Powered Wood-Hauling Trailer

Powered Wood-Hauling Trailer WAGONS/TRAILERS New Wagons 8-2-9 Arthur Seute lives on a solid rock, 100-ft. high bluff near Olathe, Kan. Down below the bluff he has 30 odd acres of timber that he harvests a little at a time for firewood. Climbing that steep, solid trail with a full load of wood was nearly impossible until he came up with his 2-WD powered trailer. Seute cut the front end off an old 1-ton International milk-hauling truck and made a trailer hitch out of the frame. He mounted bigger tires on the rear end, and a box big enough to haul several cords of wood. He left the drive shaft and transmission in place. Next he burned a hole in the stub shaft coming out the front end of the transmission and slipped a conventional pto shaft over it and bolted it on. He attached a remote control lever to the stick shift and extended it up behind the driver's seat. "The pto runs the opposite direction of the truck engine so I have to put the trailer transmission in reverse to run forward. The forward gear runs about the same speed as the low gear on my IH diesel tractor that I use to pull it. I mounted a bracket so the trailer can only be in neutral or reverse. But, if I get in a jam where I need the extra power for backing up, I just remove the bracket and put it in gear to go back," explains Seute. Because the bluff is so steep, he mounts tire chains on both the tractor and trailer drive tires. Before building the powered trailer, he says he had to pull the loaded trailer up the bluff with a cable and winch from the top. Seute thinks the idea would work for anyone hauling under tough conditions and might eliminate the need for a 4-WD tractor in some cases. Contact: Arthur H. Seute, 13280 Kimberly Circle, Olathe, Kan. 66061 (ph 913 884-7926).

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