SP Grain Auger Speeds Up Grain Handling

SP Grain Auger Speeds Up Grain Handling GRAIN HANDLING Augers (4) 19-5-17 "It used to take us an hour to load a semi-trailer with our 7-in. dia. auger so it some-times got pretty congested when we were hauling-grain. Now we can load 1,200 bu. into a trailer in 11 minutes, eliminating traffic jams," says Philip Meyers about the high-capacity, self-propelled auger he and his foreman, John Garrett, built out of a combine. They've used the rig since 1993 to move an estimated 300,000 bu. of wheat. It's equipped with two augers - a long 40-ft. one that pulls grain out of storage and into a collection hopper, and a discharge auger that transfers grain to waiting trucks. The prototype has been virtually trouble-free, and the men are considering producing the machine commercially with up-to-date hydrostatic drives and diesel power. The auger is gas-powered by a late 1970's Massey Ferguson 410 combine engine. The combine was stripped down to its final drives, cab, and engine. The frame was stretched from 10 to 15 ft. behind the cab. An A-frame support mounts on back of the frame. It acts as a guide for the 11-in. dia. auger which is fitted with a skid plate on the end. A hydraulic cylinder on the sup-port frame raises and lowers the auger as much as 36 in above ground level and 6 in. below it. An oil reservoir tank mounted behind the cab supplies the hydraulic pump that drives the main auger and a second pump which powers the machine's 12 3/4-in. dia. discharge auger. The men mounted a tapered 25-bu. hop-per made out of 3/16-in thick metal plate on a bracket up front where the feederhouse was originally. The feederhouse welded into a stationary position. In the center of the hopper, the men mounted the unloading auger which came off a burned up Massey 860 combine. It pivots hydraulically 360?, controlled by a chain and sprocket drive. The auger is fitted with a hydraulically-controlled discharge spout that makes it easy to control the flow of grain. "We can control the angle of the grain dropping out of the spout to make sure loads are level and balanced," says Meyers. So far, Meyers has used the auger to primarily move spring wheat out of flat storage. But the machine works great in all grains and storage facilities, Meyers notes. "You can unload any type of storage with it and you can back trucks in parallel on both sides or perpendicular across the front," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, P & D Meyers Farms, Ltd., Box 65, Frontier, Sask., Canada SON OWO (ph 306-295-4062; fax 3637).

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