This is the truck and trailer I drove most of yesterday. 1987 International S-1954 I think is the series. 185hp DT-466 engine with Allison MT-643 transmission. This is 51,730# of harvested corn in the hopper bottom trailer: She is slow but steady and reliable. Tare weight on truck and trailer after dumping was 19,660#.
The farmers around here, in SE Ohio, have not started picking/shelling corn yet. Our neighbor down the road, is still chopping corn for silage, as are others here. I would guess the picking/shelling will not start for another 2 or 3 weeks, at least.
They have not started around home either but that is mostly from weather. I'm in south/central IL driving for my cousin and his operation. We switch between corn and beans during the day at times too dependent upon moisture content. 17.0 % - 17.5% on corn is averaging and about 10% on beans.
Around here nobody uses a single-axle to pull a grain trailer- the ground is too soft. You would never get out of the field. I’m surprised the Allison would get that much weight moving unless the ground is really hard
We typically load on the road. Seldom in a field citing reasons you mention. We do turn around in fields when empty to position. Chase cart always does the loading. New drive tires for this season:
There's places a truck would get stuck in dry powder, grain carts only! Someone said in a different thread the 653 is good to 70k. My 750 has been driving in the bush for quite some time and I'm glad I have it over a manual (different service).
The number one thing I do not do is expect 300 horsepower performance from 185 horsepower truck. What I actually do from a dead stop in a field, is in Drive bring the RPMs to about 1750 on the tachometer. I let the truck accelerate to 3 to 5 mph and increase the RPM to 2250 again on the tachometer. At about 10 mph, I increase the RPMs to about 2350 and it will upshift and I just leave the throttle in the position where it was and get up to Highway speed. If I'm floorboarding it, I really do not realize it. I am not aggressive on the throttle pedal at all, and the truck gets better economy I'm told with me driving it than it has two prior drivers.
I just put the hammer down till I get to the speed I want to drive. Mines quite the different machine especially I have 2x the engine. Just watch the heat
Paid by the hour so no hurry. Family so don't want to hurt anything mechanical, or relations. They enjoy having me as much as I enjoy the work. Still learn a few things each day and actually teach some too. It's all good as they say.
Our roads here all have ditches so usually a grain cart can’t reach the trailer when it’s parked on the road. Saw some guys attempt it when we had a wet fall
My brother designed a telescoping auger for the tribine for that so it could unload straight into a semi off the road.
This why spuds are not planted in the river bottoms here!
I think by the time we finish up this Harvest I will know what harvested corn, and soybeans look like.
Scooped up a skunk running it through the combine last evening making the machine rather unpleasant to operate for a spell. Usually small animals living amongst the crops make way long before any danger to them presents itself, but not this time apparently. Had a bearing start to making noise so stopped for evaluation finding a couple of flange bolts sheared off connecting two linkage arms that actuate mechanisms to pull crops through the machine. Replaced the bearing, carrier for the same, and all hardware. Good as new and back at it we went. I have no experience with combine work at all but this is where having a second set of hands played well saving time.
Former brother in law does that in the wheat fields in your area. The planted rows are longer and straighter than here. To load hopper wagons on the run to work well you need almost consistent mile long runs and flat fields. Too much turning and jockeying around for it to work well for us on top of soil compaction. The chase cart is rated for 780 bushels but it's usually filled to about 650 bushels and driven to the loading area. Everything lasts much longer when not abused so the capacity is cut back. Cousin watches costs closely to maximize income which is not based on a get it done quick attitude. In many ways we share the same attitude that older well maintained and debt free equipment produces more profit than much newer equipment.
I have that attitude. I'm not interested in anything newer than 07
123 acres of beans harvested yesterday with one combine running steady. AWS
We have spent the past week getting our grain equipment ready to go. We are hoping to start our soybeans tomorrow. We chopped our silage corn over a week ago, and that went fairly well for us. Hoping for a smooth and expedient harvest.
Jet builds nice trailers, the conical hopper is the best design out there. Way less problems with cracking and corrosion, problems created by riveted structure used on others.
Jet, and Demco, (formerly Maurer) are the two prominent steel trailers around here. The one I'm pulling is a 1996 year and only outside during harvest. Inside all other parts of the year. Cousin has three of the Jet trailers. This one is new in 1998 and double hopper where mine is single:
The other thing about the Jet is the gates, simple, work well, last well. The finish coatings are quality also.
This one needs a hat over the single trap door in the base. With the grain laying on it it is very hard to open. The other trailers have a roof over the door about a foot up so the bulk of the grain weight does not bear directly on the doors. This one also has the optional side doors for dumping into an auger trough that are used to load grain bins
Simple round stock rollers riding on grade 8 hardware. Rack and pinion drive.
