[8350HiTech]

Truck frame rails are where it’s at for beams.

 

[8350HiTech]

I get my truck frame either from the local heavy truck wrecker, scrap yard, or randomly finding them for sale. And if I’m doing a good job buying other used structural steel, I can pretty much build a wagon out of “junk”. If you had to buy all new steel tomorrow, I would agree that it’s not such a good deal.

You could definitely do a steel frame and then wood boards perpendicular to the frame, as I’ve seen some done that way for small bales. Each of the ones that I’ve built have been for thrower racks or round/3x3 bales, so they’ve all had steel cross members and wood floor full length, except the big bale wagon having no floor. It would take a floor easily though and I had that in mind when I built it.

Anyway, here’s some random pictures I found in my camera roll if you run across a honey hole of good steel. I wouldn’t want to do this from a mass production view but one or two per year can be done rather cheaply and I kind of find fun.

 

[8350HiTech]

Is the truck frame C Channel 8 inches or 10 inches? I saw a square tube spacer under them so I am guessing that is to get elevation over the tires.

What is approximate thickness also of the truck frame C Channel?

I have found some scrap I beams not far away at 50 cents a lb that I am trying to determine if it is a match to what you did. I Beams are mostly 10 inches and probably sturdier than the C Channel but not sure.

I actually like the little bit of flex you get with frame compared to an I beam. Frames are really good steel designed for a little flex, and in the field a wagon can definitely flex. The frame rails are typically 10” but I do have some here at the moment that are 9”. They vary from 1/4” to 5/16”, anything thicker I avoid buying because it’s overkill for an 18-20’ wagon, but if you’re going extra heavy duty you may appreciate some that are closer to 3/8”.

The reason I had to add the little spacers (and the ones in the photo were just to determine sizing, they were replaced with better spacers) was so that when the walking beam tandems pivoted to their max they hit the underside of the “floor”. Otherwise on a single axle wagon, or a tandem with less travel, they would be perfectly fine as is. Or if I had built the bed with gaps so the wheels could travel up into them, but I wanted the spacing that I wanted, so no gaps. (Too big of a gap and round bales would’ve settled down into the gap also rubbing the tires).

That wagon also uses random discbine parts as the frame crossmembers, concrete curb form for the rub rails, random junkyard pieces for the front and rear “bumpers”, bumper legs made from truck frame crossmembers salvaged from the same junkyard frame, and unfortunately mostly new steel for the 3” channel bed because I had run out of the 3”channel pallet rack beams that I had been using. (Luckily I’ve restocked since then!) Even the white bumper I didn’t even have blasted because it was already white with good paint and it matched the wheels, so why bother to have it sandblasted?
These are definitely an exercise in frugality, but I enjoy making them, and I also enjoy looking at random stuff for sale so I can snag cheap steel when I see it.