Home-Built Rig Turns Tires into Feedbunks

Home-Built Rig Turns Tires into Feedbunks MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 15-1-23 A North Dakota farmer's "built-from-junk" tire turner makes virtually indestructible lightweight feedbunks out of any used tractor, truck or car tire. To build the machine, Terrance Rohr, Dickinson, mounted an old Farmhand front-end loader on a trailer. He pulls it behind his pickup and travels within a 100-mile radius to farms, tire dealers, and livestock sales rings where farmers bring their tires for turning or simply buy ones that Rohr has for sale. "Turning tires inside out increases their capacity by about 30% and it's virtually impossible for animals to get cut or injured on one of them," says Rohr, who built the tire turner, which he calls "The Flipper", three years ago. "Most of my business is from farmers who use rear tractor tires to make bunk feeders. Tire feedbunks last much longer than wood feedbunks because they're tough and virtually indestructible. Cattle can't damage them. In winter, if manure builds up around the feeders they can be dug out with a front-end loader without breaking them up. They won't freeze down real hard because the black color absorbs sun-light." Rohr mounted the front-end loader on a 16-ft. tandem axle swather transport trailer. He used the swather's 36 hp Wisconsin 4-cylinder gas engine to power a belt-driven hydraulic pump which raises and lowers the loader arms. A 1-in. dia. rod extends through the bucket attachment pin holes and a chain support brace made from 1/2-in. steel plate is welded to it. A 4-ft. long chain hangs from the chain support brace. Rohr removed a 4-ft. dia. steel wheel from an old horse-drawn grain header and welded it to the rear of the trailer frame. He then cut the top half off five different size wheel rims. To turn a tire inside out, he places one of the "half rims" on top of the steel wheel, then cuts 4 in. out of the bead on one side of the tire by hand. Once the bead is cut off, he lays the tire on the half rim with the cut side up. Fourteen hooks, attached by 3-ft. long chains to the side of the steel wheel, are hooked over the cut edge of the tire and the 4-ft. chain attached to the loader arms is hooked onto chains welded to the edge of the half rim. He also uses the tire turner to load turned tires into tall trucks. An extendable rod above the loader arms, supported by braces on one end, serves as a boom for lifting the tire. Rohr loosens a winch mounted next to the braces which allows the rod to slide backward 8 ft., beyond the loader arms. He hooks a chain hanging from the end of the rod to the tire and raises the loader, then backs the truck under the tire and lowers it into the truck. Rohr spent about $400 to build the tire turner. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Terrance Rohr, Rt. 2, Box 69A, Dickinson, N. Dak. 58601 (ph 701225-6071).

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