Around here all the hopper windows are painted over. DOT man doesn't need to know how full the trailer is.
The other brand popular around here in steel trailers:
Steel hoppers get to looking pretty shabby in 5 years or so around here. Timpte has most of the local aluminum hopper market. They are good trailers, the factory is local, and they have a good dealer. Some Cornhuskers, mostly full time O/O who trade every few years. Word used to be don't let a Cornhusker get old, don't know about newer ones.
Chisel plow tractor following harvest:
Steel trailers are very popular around here and commonly parked inside when not being used.
We started couple hours later than we wanted, but I had to fix a Mack on the side.of the road that tried to give away its air compressor. Beans are 12.4%, running right at 60bu/acre
We are running about 10.1, to 10.4% on beans.
I only made the one run today. I am currently feeling Ben's with beans.
Well today the corn field next to use got it's fall hair cut, looks about like some kid who just showed up at Boot Camp!
All that daily excitement of watching crops grow and Poof! gone in an Instant.
I didn't get many pics today, but I'll try to remember tomorrow. Being the truck driver, grain cart operator, roadside mechanic and equipment shuttle person, pictures were the last thing on my mind. We did get 4 truckloads (2500+/- bushel) hauled home and put away before dark though, so it was a nice, productive day.
Know what you mean. My truck was loaded last evening after elevator was closed to finish out the field. Drove to elevator and offloaded this morning first off, the transported the bean head on the cart 13 miles to the next field. Hitched a ride back up to grab my truck and took it back to the house. The bean field being worked today is just across the street so the other truck and trailer loaded and I augered the grain, (about 8000 bushel) into a 10000 bushel bin. Will finish this field tomorrow filling the bin and move to the next.
How many acres will you guys harvest this year? We will have 600 acres of beans, and about 800 acres of corn to shell. Some of the corn will be ground and bagged as high moisture corn for the dairy cows.
I will ask today as really don't know myself. There is just over 3100 acres in total ground and it usually runs close to 50/50 corn to beans. It varies from year to year.
Unloading beans into the bin this morning first off: This trailer's doors open so much easier having the roof over the door: Boss demanded the truth so I spilled the beans:,
Meet sweetheart, destroyer of soy beans
160 acres finished so far. This is the one of the two trucks I'm driving this fall. 1993 GMC/White/Volvo/ whatever. Its clean, runs well, most of the time. Dash is junk. 3406 Cat, Eaton 9 speed, air ride. Handles well, lots of power. I wish we had an aluminum double bottom for this truck, as it is heavy with the steel single bottom, and doesn't haul as much as it could. My one, full load to the elevator today grossed 66,200 pounds, 640 bushel of beans.
Down to the last 72 acres of beans remaining. That bin I was filling is right to the upper support ring so full. Moved onto the next field and I got two loads into the elevator before closure but trucks are loaded to start tomorrow. Should finish beans tomorrow and switch back to corn. Still 1280 acres of corn standing. Forgot to ask total acreage planted and ratio of beans to corn.
1590 in corn, and 1360 in beans this year. Lots of dirt with the beans it's been so dry but that is good for flow through the combine. They still get "leathery" just after sunset so attempting to maximize harvest during the daylight hours. Going good today but weather is changing as front moves into the area. Finish beans and rainout tomorrow would be perfect as all could use a rest. Talked to second cousin who was scale master this morning at the elevator we are using today. She says most of the field to elevator farmers utilize steel trailers where the commercial truckers that transport grain from the elevator to processing plants all run aluminum from her observations. Makes sense to me as transporters are not allowed the farmer "overage" allowance which is 10% without penalty if loading in field and transporting straight to elevator, or bin.
Friend purchased for me 8 Bridgeston M726EL drive tires in 285/24.5 that are about, or a little better that 50%. Original purchaser is going to be running into AK this winter and wanted open shoulder tires. Never any flats, or compromises to these tire which were new in 2021. He was offered $75.00 each for the casings so that is what I'm giving for them and they come with the four used "Centrimatic" balancers also. These will go onto my hopper trailer as the size is on there now, but it's not been pulled since 2014 and tires are retreads so no idea to condition. These will at least get me started.
Possibly rained out today. Rained pretty heavy in the overnight hours so at least delayed. Trucks are loaded and tarps rolled closed so when the call comes we'll get back at it.
We are rained out for today. Son, and grand daughters are driving down to visit after school this afternoon through the weekend along with wife so no need to travel home. I'm currently residing in my mother in law's basement as have graduated up from the storage shed in the back yard. Pictures of the tires purchased for me: I'm told there is a ninth matching tire included that is virtually new but needs either sectioned, or booted. Given the miles the owner ran it was replaced rather than repaired. Will make a good spare regardless in my usage.
