Old Silo Blower Makes Heavy Duty Leaf Blower

Old Silo Blower Makes Heavy Duty Leaf Blower HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Miscellaneous 30-2-32 "I call it my Hot Rod Leaf Blower because it's so much better than anything on the market and will blow leaves up to 40 ft.," says Rick Hensley, Port Jervis, N.Y., about the 3-pt. mounted, pto-driven leaf blower he built out of an old silage blower. Hensley operates a landscaping service and works by himself. He says he came across a big leaf blowing job - so big that he couldn't find a blower that would do the job. That gave him the idea to build his big blower. "I go back and forth, clearing leaves in swaths up to 40 ft. wide at a time." He used a 15-year-old Ford 618 silage blower. He cut off the wheels and the blower's conveyor/auger, then made 3-pt. brackets and shortened the pto shaft. The blower was equipped with a moveable band on the blower housing which he rotated downward 90 degrees to one side. He rebuilt the blower frame to accommodate the low spout position. The silo blower originally had a hole on the back at the bottom for silage intake. He wanted to have the intake hole on top in order to create maximum air flow. So he unbolted the back side of the blower and rotated it to move the hole to the top. For safety reasons he mounted a metal screen over the hole. Skid plates are welded underneath to protect lawns. "It turned out to be a bigger project than I expected, but it really does the job," says Hensley. "It'll blow leaves up to 1 ft. thick. I use a Deere 4110 20 hp tractor to power it. I go pretty slow, about 1 mph. I use the 3-pt. hitch to raise the blower." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Rick Hensley, 78 Kurpick Rd., Port Jervis, N.Y. 12771 (ph 845 856-1508; hotrodland @frontiernet.net).

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