Hauling firewood on a landscape utility trailer

[4570Man]

I’d probably just lay some boards against the existing sides for occasional use. Or if you wanted to go through the extra effort if stacking the wood on the outside you wouldn’t need sides at all.

 

[oosik]

How far are you going with that trailer loaded with green firewood. I ask because when I used firewood - it all came from right here on my property. I pulled my firewood trailer with my tractor - it has 5' high sides - I loaded it to the gills(probably considerably over whatever limit exists) - went about two MPH - loaded or empty - and that was that.

If you will only be on your property - then I would go with those little metal sides I see in your pics.

If you will be out on the public road system - totally different picture. Cut 4 x 8 sheets of 1/2" plywood in half and U-bolt them to the existing metal rails. Put some form of metal corner strapping on the top of each of the four corners - you are ready to go.

Once you get however much of a load on that seems right - run several ratchet straps over the top - side to side - to hold it all together.

 

[Thomas]

Have you consider 1/4" expanded metal for sides and front.

 

[Jstpssng]

A cord of green hardwood will be +- 5000 lbs depending on species, so a cord will max out your weight limit. How wide is your trailer? if it's 6 feet, 16" sides will give you just enough capacity to carry a cord.

 

[Egon]

I have a 16' landscape utility trailer and I'm looking at building some short walls for it so I can use it to haul firewood. They need to be fairly easily removable as for most of my uses I wouldn't want them on it.

Looking at weights of a cord of wood, seems like there's no point in going too high with the walls. It's a 7000# trailer and it weighs 1740#, so theoretically I can have about 5250# of payload. It'll probably be more like 5000# max once I factor in the weight of the walls, and I'd rather not max out the trailer either.

Anyway I'm debating how I should go about this. I had at one time considered using 2x12s to make a 24" high wall all around, but not only is that a fair amount of weight, but seems like I probably don't need to go a full 24" high. So I'm thinking about using 3/4" plywood and make it 16-20" high. The uprights on the rails are about 10" high. They already have holes that I can bolt to. I'm thinking maybe for the sides, I could have two 8' lengths 16-20" high, connected by hinges to hold them together and so I can fold it up when not in use. Carriage bolts through the plywood and the uprights on the existing rail. In the front corners I could either bolt through a piece of 4x4 to lock them together or maybe some sort of latch for easier disassembly, less space and lighter weight.

I'm just throwing around ideas right now. Anyone have any thoughts about how to do this better?

Thanks

Using plywood make the sides twenty four inches tall. Sheet cut in half. Then go with your plans. 1/2 in. Plywood would probably work. A little top clip holding the plywood pieces together migh help. The higher sides make for easier hauling of other stuff that is bulky and light.

My trailer twenty foot ten K rating with six in. decking boards used for sides. It is too low for comfortable split firewood hauling.!

 

[nyone]

With the weight capacity of that trailer and the deck size your really limited on carrying no more than 1.5cords. So you really wont need to add any sides as you will be at max capacity about when the deck is full.

Theres a cord/weight/species calculator you can find through google. Oak is very very heavy when wet, about 3,300lbs. But its also a wonderfull firewood.

If you feel the need i would only add sides to the sides of the trailer. You can stack rounds in the front and strap them on.

 

[TractorGuy]

Pressure treated deck boards will warp and twist like crazy if you don't fix them flat while they dry. Made some sides out of them to fit in my stake pockets and almost couldn't get them back off after they dried. After I got them off and leaned them against my shed they twisted beyond use.

They will shrink any way you do it but they will at least dry flat when used as a deck. I originally used them on the deck of my utility trailer and when they dried there was a sizable gap between the boards. I ended up ripping one to fill the middle and pressed it into the center of the trailer to close the gaps.

 

[RickB]

2 sheets of plywood ripped in thirds will yield 16” sides all the way around with one piece left over. That will be as high as you need.

 

[Beltzington]

Buy one or two 3 cubic yard dumpster bags for $30, you can unload all the wood with your tractor.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/WM-Bagster-Dumpster-in-a-Bag-775-658/202228840

 

[4570Man]

Buy one or two 3 cubic yard dumpster bags for $30, you can unload all the wood with your tractor.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/WM-Bagster-Dumpster-in-a-Bag-775-658/202228840

Not likely since he has a BX.