Little bit of equipment maintenance going on in the background of combine, and chase wagon along with chase cart. Primary truck driver has trouble with night vision so we picked up her a pair of LED conversion headlamps and I installed them this morning. They are much brighter than the original halogen sealed beam bulbs. I went the extra money to have glass lenses so they don't dull, or haze over time. Only took a short video and I don't know how to take a snapshot to save in format the site will accept for posting.
Finished up a field this morning of corn and have moved to the next 50 acre field down the road. Averaging about 13.5 acres per hour so far. Machines are all working as most well oiled machines do and performing admirably.
ahh agri good work keep feeding us! thanks
We got over 2" of rain yesterday, and more again today. Supposed to rain through the weekend here. Combine is parked and staying parked until next week. We don't have an easy set up to switch between bean storage and corn storage so we try to finish our beans before switching all of the augers over.
here in Nova scotia it been a tough year to be a Farmer my family are chopping corn at present and beans are ready quite a lot of beans ruined due to earlier flooding. silage was hard to get too as it was such a wet summer here big storm supposed to hit us tomorrow more wind and rain
@1693TA and @colson04 thank you for sharing the harvest pics! All I know is construction and demolition so it's pretty damn interesting reading about big farm work. Keep it coming and keep us fed!
I too find it interesting and very varied in nature. Lot of fun on top of that. Elevator called cousin this afternoon late to tell him they planned to close early. Hence, we did not get the 50 acre plot completed. Trucks are loaded for tomorrow first off and we will complete this field and start the next. So many different varieties and hybrids of corn to adjust maturity dates, but I don't know what was planted where. We have one 8000 bushel bin to fill and that could be tomorrow as it is close and the auger is set up for it now. I assume it will be me filling the bin again as nephew will be in the fields chisel plowing and cultivating a rye cover crop for the winter months. Hope to be finishing up by next weekend as it's really going well so far.
Yep, me on bin filling duty. Dumping corn: The old 4020 Deere soldiering on: Bottom falling out into the chute:
We run a 4040 on auger duty. When I was a kid, we had three 4020's doing the bulk of the farm work. Today, they 4040 is our small tractor.
I've never been around John Deere equipment myself. However, I've never really been around Farms other than repairing broken equipment. There is a shitload of general knowledge that comes into play to make everything work smoothly. The bin I'm filling now will go to keep these guys fed so they can feed us later:
Well I guess they figure I can fill bins better than drive truck because that's what I did all day. Two 8000 bushel bins in fact stuffed to the upper support rails with corn: .
Well my "Bin Boy" job ended last evening with the filling of that last bin so back off to the fields we go. Blew a 1" hydrostatic drive motor hose on the combine just as winding up for the day and man did that thing dump some oil quickly. Cousin called the dealership owner on his cell phone and was told there is a replacement pair at another of his dealerships and he's already told the parts guy to head in and set them in the after hours pick up box. 2nd cousin that is the in house mechanic picked them up and installed the pair in the overnight hours so we could be back in the fields as soon as the elevator opened. Went like clockwork and all back to normal.
hope the had a few buckets of oil too! keep er going boys!!
There a couple new barrels in his shop. They set one in the back of his pickup along with a pneumatic barrel pump, air compressor, and small generator. We've been going at it since noon. I was the first across the scale and dump pit today.
Beans are too wet to thresh, so we're blowing out irrigation lines. The barn in the background is where we raise our heifers.
Had to swap trailers as busted main leaf on both sides: Reyco 38K suspension. Will probably replace it complete with new citing age. Hangers are all solid so spring leafs, u bolts and hardware will be replaced.
Down to the last 520 acres to harvest. This farm is flat and relatively rectangular in shape with the bulk. We will hit this hard tomorrow as may rain on Wednesday.
I went to my sisters farm in Iowa they put me to work right away haling beans to the elevator they were finishing up the last field of beans. His dad is 90 and they dont want him driving a semi. If i would have know they needed me i would have went a week ago.
It is unbelievably difficult to find reliable help even for "cash money" for something as easy as sitting a truck seat and doing not much else. Cousin has had different drivers that start the harvest, get into it several days, demand payment, and don't come back. Given his extremely casual and laid back demeanor, I cannot imagine he would be at any type of fault. Down from three drivers, myself and the co-driver keep up very well so a third isn't needed. Can't figure it out myself as if you have and express a concern, it's addressed. Case in point is last year I said the drive tires on the tractor I drive were getting a bit thin, and old. I show up this year with brand new drive tires installed: How do you argue with something like that? Like Doug, had I know he was struggling with help several years ago, I'd have jumped in the saddle sooner.
Mostly done here. Expecting snow anyday now. Surprised that International is so light. I had a 2574 dumping flatbed was about 25,000lbs empty.
