hear now you’ve nearly finished your trolley.

I have seen horses move an amazing amount of timber from some tricky situations in woodlands that I have worked in, in the past.

someone should make a telly programme out of mcmoonter