Self Propelled Manure Spreader

Self propelled manure spreader MANURE HANDLING Equipment 13-1-29 Canadian farmer Bob Comfort of Fennwick, Ontario, built what he thinks is the best manure spreader around by combining the front-end of an International semi-truck with a 285-bu. manure spreader, mounted on the drive axle off a Mack truck. Comfort spreads chicken manure from nearby farms on his corn crop and he wanted the biggest spreader he could fmd to handle the lightweight material. His home-built "semi" spreader travels at highway speeds, is built lower to the ground than if it were truck or trailer-mounted, weighs less than if it were mounted on a truck or trailer frame, and is sized right for 36-in. spaced rows. That's important because Comfort applies the chicken manure to his corn crop during the growing season. "That way we don't have any planting delays in the spring waiting to get nitrogen on. And nutrients are delivered to plants when they need it - during the growing season. I figured that if hog farmers can knife liquid manure into the ground between rows, I should be able to spread chicken litter, which is lightweight, relatively dry and granular. I was right be-cause it works fine," says Comfort. He first mounted the Hedlund Martin side delivery spreader on the Mack truck axle, which he had salvaged from a junkyard. He removed the spring assemblies and welded the axle frame directly to the spreader. "Truck axles work great for row crop work because they're spaced right for 36-in. rows. The duals go right down the row," says Comfort. He bought the front-end of en International Transtar 400 semi from a nearby steel company. The truck has a 250 Cummins diesel and a 15-speed Road Ranger transmission. He attached the front-end directly to the frame of the spreader with 3/4-in. thick steel plate. To obtain hydraulics, he mounted a 2-stage hydraulic pump on the front of the engine and moved the radiator out above the front bumper. He uses a hydraulic motor, salvaged from a cement mixer, to drive the spreader, which is normally pto-driven. The motor is gear-reduced from 2,200rpm to 540 rpm. "I put about 200 hrs. on it this year. It runs great and has plenty of power. It's hard to beat a Cummins engine. I spread at about 5 mph," says Comfort, who also hauls grain with the truck spreader by disconnecting the front beater paddles and simply letting grain drain out the side. Using the unload auger inside the spreader, he can unload all but about 2 bu. of grain. The spreader holds 390 bu. of corn with the extensions he added to the sides. He pulls a 350 bu. hopper wagon behind the spreader when hauling grain for a total of 740 buä or about 20 ton of grain. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Comfort, Rt. 4, Fenwick, Ontario LOS 1C0 Canada (ph 416 386-6151).

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