Empty weight with 1/2 tank of fuel is 19,100 today with this trailer.
375+/- left to go after today. Good day with consistent flow. Only backup(s) were at the elevator but not long. Think I made nine trips myself with other truck making one more. I carried consistent 675+ bushel loads with other truck just a bit more than 1000 bushel per load. Averaging just about 250 bushel per acre so a good harvest.
I tell myself things are going to change . Next year i am going to make sure i can help them more . There is things in life that need to be done and helping family is one of them. Late today a buddy called and said his JD 3020 that is running a auger stopped running . He is only a few miles away i found that the shut off soilenoid had shorted out . I jammed the plunger in it for now so they could use it .
You did better than a factory trained and certified technician with a laptop could have.
If it would have needed a laptop to get it going i dont know if i could have fixed it. I still fill good about getting something going when some one needs it most.
I wish I was retired. Retired guys get to pick & choose the most fun jobs! I'm still answering 15 phone calls a day, people wanting a before cold weather major project done tomorrow, or at latest by the end of the week. On another note, I've pondered many years why so many trucks seem under powered? I'm ignorant of heavy haul trucks with 10 to 12 tires, & certainly ignorant of 18-20 tired semi trailer rigs, but the six tired trucks & road tractors seem appallingly under powered. I had a 1976 Chevy C65 nameplate 27500 GVWR, titled at 25999, I bought it with a 366 gas, changed it to a 427 gas. It was terrible on hills in general. Most of the 14 years I owned it it was essential to have the gas tank full to climb the steepest hill I frequent. Last year I owned it it got where I had to unload the trailer, or help it up with a pickup. Found a cracked O ring on a fuel filter cannister, that helped, but ultimately, I had to replace all of the fuel supply system. I could once again climb that hill loaded. "New" truck is a 1990 GMC Top Kick, 28000 LBS GVWR. 3208 Cat is rated at 250 HP. "New" truck is able to climb, albeit very slowly. Allison does convert torque to get me up the hill, but I worry if the transmission will overheat. Any theories why mid size trucks are universally underpowered?
If I’m not mistaken you live in an area similar to myself with steep mountain grades. When you load any truck to max gvw and head up a 10, 15, 20% grade your going to be crawling. There is a couple big hills on the highway here that the semi’s pull at about 20mph when fully loaded, my old 190hp diesel medium duties pull it at about 10mph loaded to max. Sure it is somewhat slower but also gets exceptionally good fuel economy, if it takes me a few extra minutes to get somewhere so be it. With all that being said, there are usually a plethora of engine and transmission choices in class 6 and larger trucks. Depending on the application the original purchaser may have been going fo cheapest upfront cost or best fuel economy when they originally ordered a truck. When a guy like you or I come along and buy it used sometimes you have to take what you can get. I’m amazed at how many Ford medium duty trucks durring the 90’s were ordered with a 5.9l cummins. I’m sure it was largely based on the engines reputation more than anything, thats a tiny peanut of an engine for a MDT in my opinion.
You would be surprised how many of the local diesel "technicians" around here cannot perform a dry, and wet compression test on a gasoline engine at the least; let alone interpret the results once shown how. Never heard the term "leakdown", or "comparative analysis" in their training. Shutoff solenoid problem you mentioned. I've seen two pumps pulled from engines, sent in for rebuild, reinstalled and engines still will not start. One was a bad shutoff solenoid, the other? No power to the solenoid from an ignition relay. How does this happen? They don't teach basic troubleshooting practices, or you got a kid riding daddy's nickel to get some kind of certificate or degree without interest in progression. Both times "old hands" stepped in, diagnosed the problem correctly and proper repairs were facilitated. Of course the owner's were kept oblivious to this and paid for pump rebuilds and the correct repair parts also. Knowledge is Power as they say and much of today's youth just ain't got it.
True & true, on all but fuel economy. Last truck was horrible on gas. Route 7 lies reasonably level along the bottom of the valley. On trips to haul equipment or loads I'd see about 6 MPG. Anywhere else in southern VT it's uphill or down, 3 was more likely. Diesel fuel costs more, but I use less than half with the newer truck.
Entering home stretch. Last 200 acres. Will go till after dark for elevator closure, and then get grain on wheels for the overnight hours. This will deliver shortly after first light. Going very well with consistent steady pace. Been about 1000 acres a week all inclusive of beans, and corn. Had some very good days for cutting beans citing the lack of rain. Cousin feels it's been a bountiful harvest and hopefully the markets respond accordingly.
When that C65 Chevy was new it was a high powered truck. The 366 was the medium size gas engine. It could have had a 350 with a 2 bbl. You can't use today's yardstick to measure yesterday's antiques.
The 366 was well suited for the medium duty line at the time. More low end torque than the 350 and better economy, (barely) than the 427, or 454. Good fit in farm trucks and school buses.
