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Right Angle Manure Pit Agitator
"Our 3-pt. manure pit agitator mounts at a right angle to the tractor. It lets us drive alongside our lagoon to stir manure with-out having to back up," says Daryl Beachy, Kalona, Iowa.
Beachy used 4-in. sq. steel beams to build three pivoting frames that overlay each other. The bottom frame hooks onto the lower
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Right angle manure pit agitator MANURE HANDLING Equipment 16-3-10 "Our 3-pt. manure pit agitator mounts at a right angle to the tractor. It lets us drive alongside our lagoon to stir manure with-out having to back up," says Daryl Beachy, Kalona, Iowa.
Beachy used 4-in. sq. steel beams to build three pivoting frames that overlay each other. The bottom frame hooks onto the lower arms of the 3-pt. hitch and has small caster wheels on back. The middle frame is clamped to the top frame, which supports the agitator.
The top frame is hinged, allowing a4 by 8-in. hydraulic cylinder to move the agitator up or down. The middle frame is free to swivel on a pin that runs through it to the bottom frame, allowing the agitator to be rotated back behind the tractor for road transport.
Beachy built the agitator itself from an 18-ft. long well casing pipe, mounting a 15-in. dia. propeller on one end. The propellor is bolted to a 1-in. dia. shaft that runs through the pipe and is connected to a 6-ft. long pto shaft and gearbox salvaged from an old Fox silage chopper.
"It works better than conventional rear-mounted agitators and cost only $1,200 to build compared to up to $3,000 for conventional commercial agitators," says Beachy. "We tried using our neighbor's 12-ft. long rear-mounted agitator, but it couldn't reach in as far as we wanted and it was hard to turn around on the steep, 8-ft. wide bank alongside our lagoon."
Beachy bolted the gearbox and agitator pipe to angle iron braces that he welded onto the top frame. A shaft runs down the center of the pipe and is supported by bearings at either end. Beachy mounted a 500-lb. weight on the front end of the top frame to counterbalance the weight of the pipe.
To position the agitator for transport, Beachy removes the pto shaft as well as the clamps from the bottom frame, then swings the top two frames back and clamps them to the bottom frame. He stores the pto shaft inside a bracket welded onto the top frame.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Daryl Beachy, Rt. 2, Box 111, Kalona, Iowa 52247 (ph 319 656-3520).
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