I want to start this article by saying not all shepherd’s hut companies produce shepherd’s huts with steel chassis. Some companies produce their huts with timber chassis and some with a mixture of steel and timber. Not to doubt anyone’s intelligence here, the wheels of any chassis, old or new, will always be cast iron.
So, I’ll start off by pointing out the pros and cons of the timber chassis, some maybe obvious and some not so much.
Timber is a living thing, it expands and contracts with moisture and is affected by the seasons, summer and winter, so movement can occur in the form of twisting, warping and cracking. The method used to create the timber chassis is by jointing and bolting together, some with turntables at the front of the hut and some just have fixed wheels front and back. Another restriction is timber length thus restricting the length choices of a shepherd’s hut in comparison to other hut companies which use steel for their chassis and an important note to make is the larger the hut the larger the timber section size will need to be to keep the rigidity of the hut. Care must be taken when transporting and maneuvering shepherd’s huts with timber chassis so not to stress or create pressure on the chassis and in turn avoid permanent damage.
Timber choice is another variant as there are many potential timber choices all with different costs, such as Oak, Ash, Sapele, Douglas Fir, Redwood Pine along with many others which are all suitable timbers to use for the construction of a shepherd’s hut chassis and each with different qualities. I do have to say that some of the timber chassis used by some of the hut companies out there are beautiful and are works of art in themselves. Some of the original shepherd’s huts out there which the old boys used for their intended use as an important part of their farming equipment have timber chassis. The 12ft long hut we bought as a renovation project had an oak chassis which we recreated with green oak during the renovation, which now sits gracefully in our show area as our office, and why not eh.
The steel chassis works in the same way, fixed wheels at the rear and steering wheels via a turn table at the front of the hut.
The length of a Shepherd’s hut with a steel chassis can be as long as 23ft (7m) and some hut companies are happy to create even longer huts than this with steel, and this is down to the strength and rigidity of this material. Some hut companies weld their chassis together, some bolt their chassis together and some use a mixture of these two methods. We use steel chassis 95% of the time. We weld the chassis together done by our fabrication team which creates a very strong ridged chassis. I want to stress that this is our preferred method and I am in no way saying that other companies who work differently are wrong in their methods or what they do.
One process that is critical with the use of steel for the chassis is protection from the elements, this could be via the use of paints, powder coating or galvanization, all have the ability to create a barrier between the raw steel and the seasonal weather.
When maneuvering and transporting shepherd’s huts with a well-constructed steel chassis, there is the comfort of the knowledge that the chassis will withstand the pulling and pushing required in perfectly positioning the shepherd’s hut. And believe me when I say some of these huts forever homes can be challenging to get to, down old rough roads, through gateways, across fields, and of course some can be a piece of pie!
If you are the type of person who visits a selection of different shepherd’s hut companies before pushing forward with a preferred company, you will find that there are many different types, styles, and methods used to create a shepherd’s hut chassis, each company will tell you theirs is the best.
One last thing before I finish typing is always ask if there is a guarantee when chatting to your preferred hut company because there should be one and the chassis should be in there.