Firewood Trailer For ATV's

Firewood Trailer For ATV's ATV'S ATV'S 28-2-10 Dan Jacobson hauls a lot of firewood out of the woods near his Pequot Lakes, Minn., home. To make the job easier, he built an ATV-pulled trailer that's designed to haul logs over rough terrain. Built from tubular steel, the trailer rides on a pair of 16-in. puncture-proof pneumatic wheels. It has a log rack that measures 6 ft. long by 16 in. wide, with 2-ft. high metal "stop brackets" on front and back. There's a small boat winch on front. After the trailer is loaded with logs, a poly rope from the winch is hooked up to a length of chain that's permanently fastened to the stop bracket on back of the trailer. The cable is then tightened down over the logs, and they're ready for transport. "It can carry 500 to 600 lbs. of logs. The trailer measures only 3 ft. wide from wheel to wheel so it's narrow enough that I can pull it through the woods without running into trees," says Jacobson. "The winch has a 600-lb. pressure rating so I can put a lot of pressure on the logs and keep them from falling off. Any more weight and I might lose control of the ATV going downhill or in slippery conditions. "The trailer isn't designed to be pulled down the road at high speeds - the wheels are equipped with slow speed bearings that would heat up, causing the wheels to come off." Jacobson says he built two earlier models before this one. "I built the first one out of wood, using 2 by 4's. Unfortunately the weight of the logs pulled the lag bolts out of the wood. It was a 75 percent failure, but I learned enough that I was able to build one that works." He estimates his total cost to build the trailer was about $365. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dan Jacobson, Sr., 8913 Weaver Lake Drive, Pequot Lakes, Minn. 56472 (ph 218 543-6623).

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