Giant Self-Propelled 750 BU Grain Cart

Giant Self-Propelled 750 BU Grain Cart GRAIN HANDLING Miscellaneous 14-6-8 There's probably never been another grain cart built that can match the power and carrying capacity of this home-built 750-bu. self-propelled grain cart built by Butch Uhnken, Jacksonville, Ill., using a big 4-WD Caterpillar 518 log skidder. Unhken builds a lot of his own equipment, usually when he needs something that he can't find on the market. In this case, he wanted a big capacity grain hauler that could go anywhere under virtually any conditions. It took him two years to build the one-of-a-kind machine. Uhnken bought the Cat tractor used and totally revamped it, removing the original winch and tower used to skid logs, and adding a cab. The 150 hp. tractor is powered by a 3304 Cat 4-cyl. engine. It has a torque converter and a 3-speed transmission. The big 750 bu. cart it pulls was built from scratch in Uhnken's shop. He used 14-in. I-beam - it weighs 40 lbs. per foot - for the frame of the cart. The sides of the wagon box are 11 ga. steel. The ends are lO ga. Unhken, who builds much of his own machinery, says he has his own rule of thumb for building equipment. "I figure out how strong it should be and then I double it," he says. The gooseneck on the grain cart connects to the tractor with a 6-in. ball special-built by Uhnken. The cart's axle is from a 310 Michigan earth mover. He widened it out 5 ft. for a total width of 12 ft., 6 in. Both the tractor and wagon are equipped with air brakes. Uhnken designed a 16-in. fold-down unloading auger for the cart, powering it with a Perkins diesel engine originally built fora truck-mounted refrigerator unit. There's also a 12-in. dia. shielded auger at the bottom of the cart with a gate that lets Uhnken control the flow of grain into it so it can always be started. It's hydraulically-driven at the rear of the cart by an orbit motor salvaged from a Case garden tractor. One interesting feature of the cart is that the left side of the box is 1 ft. higher than the right side. That's because the combine loads the cart from the right. The higher left side keeps grain from spilling over. The big cart has a road speed of 15 mph. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, B.L. Butch Uhnken, 25 W. Fair, Jacksonville, Ill. 62650 (ph 217 245-4359).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.