Making your four-wheeler work

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A four wheel ATV is a delight to ride. In fact, is so much fun many never think of it in any other way. Many folks see it as a great work horse on small farms and large, though. They are great for hunting, checking on trespassers and the like.

It is great for going places in a hurry at low cost. It only needs a trail four feet or so wide. This makes it a great vehicle for checking fences. You have the capacity to carry the necessary tools and parts to fix fence on the machine and can go many places in the woods where a pickup or even a tractor won’t go.

You can use it to check cattle, but must be careful to keep the noise down, particularly if you use it to move them. They can be used to bring cattle in, but the speed and noise frighten the animals if you don’t exercise care. If you want to move a square bale or two or a little feed they do well at that too, because they have better flotation with their soft tires and make far less mud.

I use mine to seed right of way by adding a small seeder designed for the four-wheeler. It takes a little getting used to at first, but the investment is quite low, and if stored in the dry it will last years. Sure beats walking and turning a crank. (See Image 1)



I have made two trailers for my four-wheeler. Two inch square tubing and used car wheels work fine, with a bed of treated wood. Be sure to paint all metal parts before putting the bed on to get longer life. You can use a small trailer ball hitch of the type used for pulling trailers behind a car. That works better for the extreme roll and pitch on rough ground, better than the pin in clevis type of hitch used for tractor implements.

If you are going to need electricity from the battery it is a simple matter to use the type of connection usually used for 110 volts. Get heavy wire to the battery, wrap it securely around some solid part of the four-wheeler and use a sturdy, industrial type female plug on the four-wheeler. The voltage from the battery is 12 volts, and the electrical contacts are well covered. The male plug which is inserted into it will pull out if the trailer or attachment comes off, if you use strong cord, well connected to the attachment. This arrangement is easy to connect and disconnect, but you must use only motors designed for 12 volt direct current, without regard for polarity (+ and - may be exchanged), which will be the case for motors in sprayers, seeders and so forth sold to be used with ATV’s. (See Image 2)


One of the trailers I have was made for spraying brush. You can buy 30 gallon sprayers at Southern States or Tractor Supply or on the net. They expect you to mount these directly on your vehicle, but it impresses me that it would be very dangerous to go on a hillside with a half empty tank of spray sloshing about that high above the soft springs of the machine. The trailer has a much lower center of gravity and no springs. 30 gallons will last an hour to an hour and a half if the target plants are small and widely separated. Most of my work doesn’t require getting off. When the spray runs out it is a quick trip in to mix another batch. (If you have a lot of surface area together, such as the edge of a forest, or a badly grown up spot that must be treated, a larger, tractor mounted sprayer, 200-300 gallons, is a better bet. But for widely dispersed plants, the ATV is the way to go. It saves all that getting on and off the tractor.)

The spray trailer is designed to also carry two hand sprayers, and a five gallon can of basal spray mix. One hand spray can be filled through the spray hose with the nozzle removed, directly from the 30 gallon tank, for places where I walk because I can’t get to it with the machine. The other is dedicated to basal spray for larger trees. It is mixed up in diesel fuel, which is expensive, but it is much cheaper than trying to cover all the foliage on larger trees. Just follow the instructions and cover the bottom 18 inches of trunk. Very large trees (over 10 inches) will require treatment again the second year. (See Image 3)



I use Primier Poly Sprayer model 21220, 2.0 gal, made by Chapin, purchased at

http://www.chapinmfg.com/PartsAccessories.asp

They are made of polypropyline, so are very tough and do not rust. You can buy parts, including a variety of nozzles with different spray rates. A young husky fellow might want the 3 gallon size, but 2 gallon is enough for me. Chapin is very good about service, even small orders.

One trouble I have had is getting the top off the sprayer I use for the diesel mix for basal spray. A new sprayer each season might correct that, but I hold on for several years. In that time the diesel gets to the polypropylene a bit and makes the tops stick if you put them on enough to prevent air leak. The following photo shows how I get around this. (See Image 4)


The blue strap is tie-down strap, such as you would find at Tractor Supply or a comparable source. It is attached to the trailer bed. The orange strap on the stick is the same material, a different color. Just wrap on carefully and twist. The diesel mix sprayer is painted yellow so it won’t be mixed up with the water sprayer, which is left the original blue-green.


The other trailer is long enough to carry fence posts and tools to set them. Although we drive all posts we can, there are always some on ground too steep and inaccessible to get the tractor to. The little trailer is the same width as the four-wheeler and is ideal for getting materials to these spots. The picture shows a reel for letting out wire the way a commercial “Spinning Jenny” would. This can be made from scrap material. (Use screws driven by an electrical drill for better strength). (See Image 5)


You have to drive slow, to avoid bump things out, in rough places. The tailgate must be secured with a wire or a small bolt. If I was doing it again, I would make higher sides.