Wood-Handling "Push" Trailer For ATV

"After wiping out several times on the snow and ice with a wheelbarrow full of wood, I decided there had to be a better way," says James Goetsch, Merrill, Wis., who built a 2-wheeled trailer that he pushes in front of his Honda 4-wheeler ATV. "It lets me deliver wood through my basement's outside door and right up to my wood furnace. It's a lot easier to push the trailer through the door than to back it in," says Goetsch.

He used four lengths of metal tubing - the siderails off a hospital bed - to build the trailer. The wheels are off an old riding mower, with a 3/4-in. dia. cold rolled rod serving as the axle. The trailer's tongue is made from sq. tubing and rides on an angle iron bracket equipped with a ball hitch. The bracket clamps onto the ATV's front axle with four bolts. The front axle assembly was strong enough to support the hitch, but not strong enough to push the trailer.

So for reinforcement, he ran a 1 1/4-inch dia. pipe from the angle iron bracket under the 4-wheeler and back to the rear hitch. "I just push the trailer into the basement, lift the hitch off the ball, and roll the trailer the rest of the way into the basement by hand. The load is well balanced so there's very little weight on the hitch," says Goetsch. "The trailer can haul enough wood to last for three days. Once I get the trailer through the basement door, I pull a spring-loaded ædog' to drop a triangle-shaped stand down from the trailer's tongue and push the trailer in the rest of the way by hand."

He used a conduit bender to bend the siderails. Two pieces of oak wood on each end of the trailer keep the rails from bending.""I drilled holes through the wood pieces to clamp the rails in place. They keep the pressure evenly divided on all four rails," he notes.