Hey all, I've searched around a bit and haven't seen the thread I'm looking for, if this has been addressed already please forgive me... Where do y'all park your machines? Living in the country it's not uncommon for me to see a variety of both big barns and outbuildings or machines just parked out in the driveway. While I assume it would be better to store my backhoe indoors how much harm am I doing by not? A guy down the road has a couple big machines, a loader and a backhoe and I've seen them outside for years (and they move, though I assume he's a better mechanic than I). When I'm able to afford a building or shelter of some sort I'll get one but that's not the case now... How much should I prioritize it? Would you trust a small DIY Kit? My neighbor just got a VersaTube kit that seems nice but a bit more spendy than I can be currently. I've seen some kits that are just the corners for inch and a half conduit where I buy all the straight pieces separately. What do you guys think? Thanks!
I think for contractors they can leave them outside because they move from job to job and they aren't likely to keep them all that long in the grand scheme. For a machine that is likely to grow old with you it is nice to have some kind of shelter. I know I don't have any shelter and have to deal with quite a bit of deterioration I wish I didn't. Seals and hoses and paint and anything plastic gets ate up in the sun and rain as years go by.
Outside in the same climate you have !
Oh yeah, to the point of any of the kits, most look like they come with a roof or walls that don't come all the way to the ground. A lot look like I could make them entirely enclosed but at some point I'm building a barn, right? Is somewhat enclosed close enough to entirely enclosed?
Mine is an MTL, I keep it in the garage Galvalume roofing is CHEAP. Use it for roof and walls and you can make a pole barn for relatively little money.
You might think about a simple pole barn. Even if funds are limited, set up the poles and roof. When you have the cash, close it in with fiberglass or tin roofing for the walls. Keep your eyes open for a small sawmill operation. You can get rough cut boards for a reasonable price, and maybe slabs for free. You can side the building with slabs. A heavy tarp will work as a door until you can buy some rails and build a door out of the rough cut. Just a thought.
I don't think it's what you meant but I've come very close to buying a sawmill myself... The backhoe ended up being a bit more expensive than I wanted and made it impossible for the time being... I was hoping to do just what you said though.
I've been looking for a old,cheap shipping container. My 580sk won't fit in one that is intact, but I'm on an island in the Pacific North Wet. I figure an old container would be rusted out, anyway. Place it on some eco blocks, anchor it, cut out the floor (light metal framing plus probably rotted out plywood) and the bottom crossbar for the doors, backfill the edges with dirt, and I will have a cheap, dark garage, with minimal work. I just haven't found it, or decided how to extend the doors to fully enclose the space. I'll post a pic, when/if I get it done.
Some thick rubber like an old conveyor belt?
Some of ours are 20 years old and sleep right where they finish the day. If they end up in a building we are either tearing it down or a frenzied guy with a handful of wrenches is trying to get it fixed so it can go back outside!
That would work, but where would I find big old conveyor belt? I imagine old heavy truck mudflaps would work as well...
^^^^^ Probably easier to find.
I've got a 1 acre size lot in an industrial park. Fortunate enough to have bought the parcel, cleared and filled it. Now it has a 6' high fence, remote control sliding gate, power, sewer and water. There are 2 conex boxes, one is wired up for lights and houses the internet router and wifi gear. The conexs are 14-15' apart and we built a cover that spans between them. Used 5x5 tube steel from demo jobs for the legs, built trusses out of 1.5" angle iron with 2x6 spruce purlins that the galvalume roofing panels attach to. Cheap covered space. All that is parked on the yard is our 4700 service truck, 420D backhoe that needs about 12 dozen cylinders repacked, trailers, junk we've acquired and the latest project in the works a 1994 L9000 tandem dump. The rest of the iron is on jobs making money!
I have 2 old machines at the moment. One spent most of its life sheltered and the other was always outside. Hoses, paint and rubber on the sheltered machine are still in fine shape. There was no water in the fluids. The outside machine is not so lucky. I think you are over thinking how much building you need. You only need protection from sun and water. A simple pole barn is plenty. As a teen, I helped my father build several pole barns with spruce logs, roofing metal and strapping. We headed into the woods with a chainsaw and by supper time the combine was parked in the new shed. 40 years later those buildings are all still standing.
all my equipment is in a pole barn out of the weather and they are better off sheltered...water gets into lots of places and then freezes and the sun is incredibley destructive...
