Dump Truck Manure Spreader

Dump Truck Manure Spreader MANURE HANDLING Equipment 18-4-8 "It made a tractor out of a truck and saves a lot of time on the highway," says Steven Dietzel, Cuba City, Wis., about the modifications he made to an old dump truck, allowing him to use the truck to pull manure spreaders at highway speeds and operate them in the field. "It eliminates the need for a tractor and can do a lot of different jobs. I can use it as a truck, dump truck, or tractor," says Dietzel, who primarily uses the truck to pull a Gehl 315 Slinger side discharge manure spreader with 385 bu. capacity and a Balzer 2,250-gal. liquid manure tank spreader. He bought the 1964 Oshkosh single axle, 4-WD truck for $2,500, equipped with a Cummins 175 hp diesel engine and 5-speed transmission. It came with a 4 1/ 2-yard dump box and a front-mounted snowplow. He removed the snowplow, gave the truck a new paint job, and mounted a header rack behind the cab. He bought a DANA 300 pto transfer case designed for a Jeep truck from a salvage yard for $75. He used a 4-in. wide, 1 la-in. thick, 20-in. long piece of flatiron to make a drawbar that he mounted on the rear frame of the truck. He mounted the pto transfer case on the drawbar's support frame and used 2-in. steel pipe to make a 10-ft. long driveshaft that extends from the truck's transmission back to the transfer case. The transfer case had two split shafts that ran parallel to each other. He replaced them with a 12 in. long, 2-in. dia., 3/8-in. thick countershaft pipe that's splined on one end and has a gear inside it. The Balzer spreader uses a 1,000 rpm pto shaft and the Gehl spreader uses a 540 rpm shaft so he made two different shafts to fit the pipe, one for each spreader. "We own land five or more miles away so using the truck saves a lot of wear and tear on tractor tires," says Dietzel, who modified the truck two years ago. "It works better than truck-mounted manure spreaders because it's much more versa-tile and I don't have to use a big hoist or loader to lift the spreader off the truck frame whenever I need the truck for other purposes. "Top highway speed is 40 to 45 mph which is about twice as fast as a tractor. It does a great job of spreading manure. The truck weighs 17,000 lbs. empty so if the ground is wet I try to stay out of the field. I probably should equip it with flotation tires. "I can change the position of a lever on the transfer case to match the speed of the pto shaft on each spreader. In high range the transfer case runs at the same speed as the truck's pto driveshaft. In low range it runs at a slower speed that I use with the 540 rpm pto shaft. "I haven't used the pto for other jobs but it could be used to operate self-unloading wagons, augers, etc." The truck came equipped with a crankshaft-driven hydraulic pump that was used to operate the snowblower. Dietzel bought a 2-spool valve, two sets of hydraulic hoses, and two sets of remote outlets for about $150 and hooked them up to the pump. He also made a coupling under the cab that allows him to use the two driveshafts to power the hydraulic pump that operates the dump box or to operate the pto driveshafts that run the manure spreaders. A 2-ft. long splined stub shaft mounts on the truck's pto box. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steven Dietzel, 3123 County HH, Cuba City, Wis. 53807 (ph 608 568-7214).

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