Welp … it took me three different designs to finally come up with a mechanism for towing the prototype tractor from point A to point B without putting too much lateral stress on the bottom of the dome, which isn’t strong enough to sustain that much lateral force.
The current design isn’t part of the dome itself, but instead a rather large skid frame (16′ x 10′) with a single cantilever mounted caster wheel in the back.
Before I could test the new skid system, I had to first remove two fence posts from the pasture fence on one side of the gate to have enough room to drag the chicken tractor through the gate and into the pasture. I could have dug up the posts, but that sounded like too much work and my right wrist is TOTALLY SNAFU … so I instead just ripped out the posts with the truck winch. 😉
Only thing left to do was hitch the chicken tractor to the Mahindra tractor and do a drag test, which went pretty well.
Next steps: Get the chicken feeder, waterer, roost and nest boxes installed. Then, install chicken wire to keep predators out, and tarp the ceiling to keep the weather elements out. Then, BUILD FOUR MORE. Yikes.