Homemade Farm Equipment

[Florida cattle]

Anyone ever built any homemade farm equipment.

I have a friend of mine who bought an old 2 row 3 wheeled John Deere cotton picker and stripped it down built a loader frame for it and attached his hay grapple on it to pick up his small square bales. It looks rough but the thing turns on a dime and didn't cost him much to build it and he was able to free up a tractor in his hay operation. I'm thinking of doing the same thing with an old IH combine I found that runs.

 

[Cabo]

Anyone ever built any homemade farm equipment.

I have a friend of mine who bought an old 2 row 3 wheeled John Deere cotton picker and stripped it down built a loader frame for it and attached his hay grapple on it to pick up his small square bales. It looks rough but the thing turns on a dime and didn't cost him much to build it and he was able to free up a tractor in his hay operation. I'm thinking of doing the same thing with an old IH combine I found that runs.

How about some pic's?

 

[MikeC]

Have a neighbor who built/uses a "Knuckle Boom" log loader on a big flatbed to feed hay with.

Works like a charm.

 

[Florida cattle]

cabo

I'll have to try and remeber to take the camera the next time I go over to his place.

MikeC that would of come in handy 2 years ago. I had to haul hay to a customer that never had a tractor around, and pushing 5x5 rolls of hay off my gooseneck worked on me.

 

[rmcva]

I've built two hay unrollers. First one I put together was about 20 years ago. Still going strong today. Built the second one a little heavier. Almost sold that one but decided to keep it. Glad I did. I have it mounted on the loader in front of the tractor. Unroll hay in front and drop pellets on the hay with a Vicon spreader with the pendulum (sp) removed. That frees up the other tractor when feeding pellets. Also have the unroller on the loader so I can remove it in minutes. Used a couple of short top links and Pioneer couplings for the hydraulic motor. Remove two pins and two hoses and it's off. Can drive back to it and pick it up with the loader and then put the pins back in and hoses as fast as i can remove it. That way if I need forks or bucket for other jobs I can change over fast. Don't know why I didn't think of it years ago. Guess feeding pellets brought out the need. And drought brought out the need for pellets.

 

[sidney411]

My 1st major welding project was a set of portable pens, complete w/ portable chute. One of the jobs Dad was on had a chain link fence they wanted removed so we said we would do it. It was made out of heavy guage steel - not regular chainlink posts. I used that material to make the pens with. All I had to purchase was welding rods and the cattle panels to put on the frames I built. That was a lot of work - but the cows haven't tore them up either! I have several more projects around the barn and yard that are in different states of completion - LOL!

 

[Florida cattle]

The best one we have is a homemade "cable plow" built out of scrap metal, that we use to plow in underground electrical and waterline around the farm. At max depth it will bury a 1" water line about 3' deep.

 

[jfont]

I built a three point back blade that angles and tilts, a hay spike to move round bales, and a three point hydrolic boom that has a telescopic insert that lets me pick up 21 feet. I also made a basket that attaches to the end of the boom that I get in for trimming trees.

 

[spoon]

Florida Cattle, you wouldn't have a pic of that plow would you?
I'm gonna need to run some waterline and maybe some natural gas line this coming spring. I might be able to cobble up something similar if I had a picture or three.

 

[Florida cattle]

spoon
I'll try to get some pics up, but it is a home made single shanked subsoiler with a short chain (8") welded to the bottom of the foot. We have different sizes of pipe (bullets) 8" in length with a loop welded to the nose for attachment to chain on plow foot with a threaded link. They are drilled with a pin hole in them you drill a hole in the pipe you are putting in the ground (already glued together and allowed to set) slide it into the "bullet" drop the pin in and you are ready to plow.

Cable; loop the cable and splice it, push loop into "biullet" drop pin into loop and plow.

the thinner you can keep the subsoiler the less ground distubance you have, you can just drivre the tractor over it to close the hole.

Always have a shear bolt on the subsoiler, and make a dry run to take care of hard ground and tree roots

the type of dirt and terrain you have will determine how far you can plow PVC pipe without it pulling apart.

 

[spoon]

Thanks! Pics would be great but I have a pretty good idea what you are talking about. I happen to have an old subsoiler I haven't used in years. New use for it!

 

[Florida cattle]

you want regret it

 

[flaboy]

3-Point Sprayer
Quick detach front hay/pallet forks.
3-Point Pallet forks
3-Point woven wire despooler
Trailers
3-Point booms
Bumpers

Heck I forget most.

