How big larder fridge to hang fallow in?

charlieboy-shooter

Well-Known Member
Hi guys,

The title says it all really, but is a larder fridge suitable to hang a fallow in? I know that depends on how big a specimen is but but what would the minimum internal dimensions need to be roughly.

Thanks
 
Sorry it's not a larder fridge, it's a drinks chiller, if you want the dimensions i will measure it tomorrow.
This was a fair sized Fallow but i had a red calf in it last week which was a lot bigger!

Cheers
Richard
 
Yes Richard, I would appreciate some dimensions. That deer looks pretty long. my idea of a 1.5mtr fridge with internal dimension 0f 1.29 mtr high x (.05mtr x 0.45mtr)is not going to be long enough looking at your picture. I was thinking head removed and hung as high up as possible.
MS, that's an impressive system and a very good point. I'll rig up an external rail, so I can get a straight lift and then run the hooks in.
Any idea on approx hung length of fallow, once legs removed from 1st joint to base of neck.

Thanks Guys
 
Yes Richard, I would appreciate some dimensions. That deer looks pretty long. my idea of a 1.5mtr fridge with internal dimension 0f 1.29 mtr high x (.05mtr x 0.45mtr)is not going to be long enough looking at your picture. I was thinking head removed and hung as high up as possible.
MS, that's an impressive system and a very good point. I'll rig up an external rail, so I can get a straight lift and then run the hooks in.
Any idea on approx hung length of fallow, once legs removed from 1st joint to base of neck.

Thanks Guys


I use a 7ft high chiller fridge which does the job. I wouldn't want anything less than that

Make sure its a top moter fridge so the floor is as low as poss

On pro fridges like the Foster ones you can remove the internal ceiling and get a bit more space. Takeing the wheels off lowers the unit and you can usualy drill and tap the stailess walls to fit a bar without dammaging the fridgey bit.
 
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Yes Richard, I would appreciate some dimensions. That deer looks pretty long. my idea of a 1.5mtr fridge with internal dimension 0f 1.29 mtr high x (.05mtr x 0.45mtr)is not going to be long enough looking at your picture. I was thinking head removed and hung as high up as possible.
MS, that's an impressive system and a very good point. I'll rig up an external rail, so I can get a straight lift and then run the hooks in.
Any idea on approx hung length of fallow, once legs removed from 1st joint to base of neck.

Thanks Guys
Hi mate.
A decent fallow pricket will be about 1.5m long when stretched out - head and legs off. However, that is only if you hang it like that! If you look closely at the huge red in my link above, you will see that it is hung from the pelvic (aitch) bone. On an animal that size it creates about another 18 -24 inches of hanging height as the back legs then fold down. I've heard that some dealers don't like them hung like this as the haunch meat sets at a different angle, but I've never come across this or noticed any difference when butchering. It also rules out splitting the pelvic bone which I'm not a fan of anyway as it exposes and wastes a lot of meat and doesn't seem to give any real advantage to cooling above tunnelling the back end out?
Richard also shows a typical example (sorry Richard!) of how much valuable space is often wasted at the top of the fridge. The rail needs to be low enough to get a hook over, then there's the length of the hook and then a long gambrel all wastes space! A lifting eye on a cable up through the roof to a hoist is very effective and will save your back! If you use a bar/rail, keep it high so that you can just feed the 'S' hook over it almost sideways. Get some very short 'S' hooks made up. Get some of the gambrels that are almost a straight bar with just a couple of shallow notches in. Just doing that alone can give you a lot more height, and in Richards photo would have that animal off the floor easily with its head removed. But then, if you look at his photo again and see where the pelvic bone is, it is only about half way up the fridge! Hang it from that and you have it suspended even with the head still on!!
Hope this helps.
MS
 
MS is right that 'fixings' will reduce the internal height available. On the other hand it's a *big* help when it's late and you're tired to have a safe winching and hanging system that won't let you down.

Ours is an 8' x 8' pre-fab from Andy Tarrant that will take up to 10 well-spaced fallow, which I spec'd with the accent on ease, safety and reliability.

Not that cheap, but well built and very easy to keep clean, so should go on forever. And the fact that it's modular means that if you move house (as I did last year) it can be moved and re-built inside a new garage/shed as a 2-man job.

chiller.jpg
 
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That looks very nice!
How do you transfer the animal from the hoist hook to the rail though?:confused:
MS

It's mostly a two-man carry straight in and onto a hook.

Solo for a heavy beast, the strop on the winch goes round the body below the pelvis to lift the carcass off the truck, leaving the back legs / gambrel free to poke through the door and hook up.