Ouch. I could get easily get 50k of beans in the 28' double hopper trailers. They had 78" sides though.
Neighbor had combine engine trouble today with just over 150 acres left to his harvest. His property adjoins the field we are working now so we will pick his corn and dump into his wagons, or haul to the elevator for him.
We just picked up a 40ft double hopper trailer and a 2912 Freightliner to pull it. I'm looking forward to fair weather next week to resume harvest and see how this combo works. A local hauler uses the same combo and is netting 1000 bushel easy.
At the shop i worked at before i quit they hired two young guys. Both good guys and good mechanics on newer stuff but they had some stuff come in to the shop that had simple problems but they spent some time and money thinking it was a bigger problem. I couldnt believe they over looked what was wrong . I helped them fix the problem and after a couple of deals like this both soaked in what they had learned . One of them is steal at the shop and he has learned and i guess you could say grow as a mechanic.
366 was same components as 427, except bigger bore. Switching to 427, I used everything but block from the 366. The 427 was a heavy duty motor, forged crank, big cam, big valves, big cooling system, big bearings & an extra oil control ring on each piston. Quite a motor, it'd be impressive in a pickup! Wasn't all that bad in a truck loaded to 26,000 LBS. Put a trailer & backhoe behind it, it was a dog! It seemed the only place the engine speed dropped below 3600 was on a flat road at 50 MPH. Takes a lot of gas to run that fast all the time! 454 isn't nearly as bulletproof as the tall block, I doubt it'd run the long miles with the weight. In either case it wouldn't fit the truck. Diesel is no Prius, but it is about half the fuel cost per mile.
*A 2012 Freightliner*
1000 bu will require mid sides on a 40' hopper, and a tolerance for being overloaded. Or does michigan allow over 80M on 5 axles? I've never seen a set-up that could haul 60M and weigh 20 or less.
Last.eight rows of cousin's "Harvest 2023". As I type this him in combine and chase wagon are picking neighbor's corn. We will be complete tomorrow and I may sleep in my own bed tomorrow night rather than my MIL's basement couch although the basement is finished for living space.
I do sometimes miss that type of farming. Spent every summer from 8th grade till college working on my uncles farm in northern Illinois back in the late 90’s. I didn’t often get in on fall harvest but every year around the 4th of July was the wheat harvest. I usually ran a 500bu grain cart behind a 2wd Allis Chalmers 8030 or FWA 8050. Ran the augers back at the bins with one of the D17’s or 170. After the wheat was in we’d plow in liquid manure from the hog operation into the stubble. If memory serves that rig was a 1000gal Blazer honey wagon pulled with a FWA 8070 with duals. Nowadays on my beef cattle farm in Va, the big fall field work consists of clipping pastures, spreading lime and manure, and occasionally overseeding a field or two.
No, they don't allow over 80,000 on 5 axles. After reading your post and doing some quick math, I agree that he's either full of it, or running overweight. I'll report back what our set up scales at next week when I start hauling in. Daily rain for the past week has kept the combine parked. The weather is supposed to clear over the weekend so we should be able to resume harvest.
Mine is 39' double hopper and rated at 950 bushel. I'm told it's hauled 1000+ many times easily. Never used it myself so cannot vouch, nor deny.
We discussed this some at coffee this morning. I was told the local elevator owns a set up similar to what we bought. Their empty weight is right around 23,000 pounds which gives them 950 bushel capacity. We'll haul a load to the elevator next week and figure out how full we can load it to stay legal. Our first semi only scales 72‐73,000 gross when filled to the brim. I'm sure the new one could push 90,000+ if the grain cart driver gets carried away.
I assume you have an aluminum hopper trailer. Mine is steel but I really need something inexpensive to start out with. Should I start to make any money it will be replaced .
This neighboring property harvest is becoming a pain in the backside as we are now rained out and cannot relocate equipment back to cousin's property. Could be a couple of days till dry enough to continue but far too wet to do anything else today. Other semi tractor needs wiper blades it's discovered so that will be done.
It isn't easy to estimate hopper capacity. Around here, anyway, soybeans are usually about 56#/bushel, with a 60# standard. Corn, on the other hand, is usually about 58#-60#, on a 56# standard. A 43' low side timpte with ag hoppers will hold 75,000# of heavy corn, but only about 68,000# of soybeans.
Been watching this post as healing from the elbow crap, Cousins in Central IL got 212b/a on corn this year, thought were going to get 225, my last employer is breaking 200 on their corn and over 55b/a on beans even with the crappy dry season we had here. Roughly 95% of Corn is done here, either as Silage or harvested, beans are still just at 60%+/- brought in due to late moisture arrival.
Our older hopper is steel. The new(er) one is aluminum.