 

[cowsrus]

Florida Cattle, I would also like to see the pics of your homemade cable/waterline plow. I,ve got a half mile of water pipe to put in before long and it might be easier that renting a ditching machine. Will it only work with coiled pvc tubing? As long as it will get below the frost line, which around here is only about 24" although some might differ. I,ve never seen it freeze more than 8 or 10" in the last 35 years.

 

[backhoeboogie]

3-Point Sprayer
Quick detach front hay/pallet forks.
3-Point Pallet forks
3-Point woven wire despooler
Trailers
3-Point booms
Bumpers

Heck I forget most.

:lol: , That's what I am thinking too. let me add on to your list.

Front boom/gin pole in the loader works like a crane. 3 point boom for the back of the tractor. Turn table to spin 2 ton limestone slabs going into the rock splitter to make them into bricks. A rock splitter/breaker. Pens, corals, chutes gates. Truck axle converted to a mower (haven't used it in years). Feral hog traps, hog pens. Rakes (many). Several log splitters but I buy cylinders and valves. Bought hydraulics for the rock cutter as well. Trailer modifications are a given. Take old axles and build hay buggies. Irrigation throw aways are great to build T's and 90's out of.

Basically, if you see something you like, go home and "reverse engineer" it. Build it better and stronger.

There is no such thing as junk or scrap iron. If it is metal, I can use it for something :lol: I'll take all that old aluminum irrigation pipe and build fittings out of it (T's-Crosses etc). Those old trampoline frames make great hay cradles.

Flaboy, I have never built a 3 point sprayer. I should have but bought a sprayer instead - and it didn't turn out worth a darn. Store bought is always junk :lol:

 

[Florida cattle]

cowsrus
We've got to put in about 800' of waterline here in the next few weeks, so I'll take pictures of the plow and show it in use.

The depth it plows is based on how long you build your shank.

You can use standard sch40 or 80 PVC pipe, as long as the glue has beeen allowed to set up and you pull it in the right direction (the bell end of the first stick should be at the first joint not at the bullet/plow)

The proper glue time can vary on the length of the pull I make. I've let it set up for just 10-15 mins on short pulls (400')

Backhoe boogie what is the "truck axle converted to a mower" ??

 

[J. T.]

I used old grader blades to make a bumper on a 245 DT Kubota. It is long enough to protect the front tires. I've used like a bulldozer to push over small trees and brush.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Thanks! Pics would be great but I have a pretty good idea what you are talking about. I happen to have an old subsoiler I haven't used in years. New use for it!

I did something quite similar with my old Dearborn subsoiler and it worked great. What I did though was to take a couple scrap pieces of 1/8 inch thick steel plate, about a foot or so wide and about 2 feet long, and make torch cuts in it about 2 or 3 inches long and then skip an inch or two, so I could get a clean bend. I torched a couple or three bolt holes thru the plate to correspond to some bolt holes through the subsoiler shank and then bolted it up, heated the plate and bent it out slightly, and then on a second line of cuts bent it back straight to widen out the 'slot' into a 'bell' shape between the two plates to the size of a lawnmower belt idler pulley. Once everything was nice and parallel, I pulled the plates off and ran a 6011 welding bead over the cuts to strengthen the steel back up, and then installed it back on the shank and installed the pulley a couple inches away from the bottom and put a couple big 1 1/2 inch nuts at the top between the plates, and put a 5/8 bolt thru the plates and nuts and out the other side and put a 5/8 nut on that to stiffen the whole thing up and provide a 'guide' for the tubing. I then used it to lay a 400 foot roll of black plastic water line right thru the yard, gate, pasture, and to where I wanted my troughs. I dug a 'starter hole' about a foot deep and pulled about a foot or two of pipe out to start, and my brother drove the tractor in low gear low range at idle while I took a slow walking pace unrolling the coil of plastic water line and half-guiding it down into the boot. I had to hold the line for the first 5-10 feet or so until the ground grabbed it enough to prevent dragging it, but after that it was just a leisurely walk behind the tractor uncoiling the tube. We laid it in one piece and had a 'finishing hole' waiting at the other end. It ended up about 18 inches deep, which is plenty in our area. Worked like a champ! The starter and finish hole also allowed us to cut the tubing off underground and plumb it into the existing PVC water lines at the well end and switch to standard PVC fittings at the trough spigots. Handier than sliced bread and took about 2 hours to build! OL JR

 

[cowsrus]

I kind of understand what you mean, but a picture woulld make it a whole lot easier.

 

[flaboy]

I kind of understand what you mean, but a picture woulld make it a whole lot easier.

Yep, I would like to see a picture also.