No matter what kind of work you are doing in your yard or in your backyard nursery it’s always nice to have an easy way to move things around. Our biggest challenge at Mike’s Plant Farm is being about to safely move our freshly potted plants from the potting area to the area in the nursery where they will grow out and be sold.
My old neighbor was moving and asked if I wanted to buy a garden trailer of $20.00. I said sure! Why not, the tires and wheels are worth way more than twenty bucks!
Originally this trailer had a dump option so the first thing I did was drill a hole and insert a bolt so it could no long dump. That would take all the fun out moving a bunch of freshly potted plants!
My goal was to increase the capacity, the amount of potted plants that we could fit on the deck without double stacking. I know that this deck now holds 72 plants, pretty sure that’s 72 one gallons. We often use a pot that is a bit smaller than a one gallon so I don’t know for sure which size pot actually fits 72. But I’m pretty sure it’s the trade one gallon.
All I did was cut the end off of a sheet of 3/4″ treated plywood, attach two by fours around the edge so the plants can fall off. Then put some angle brackets in the corners of the two by fours to make sure they stayed put. And no, the plants do not bounce off the trailer as long as you don’t drive like a maniac.
Because I made the deck so much longer I had to extend the tongue of the trailer so we had enough room between the deck and the four wheeler to actually turn the trailer. To do that I simple took two pieces of one inch angle iron, bolt them on the inside of the existing tongue of the trailer, then I laid a couple of pieces of metal across the angle iron for support and welded them into place. I drilled a hole large enough for the hitch pin and welded another bracket over that hole to make the hitch assembly.
The dimensions of the deck surface are 41 inches by 69 inches. Hopefully I’ll remember to get a photo of it full of plants. We probably have that in another post of video. All of our videos over the years can be found here.
It’s important when attaching the deck to the existing trailer to make sure it is pretty well balanced with a tad more weight on the tongue end of the trailer so you can load the trailer when not attached to the pull vehicle. It also makes it really easy to move around empty when you need to.
Questions, comments, mean things to say? Post them below and I will respond.
Looks like a real good idea. Let the OLD GOAT sun bath on top of the new wagon!!!!
I have an old boat trailer that is now a 5 x 10 flat deck. Having the deck between the wheels decreases the height you have to lift a pot.
But: 5 feet is a bit wide to load it from one side. If I were doing it again and needed the same area, I’d go 4 x 12.
This trailer carries about a ton of potted trees fully loaded. That’s pushing what my quad can pull, but it’s ok for my garden tractor.
Depending on the layout of your pot yard, a longer trailer may be harder to work with, because the trailer cuts further inside the turn. One way to fight this is to move the hitch point back. If you have a standard receiver, put a 3 foot extension on it, This will also try to straighten out the puller if you get stuck on anything. Use with caution.
I have a trailer like that. Now I’m going to convert it to haul plant! I haul rock in it on this Arkansas hill top farm!