Average weight on 40' steel two hopper and 3 axle tractor around here is 27,000. Normally net 53,000 legal hauling soft white. This summer I averaged 57,000 net on overloads out of the field.
Most trailers seen around here Steel Timpte and Aluminum Wilson.
I guess those steel hoppers are heavy. A 12.7/14 Detroit in a 3 axle day cab with a 43' Timpte ag hopper is 24M-25M. C15 in a small bunk, same trailer, 26.5M. Don't think I've ever seen a steel Timpte.
Dryland corn around here and west is 0 to 40 bu/ac, really good soil or good rain cloud at right time might go 100. Dryland soybeans are 0 to 20 for most fields.
When I grabbed the scale tickets yesterday after we stopped I meant to see what the other tractor and trailer weighed. She commented all her loads exceeded 1000 bushels and was overweight on the scales. I heard her say almost 82K with her last load as we were trying to beat the rain. I was loading while she was running to the elevator. It was still dry while I loaded but started deluging upon me as I was exiting the field. The 3.6 mile trip to the elevator in a consistent downpour elevated the load from a consistent 14.6%, to 15.5% moisture content.
You guys don't run tarps? We have one smaller dump truck we use that doesn't have a tarp. It doesn't get used much, and we don't load it when rain is imminent.
We have tarps but seldom use them. I asked cousin if I should tarp and was told no as I was already rolling. Don't think I've seen a single manual tarp deployed this entire harvest. I've covered the loads when they sit overnight if rain was possible, but the second driver cannot deploy, or store a tarp as has bad shoulder(s).
That is pretty close what I'm seeing also judging by the an annunciation panels at the scales. Grain trailers must be balanced pretty well as I've not seen any tag, or drag axles on the ground unless an older farm truck with a dump box. It's been years but I think my white R model Mack scales right at 22K with about 50 gallons of fuel because of the winch, head rack, and frame glove/fishplating. Heavy I know, but something to start and possibly prove a theory with.
We are getting back after it at 8:00am. Cousin picked about 10 acres yesterday afternoon and loaded my truck and the chase cart directly from the combine and said it was still very wet. However thinks it will be dryer through the overnight hours as there has been a pretty good breeze most of the day and night. Eighty acres yet to go so hopefully a good long day today, or a late morning tomorrow to finish up.
Was cautioned by employer to close tarps whenever had load in trailer, DOT here seems picky for some and ignores others.
Well, we were able to harvest another 90 acres of beans between Tuesday and Wednesday and woke up to rain today. The beans shelled very well, but the moisture was high, around 17.5%. Not ideal, but we're forecasted rain the next 3 days, then a 3 day break, then more rain at end of next week. We took what we were given and made the most of it. We set up the dryer Monday and ran about 1400 bushel of the wettest beans through it yesterday. By late afternoon, the beans were around 15% so those just went into the bin. We still have 280acres of beans to harvest. Also had a little breakdown while hauling a load to the bins yesterday morning. Not my proudest moment, but its fixed and ready to haul another load.
While Bluey was getting fixed, we pulled out the new semi to keep things rolling. 2012 Freightliner Cascadia. 525 ISX, 10speed Eaton, 394,000 miles. Former rental truck from Star. Very clean truck. When Star sold it, they put new rubber all the way around, replaced drivers seat and other stuff before my uncle could take delivery. It's the nicest truck I've ever driven. Quiet, tight transmission, smooth ride. Tare weight 26,000 pounds. I'll be able to haul 900 bushel of beans, 950 bushel of corn legally.
Here in SE Ohio, the silage chopping was pretty much finished a week ago. Bean harvesting started then, and is still in full swing. Rain tomorrow could likely stop that for a few days. Our neighbor, nor any of the other farmers around here, have started picking or shelling corn yet. Some fields look like they could be ready at any time. A lot of farmers here don't do beans, so I am thinking that those may start picking/shelling next week after the rains.
colson04 how did the yoke break? Bad ujoint?
My sisters husband called me and my brother needing drivers yesterday afternoon around 5:00 . We both didnt have enough clean clothes so we did some laundry . I got to my brothers around 7:30 we arived at our sisters around 10:30. Its going to be a long day.
Colson04, foot slip off the clutch when starting fully loaded in the field?
Yoke broke first. Sorta. I made it out of the field, down the road to a 4 way stop and did the damage there. Intersection is uphill. I put truck in 1st instead of low, let off the brake and clutch too quickly to keep from rolling back and that was all she wrote. Thankfully, I was 1/4 mile from the tractor and grain cart. Walked back to the field, a neighbor stopped asking if I needed help. I said yep, and we proceeded to use the tractor to pull the truck through the intersection and to a local junk yard up the road where we could get off the road. Unhooked, drug dead mule out and put the Freightliner under. Away we went.
