How to Build a Silage Trailer

Why don't you rent some silage wagons from some farmers? Once they're done making silage or haylage their wagons sit around and collect dust.

Two comments.

Firstly, the best farm trailers that I've seen have been built from "dead" rigid body trucks. Get an unregistered truck, strip off the cab and put on your own tray/bed. If you are fortunate enough to get a dumptruck, then you've got the hydraulics and cylinder there and supported to dump the silage when you get back to your pit. Rigid trucks can have an adaption to the front steering rods to make them a very nice "tracking" trailer per what you would see on shows like "mythbusters".

Second, making silage is usually a "team effort" requiring one driver for the silage/forrage harvester, one for the collection trailer (or even two when you have one trailer going to the dump pit while still harvesting) and at least another operator with front end loader or similar at the pit. You need to "get to know your neighbours" and join them in their efforts. You'll be welcomed, and given the least complex task and progressively train with them until you become expert. That way, you only need one of the pieces of machinery to join in with their kit. They will also give you advice on which type of tyre/suspension system is best suited to your local conditions.

You will at some time need a silage feed-out trailer (for example chain bottom feed with side delivery) and those can be used for silage collection and also provide the means to dump the silage at the storage pit.

Note that at 500kg per cubic meter, you would have to compact the silage at the storage to eliminate air so that fermentation happens instead of putrification/rotting. The neighbours will also give you good advice on what innoculant to use for your local ambient conditions.

Most silage guys in Australia have moved from pits storage to "wrapped bales" of around 1 tonne each. These can be stored without burrial in the open fields, stacked to take up less space and are much easier to feed out. They now only use silage trucks/wagons for the few days they are able to directly feed off the wet cut material.

[My brother in law has a commercial stud dairy and they process around 500T of silage bales in addition to 200T of dry hay and 100T of grain (they buy the grain as a feed supplement with veg oil and other additives) per year. Plus I used to work school vacations for a cousin during hay/silage season where they sold around 400T of hay per year beyond their own use.]

How far are transporting? 1 mile? 50 miles? 100 miles?

depends on your terain you'll be transversing, as well how it will be loaded and unloading techniques (filled in the field or silo) (unloaded in a trench or silo). wagons built from truck bodies, the dual wheel not being powered can bogg down in wet ground, as well as pull hard.

phoenix911

Locally they round bale it (polywrap) and then
transport it using tractor spikes.

Trailers are a dying breed here. (uk)

jt.

You'll need four hundred forty dual axles minimum and about four thousand forty feet overall length.

Or you could post it on http://www.getloaded.com