Good stories, y'all. Like @Steve Best above, do you guys, that store machines outside, have similar issues of hoses wearing out more quickly or are you always fixing stuff that is likely weather related damage? Steve, did you sink the logs into the ground? For what it's worth I'm considering using some of the trees in my yard to build something but I've also seen this , would you trust this sort of building assuming I anchor it to the ground properly? I haven't priced the pipes for it but it seems like a cheap way to go... If you all can't tell, I'm cheap and broke. Anything functional I can do for inexpensive is certainly the best option...
Here in FL, we can't get a tarp to last. The UV rays kill them quickly. If one used galvalume as a roof instead. Heavy gauge pipe would be needed to bear that extra weight though.
Here we often do either. Spruce can last 50 years or more as a sill or driven into the ground. Larch is especially good if in contact with the ground. Planted posts driven in with the loader (often with a load of rock) make a quick and solid wall. Square up with the chainsaw and bind with 6" spikes. Strap it off and add metal roofing and siding. Often only sided on 2 or 3 sides. Spruce above ground pole buildings require sills and headers, complicate construction slightly but still done with chainsaw. They can be crossbraced and moved if you change your mind about location. They last many years on ground but aired with rock supports will gain many years.
If you are in chicken farming country (Arkansas, OK, etc) you can buy used chicken house trusses, metal, and purlins for pretty cheap. The most common size is 40'x40', which is what I put up. They go up fast and if you raise the sides a bit when installing, a backhoe can fit in there in almost any position. Just google "chicken house barn" and you'll get the idea. I enclosed the two length sides and left the gable ends open to drive through. Including buying new 6x6 treated posts and new sheet metal screws, my total cost was well under $5000. I can easily park my case 590, an equal sized ag tractor, and F-350 in there and still have room to work. I don't have snow loads to deal with, so if you do, it might not work for you. They are also not "aesthetically appealing" compared to some barns you see, but if it is not going in right next to your house, who cares.
You guys rock, thanks for the info. I have a ton of trees that I think could work and would be willing to figure out either how to keep them out of the ground while still supporting things or put them in the ground in smart ways. I'll also, likely, splurge on some metal roofing, maybe tarp for the short term but metal would be the real option. I'm not terribly concerned with how pretty it is, it'll likely be tucked away behind a decent sized shed. Thanks again, y'all!
Here is a pretty good picture of what you can do with metal chicken house trusses. You just set you posts, poles, whatever, in the ground and bolt or weld the trusses to them. You can build in pretty much any increment of 10'. Around here, a set of trusses is about $150.
Holy crap, that's huge! I'll look into it, thanks.
Methinks that may be susceptible to those strong swirling winds you encounter on OK sometimes...
We try to keep everything inside but often most things spend a few days outside when in use. Some goes in the bar but a lot is in a greenhouse we are not growing anything in covered in white or shade poly. Big advantage of a greenhouse is that the tax man calls them temporary and doesn't tax them.
Looks vulnerable to heavy snow loads.
On the barn, yes. I would think it is definitely vulnerable to heavy snow loads. That's why these are mostly a southern thing and you really don't see this type of construction north of Missouri. I'd also be concerned about uplift from winds. I put mine in an area that is protected by trees. It made it though all of the tornadoes we had this past may, no direct hits. There is a lot of cross bracing in most of the ones you see.
Interesting truss type. Here in snow country I've never seen it. We often use a slightly similar type truss shown below as "scissors type" to accomplish the same thing with more central strength. This is pretty typical of most local farmers spruce pole shed/barns, although many use very little milled lumber: Speed and economy are what these sheds are all about. Spruce logs, spikes, strapping and metal roofing. Oh yes, and a chain saw...
The chicken barn truss is similar to most metal building frames, they're built with the connection at the eave rigid and the connection at the peak not under as much bending stress. That is, the truss or beam is deeper at the eave and top of the wall, and thinner at the floor connection and peak. Different strategy from most wood trusses and pole framed buildings, which rely on the post buried for sidewall strength, but don't require an engineered slab to hold the outward force from the frame (the wood truss transfers only vertical force).