Self-Propelled 950-Bu. Grain Cart Made From Airport Fire Truck

Self-Propelled 950-Bu. Grain Cart Made From Airport Fire Truck TRUCKS Conversions 25-1-18 Custom harvester Robert Lemieux, High River, Alberta, wanted a reliable self-propelled grain cart to haul grain from two combines while making the grain harvest trek north from Oklahoma to Canada. So he spent last winter building one. He started with a 4 by 4 airport fire truck. "It was built with a 2,000-gal. water tank, a 150-gal. foam tank, and a 265 hp 6-cylinder Caterpillar engine to operate the pump," he says. The truck itself was a full-time 4-wheel drive vehicle, with 30-ply 18 by 25 tires on it. It's powered by a 600 hp V-8 Caterpillar diesel, with a six-speed Allison powershift transmission," he says. Lemieux started the conversion by stripping off the water and foam tanks, along with the pump and the pump engine. He sold what he could of these. Then, using 4-in. square steel tubing for a base and 2 by 2 tubing for the sides, he welded together the frame for what would be a 950-bu. grain tank. He completed the tank by welding 14-gauge steel sheeting to the inside of the frame. To unload it, he borrowed the turret auger from the grain tank on an old Massey 860 combine. Lemieux figured the 30-ply heavy-duty tires that came on the machine were sufficient for travel on hard roads, but knew they'd leave the machine stuck in soft soil or mud. To make sure it had plenty of traction in the field, he added duals all around. He bought wheels and new tires, but had to make spacers to mount the new wheels to the existing wheels. "Making the spacers was one of the most difficult parts of the conversion," he says. On the added outside wheels, he mounted 16.9 by 34 lugged tractor-style tires. He selected tires that are just a little smaller in diameter than the original tires, which he left in place on the inside wheels. "That way, when we're on hard surfaces with it, there's less wear on the lugged tires. But in the field, as soon as it sinks in a little, the lugged tires dig in and keep it moving," he says. It worked so well that we used it instead of a 4-wheel-drive tractor to pull combines out of the mud last year," he says. Lemieux uses two semi-trucks to haul grain to the elevator and had two combines in the field. The 950-bu. grain-hauling rig was more than sufficient to keep grain moved away from the two combines to the semis. On one farm, he teamed up his two combines with two of his cousins' combines and used just his motorized grain cart to haul away the wheat. "We had no trouble keeping grain hauled away from all four," he says. His grain cart runs well on the road at 35 to 40 mph. "One of my employees had it up to about 50 mph, but at that speed, it was a rough ride," he says. Lemieux is thinking of selling his cart and if he does, he'll probably build another. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Lemieux, Lemieux Ventures Ltd., Box 5738, High River, Alberta, Canada T1V 1P3 (ph 403 646-2835).

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