I feel for ya. When under pressure and a weather timeline, **** happens
Weather has been a killer for us this year. We started cutting beans 3 weeks ago. We got 3 good days in, then 2 weeks of rain. We were able to cut for 2 days this week, then it started rain Thursday and supposed to keep raining through tomorrow. We might be able to run some by Monday, but they changed forecast overnight and it's showing rain from Tuesday through Saturday next week again. We have 340 acres of beans done with 280acres left to go. A dry week and they could all be done. Then we have 800 acres of corn. Samples from early this week showed all our corn is over 26% moisture still. Once it gets under 25%, we can run our high moisture corn, but we aren't too keen on drying 25% corn for the bin yet.
Total standstill here. To much rain, one couldn't get into a field without pontoons. Beans are back to mush stage, winter wheat ain't gonna happen. Ed
Hauled corn till a little after midnight .I was tiered didnt sleep good the night before . I told my brother he could drive the newer truck with the automatic i thought maybe my arm would hurt today but i am ok.
Going back Thursday after both truck and trailer bringing back to my shop to do maintenance/upkeep/repairs to both units, along with sandblast all the wheels and repaint. Spring packs for the trailer are less than $200.00 each and will replace all four and hardware. Really do like those new drive tires on the tractor as they seem to wear very well and are quite smooth in operation.
We stopped early last night about 11:00 . Elevator dosent open till 1:00 today.
Dragged my trailer out of the shed and will probably get it back to the shop later in the week. The tarp is complete but has a couple of repairs from being older. Going to look to both electrify the hopper doors, and tarp operation(s) along with blast and repaint as not favorable to the current scheme. Also have a little rust repair to do in the front from not being kept washed up on the insides.
I used to have open-ended super ‘B’ trailers. I feel they are easier to clean the road salt/calcium out of than the closed end types no matter how well the ends are sealed up. The downside is more wind resistance with the open end style, plus they take a lot longer to do a good wash job
Always a Dirt/Mung/Something smelly collection point on that style hopper, Nose and Tail. Have seen many where the suspension frame connector regions just rotted away.
I've seen and repaired many myself. This one appears to be sturdy enough yet for a couple of years use and it's not a long term "keeper" at all. I've not pulled it myself but I'm told it pulls straight and brakes are good. It does need tires as most are caps with dry rot so not going to run them at all hence the reason for the used tires mentioned earlier in the thread.
Yesterday was Sunday the elevator was open 12:00 to 5:00 we each hauled 7 loads there then another 4 to the farm. It was a deal but we got that field finished. I think me and my brother are headed home today. If they need me i may come back in a couple days. It rained some last night.
We finished the field we was in late Sunday night after the elevator closed it was so close on having room at the farm that both trucks were full the pit and auger was full and the combine carried some home. Got up monday morning and drove both trucks to the elevator and unloaded them. We planned on leaving around 5:00 but stayed and helped move augers around then started on a patch close by the house. We got the dryer been full and headed home must have been around 8:00 . We got in my brothers Duramax and it wouldnt crank over. We jumped it but it acted funny didnt know why it did that maybe doom light was on ?? We got to Demoines Iowa and stop to eat go back out to leave it wouldnt crank messed with it and thank God i saw a spark from one of the bat termanls were the cable bolted to it moved it around and it started . Bats are not that old one must be bad and lose cable end on the other. I got home around midnight.
Finally fair weather. Combine running by 10:00am this morning. Beans are running 52bpa @ 14.5% moisture.
Fill em all, rain coming in the morning. We cut 105 acres today, which isn't bad considering our straw chopper shucked a bearing after 4pm. We are 3 miles from the Deere dealer, a quick jingle on the phone and a mechanic is in the field swapping it out. Back cutting beans before 5:30pm.
Rain held off. We finished the last 35 acres of the block we were in as it started to sprinkle. I'm currently unloading trucks in a light drizzle. Supposed to rain pretty hard in an hour.
Put a hydraulic swing on that hopper. Your back will thank me later.
I agree. Not my money though, otherwise I would have a drive over pit already.
I was thinking the same thing when I saw the picture. I got a good chuckle when I read your comment
Dragged the hopper bottom home last evening for suspension rebuild. Traveled the state highways and back roads as it is kind of "Squirrely" on uneven pavement. You can actually see the front axle moving around more than it should through a slow speed sharp turn as the axle is supported in the front only by the trailing arms as the front of the main leaves are broken out on both sides of the front axle. Everything except trailing arms are ordered new as I'll evaluate them once removed from the trailer over the weekend. Photos from a couple of weeks ago when first discovered 30 or so seconds after hearing a loud "bang" when crossing tracks loaded:
Thats why i liked my air ride trailers- a lot easier and faster to replace an air bag than a spring
This trailer is a 1996 and purchased new by my cousin. Only used during his harvest and this is the only problem besides tires and lights that have ever needed attention. Still has the original brake shoes and drums installed from new. Air ride certainly is nice from a ride perspective and probably continuous usage, but the spring ride for the usage these trailers get and the lack of moving parts that wear are just the ticket. Of course that's just my opinion but it's been a great trailer to go that long without any serious problems given the way it's used.
