Silage Blower Moves Leaves Fast

Silage Blower Moves Leaves Fast HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Forage Handling 32-5-32 Doug Firebaugh doesn't mess around when it's time to clear leaves. Faster than a crew of men can rake leaves up, he has them loaded into silage wagons for delivery to local farmers. "They use them for bedding, and we get rid of them," says Firebaugh, who uses the rig at a local church camp. "We have up to 40 people raking and fill five to eight wagons each fall." His modified silage blower is key to the rig's success. "We get piles of leaves that are as high and wide as cars," says Firebaugh. "I pull up alongside, let down the ramp, and two men on either side rake the leaves into the blower." The old Gehl blower was originally set in line with its frame and axle. Designed for self-unloading chopper boxes, it had a hopper that fed silage to the blower. Firebaugh cut away the old hopper and modified the mouth of the blower with a hood and a plywood ramp. The hood catches leaves being raked at the blower mouth, and the ramp can be lowered or lifted up and locked out of the way. He shifted the blower unit perpendicular to its frame so the pto shaft could run off the tractor that pulls it. He also built a hitch on the rear of the frame so the unit could pull a silage wagon. A section of blower tube directs leaves into the wagon. Firebaugh prefers the rake-in blower to a vacuum style leaf mover. He notes the vacuum tubes are too easy to plug, which was a problem with an earlier leaf mover he built. This one, he says, moves leaves and twigs and moves them fast. He can also move the leaf mover fast. "The rubber tires trail well," says Firebaugh. "I can pull it down the road at 50 to 60 mph." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Douglas Firebaugh, 697 N. Harlem Center Rd., Freeport, Ill. 61032 (ph 815 232-6341).

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