Practice makes ... manageable :)
 
It's mostly a two-man carry straight in and onto a hook.

Solo for a heavy beast, the strop on the winch goes round the body below the pelvis to lift the carcass off the truck, leaving the back legs / gambrel free to poke through the door and hook up.

Practice makes ... manageable :)

Ahh...that's the same problem I had! That's why I came up with the extended rail through the door idea! I'd never have got that red in there without it!!
Hoisting as you describe is a good method though and might help the OP as it would allow the back legs to drop into the fridge towards the rail. I have a couple of triple-pulley rope hoists which I carry out in the field for a quick suspended gralloch if I can't use the winch. That would work if you had a garage beam or external frame above the fridge door.
MS
 
That would work if you had a garage beam or external frame above the fridge door.
MS

It's always been a work in progress. In its first location - at the bottom of a very boggy paddock - we couldn't get the trucks anywhere near, so I was working on 'flying' an extension of the handing track that did indeed pass through the door (every game dealer we ever used wondered why I took so many photos of their kit :).

But then I moved and so did the chiller, and now ours and the game dealer's wagons can back right up to it straight off the lane ... so the extended rail became less of a priority than a storage mount designed for the beer cans.

That Italian tracking system works well, though, like a sort of grown-up train set.
 
it is hung from the pelvic (aitch) bone. On an animal that size it creates about another 18 -24 inches of hanging height as the back legs then fold down.
Richard also shows a typical example (sorry Richard!) of how much valuable space is often wasted at the top of the fridge.
Yes MS that has been mentioned before when i posted that picture, recently i didn't use the gambrel, i had to as i wouldn't have got the red calf in, just used 'S' hooks, also had help lifting it in, but it was a struggle lifting it out on my own.
BTW, i always take the head off, but i was in a rush that day!
Not sure my game dealer would like it if i hung it off the aitch bone.
Cheers
Richard
 
Not sure my game dealer would like it if i hung it off the aitch bone.
Cheers
Richard

Not sure any would even notice from what I've seen lately!
Normally just some Polish or Lithuanian driver just chucks them in a pile on top of the rest!
My carcasses and paperwork are always pristine and I wonder why I bother at times.:rolleyes:
MS
 
I did a post a good while back showing how you can hang a 300lb larder weight red stag in a chiller less than 2m tall.
Normal fridges are ok, but it is easier with some kind of hoist or if you can get in there with it. Trying to hang 40+kg animals at arms length is not easy and you'll end up hurting yourself.
Have a look here for some ideas;
http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co....Solutions-!!?highlight=small+larder+solutions
MS
Hi MS, Couldn't help to notice. 630lb ( 45 stone) stag is some stag! I wouldn't even try to drag that bugger. is that not a record weight?
atb blue.
 
Just seen 300lb larder weight , Still a very large stag, well done.
Atb blue.
 
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Hi MS, Couldn't help to notice. 630lb ( 45 stone) stag is some stag! I wouldn't even try to drag that bugger. is that not a record weight?
atb blue.

Yeah, that wouldn't have been 45 stone, although they do go that big.
That one would have been about 37 stone roughly, but it was post rut so would have been probably 40+ prior to the rut? Not sure how much body mass they lose, but probably a good 10%.IMAG0143%20-%20Copy%20(2)[1].jpg
This is it with its head on which is not particularly big for the area. There are some real big boys with 20+ points! We don't shoot those though!
MS
 
Blimey! Even members of the Regiment only get a postcard sized blackout across the eyes.

Is it that you really are deep-down secret, or really paranoid :)
 
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Hi guys,

Have been meaning to respond to posts for a while. Been watching eBay and other sites, lost out on a good size chiller as I don't to eBay much. As MS pointed out hanging carcass from pelvic bone would help on hang height. But Looking at hanging carcass from the pelvic bone, looks like it rules out a standard fridge as would make the depth of carcass to deep for standard fridge. I now have a new fridge, turned up Monday. Shot my 1st Fallow Tuesday morning and carcass is hanging in it nicely. 1700mm fridge with a internal drop of tad over 1500mm and still got some space underneath. made a winch and frame to lift carcass up, just had to swing each leg in, worked a treat and saved my already ruined back.
My Questions now are, as fridge doesn't have a fan. Should I rig 1 up ? (Have a little 230v fan already) if yes should the fan be placed at top, on a horizontal plane, pulling the air up or pushing it down or vertical moving air front to back or vicer versa. Also would butchering next Wed 3/2 be to soon from being hung on Tue evening 26/1. Bottom of fridge is 4 deg C.

Thanks again.
 
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