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Boat Trailer Hauls Logs
Charles Miller has used his 22-ft. boat trailer a lot, but not for hauling boats. The boat that came with it was worthless, so he started using the trailer to haul logs.
  “I shortened it up, added a lift boom and stripped out the rollers,” says Miller. “It works great for 12-ft. logs and for slab wood I get from a guy with a sawmill.”
  He cut 3 ft. off the end of the bed and 4 ft. off the tongue. “I should have only cut 3 ft. off the tongue,” he says. “That extra foot makes it a little tight when turning with a tractor.”
  The pickup boom is a 1/2-ton pickup truck crane from Harbor Freight. It cost Miller $159 and has been well worth it. He also added a jack stand to the side where the crane is mounted.
  “The jack stand works like an outrigger when I pick up larger logs,” says Miller. “I’ve used it to load 12-in. dia., 12-ft. long logs by myself. I load about 10 logs at a time or carry 4 by 4 by 12-ft. bundles of slab wood. I even moved a 5 by 12-ft. shed about 15 miles. I just slid it on and strapped it down.”
  Initially Miller left the rollers in, thinking they would help logs slide in and out. He found they were more hassle than they were worth.
  “With the dip in the frame and the rollers removed, the load sets low and makes it nice hauling down the road,” says Miller. “The axles are mounted on the frame, so I can balance the load by moving them forward and back.”
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Charles Miller, 3341 Saco Rd., Towanda, Penn. 18848 (ph 570 265-7241; charsue@epix.net).


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2014 - Volume #38, Issue #1