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Timber Parallel Trusses?

4/26/15       
seth zeigler Member

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/zeiglernokotas/nokot...

We are presently building a hay drying barn in northern Sweden, and since there is not so much new construction up here custom trusses are not so easy to come by... but we have our own forest and slow growth thus relatively strong spruces which were the traditional building material here. A hay fork will run parallel to the ridge just under or close to it, and this also interferes with most truss systems... although the roof will have a 45 degree pitch so scissor trusses could be an option that do not impede this hay lift or reduce the interior storage capacity too much. The idea is to avoid all internal supports, or as much as possible, because anything penetrating the hay mass will cause uneven packing when the hay is loaded, and areas of lower density will result in uneven drying and air leakage and reduced efficiency of the forced air drying system. The barn is oriented with the roof peak running east to west so as to optimize the performance of solar cells, and thus with the gable ends facing east and west. So this all leads me to ponder a 3 parallel truss system functioning as a purlin on each side of the roof and directly under the ridge, which would then allow simply using planks as rafters and carry much of the roof's weight to the gable ends and work nicely with the main door penetrating the north side near its middle. The span for these trusses would be 11 meters, and the total width of the entire barn is only 8 meters, but the sidewalls are also 4 meters so the gables would rise to about 8 meters. My thought was to use solid spruce logs, tapering opposite directions, and lumber nailed in parallel on both sides of each node to the logs to make the parallel trusses, and that the central truss could be 2 meters deep and the purlin trusses 1 meter deep... i have felled two spruces that taper from 25 cm to 15 cm across that span to get a better visual and feel for the idea... but am i bat shit crazy? The hay fork would add some weight, so i was thinking to place it 30 cm or so north of the ridge to somewhat balance the weight of the solar panels on the south face of the roof. Parallel trusses really are things of beauty, and seem to be the most clever way to span such distance and meet our unique needs?

4/26/15       #2: Timber Parallel Trusses? ...
Svensome Losesome

That is an excellent plan. That thing will never fall down.


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