Off Road Trailer, Designing one that's usable

Engine braking isn’t enough?

For 90% of the places you would go, engine braking is sufficient. Just keep it in low gear and crawl down.
I was just thinking for extreme hills and muddy conditions, a bit of added safety would be good.

Here we are using the firewood test trailer for hauling rock.
Worked well for this and with the rocks wedging into the bottom, they didn't even need to be tied down.


Moving the rocks to another location for another crazy project


The trailer held the weight no problem. So far it's held up great.
Banging over logs and rocks at haspin, towing another tractor, hauling wood.
Takes a beating and keeps going.

Trailer is holding up very well mr.modified!

Looking at the trailer full of stones just gave me an idea. Thank you Mr Modified. I was just moving stone around in my yard by hand the other day, thinking I need a trailer for this, LOL. Looks like I'll be building a trailer too, a little different ofcource since it will be used mainly for yard work, but you got some nice features I would like to use too, if you don't mind.

Oh no problem. Originally I was gonna put a piece of plywood on this thing to move the rocks, but the bars across the floor actually hold the stones in place so it worked out decent the way it was.

Of course on a larger scale, you'd probably want some sides and a gate and then be able to dump it.

I'm thinking the same size as yours, but move the wheels back more so it will double as a dolly too. I'll keep the open frame like on yours with a small gate and sides that go to the gate instead of angling like yours. Maybe even steering that can lock when off the mower to use in dolly mode. 6 inch rims and maybe tires or just rims with flat sheet metal on them. And your little side bumpers to kick the trailer over to the side so the wheels don't snag on stuff too.

Keeping the trailer fairly close to the tractor helped out a lot in the woods, doesn't get too far out to the sides. Although I guess it does make backing up a bit harder.

Just throwing out an idea, I built a small(ish) firewood trailer for my Dads garden tractor years ago. After the plywood bed rotted out I found an old pick-up bed liner (slide in type) and cut a square out of it to replace the plywood, heavy, doesn't rot, worked out purdy good!

I think expanded metal would be a better option. Especially stainless, you could bolt it in and let the trailer rust apart around it. Lol

My off road trailer designing kinda got moved to a back burner I guess with a few other projects going on. But I still would like to build a matching trailer for the simplicity adventure edition at some point. The firewood trailer really needs some higher sides to stack the wood in higher. I thought you'd be able to just strap the wood on and not worry so much about the sides. The thing is, you can't stack it up too high without something holding it.

What if you just add a piece of c channel to the side like a full size trailer that you can slide a 2x4 into to make a quick detachable side?

Because I have to do everything the hard way! lol

Just a couple of pics from Haspin 2020. I only went out for one firewood run. Also made one run with two ammo boxes full of tools and parts for @craftsmanquad19 who had a broken steering bolt. Turned out to be a fairly quick fix.


I'm still thinking about putting a flat bottom on it so I can carry things more easily. The ammo boxes needed to be carefully places to not tip in between the slats on the bottom. I think with larger diameter tires, you should be able to pull a trailer like this through some pretty tough spots. You wouldn't be able to roll backwards down a hill and I wouldn't try any really crazy hills with the trailer behind me either, but you can find your way through some fairly rough terrain if needed. Bungee cords seem to work better to hold the wood on than ratchet straps since they stay snug even when the wood settles a bit while hitting bumps.