I am thinking about building my own feeders out of 55gal drums. I can’t seem to find legs that I’m comfortable using with that kind of weight. Any recommendations?

I’ve got some that are made of old drill pipe. You don’t want to haul them very far but nothing is blowing that feeder over either.

Square tubing

1-1/2 EMT is fairly strong I purchased at Ace hardware .The top rail on hurricane fence has also made some pretty good legs on some of mine.

I used 1 5/8" steel pipe I got from Fulton Metal in Denton (377 just South of 35), they cut it to 15' lengths out of 3-20' pipes. I bought the mast head and gambrel from Boss Buck and made them double pully crank ups. If you are going to go crank up buy a quality crank with brake not some cheep boat crank.

Yes, buy my feeder since it no longer has a home. PM for details.



It’s this one but it is now in my back yard.

EMT pipe....

I've got 2 set up on on 3/4 galvanized pipe legs, i only put 200 pounds in them. One is 5 foot to the bottom for a gravity protein feeder the other 8 foot to the bottom slinging corn. I staked the legs and 0 problems

Chain link fence top rail. Plenty strong and available at any hardware store

Discount Steel in Saginaw.

I’ve seen EMT, square steel and chain link fence rail used.

Square tubing heat it up and bend it in your receiver hitch then weld it to the barrel

I use the moultrie leg brackets to mount to barrel. All I have used for legs are 1.5" conduit piping from Lowe's or Home Depot.

I use one 24' stick of 2" 14 ga. square tubing and one 24' stick of 1 3/4 14 ga.. Cut each in 8' sections and put the 1 3/4 on the ground. Mount the winch on a 2" piece and slip it over the 1 3/4. Mount the receivers on the tripod head (I use 4" channel) at 22 1/2 degrees. This gives a good stable "footprint" and the height eliminates the varmint issues. Hard to spend too much on a winch! Mine are rated at 1700 pounds. Would not want anything less.

1 1/2'' ridgit conduit.

I like the oil pipe, just don't use a plastic drum like I did at first. I also like 14 gauge 1.25" square tubing as well.

We build all of our own and use 2" aluminum conduit 15' long for legs (not EMT). A full stick and a half stick screwed together. Plenty strong, lightweight, and doesn't rust.

1 1/4" 14 ga square tubing works great

I just used some chain link fence posts from Home Depot.

Here’s my corn feeder rack with a built in ladder. Build required five 8’ treated 2x4”, two 10’ lengths of ½” EMT, two 24” lengths of angle iron (to anchor ladder legs) and a handful of ¼” galvanized nuts & bolts, and 16D galvanized nails.

How old are you? Is there a good chance you'll outlive a 55 gallon drum in the woods? Best I've seen is a buddy's of mine. He welded up legs to a metal basket that holds the barrel up to the second ring. After about 35 years he's on about his 5th barrel, but swapping them into the basket of the feeder is about a 5-minute deal.