Lots of Long Term aged spring rides out there, on farm use air ride systems generally age badly from lack of use with rubber hardening by sitting deflated too long, springs not so much.
You’re probably right. I bought used commercial grain trailers and had to change worn(through to the cords where they fold over) at about the 12th year. Although i never had to change any after that before i sold them and upgraded
KW had only sat Six Years, showed no damage on air bags until I started to inflate to inspect them, dry rot cracks everywhere.
Around here air bags get a rock trapped between the base and bag and get a puncture hole long before they dry rot. I'll gladly fix a couple of air bags a year over fixing broken springs and putting up with that trailer slap every time I hit a big bump or RR tracks.
We have the same thing around here. Co driver has a much newer air ride tractor and the trailer is air ride also. Every year at least one bag needs replaced, or a valve at the minimum and all equipment is kept inside buildings when out of the harvest season. When down there earlier this week picking up the truck and trailer for repairs, the combine, both heads, and all equipment used for the harvest has already been pressure washed clean and placed into storage for it's winter's nap. Only the tractors and needed implements remain out but are still in use doing ground work for the next few days then will get basically the same treatment. Everything has an indoor storage place is seems, and nothing is kept outside in the off season. This trailer I pull really doesn't ride, or pull bad at all. Until the spring mishap it was being used several loads per day but as soon as I ascertained what happened, it was removed from service till repairs could be facilitated. Good way of doing things and probably part of the reason he can run older yet reliable equipment effectively.
Haven't pulled anything with my old Mack for quite some time so couldn't resist the fun of doing such before tearing into the trailer suspension. After pulling this trailer with the International truck so many times and miles, I was wondering how the same trailer would pull with near twice the power. Got my answer before hitting second gear as the truck almost ran away with it: Old girl may be a "pooch" by today's standards, but she will still haul the mail when needed. Going to put new springs under the front of the Mack this next couple of weeks as they too are ordered. Right side has sagged a bit for years so as I ready to return to service, going to make some repairs for use.
After being rained out on beans again, we finally said phooey and put the corn head on. Corn was wet, 26.2٪, but it hasn't changed in 2 weeks, and now the ends of the ears are starting to rot from excessive moisture so it is time to start bringing it in. Hauled 6 loads to the elevator this afternoon. From where we were at, it's about a 30 minute drive each way through some beautiful country back roads to get to the elevator. Rolling hills, small farms, leaves in their autumn glory, partial sun putting a warm glow on the country side, nary a passenger car to be seen until close to town. It was as peaceful as hauling grain can be. I wish I had a dash cam so I could have shared the afternoon. We didn't get much done, elevator only stayed open til 4pm. I made it home in time to grill dinner and take the kids to a Halloween event put on by a local conservation center.
I like those drives to the elevato(s) myself. Kinda peaceable but I do like to drive. The folks at the elevators are all very kind natured so a pleasure to visit with. In the really hot spells I drop them a bottle of cold Gatorade and they tend to remember the gesture. Scenery around here is all farms and many harvesting operations running concurrent so a lot of movement in all corners. Everybody seem friendly, yet busy. Got work lined up for next years harvest with my truck and grain trailer both. Two local to me farmers that would just as soon be rid of a couple of contract grain haulers have expressed interest to retain my services as they typically start their harvest as my cousin is finishing his. If we can make this come to fruition, it will be lucrative for all concerned. I may miss the first few days but that doesn't seem to be much of an issue.
OK, I'm done, except for a field of itch weed. Here is last corn pass, and big bin set up.
Love the 5020. I don't know that I've ever seen one locally. I see what you mean about the hydraulic swing for the hopper. I need to call them and see if we can add that, and the right angle PTO option to our new unloading auger. The inline PTO we currently have puts the tractor right in the way of the trucks when unloading beans.
Thousands of acres of malt barely harvested has made me immune to milo.
The 5020 is substantially better as a PTO mule in this instance than the smaller New Generation tractors. The PTO clutch is on the left side, the injection pump is electric shut off, and the big inch engine has plenty of torque at idle to power a full auger. I put a manual throttle cable on the swing hopper next to the hydraulic valve. When a hopper is emptied, the tractor is returned to idle while the truck is repositioned to the other hopper. The green you see hidden under the auger is a forklift I use as a counterweight for the auger. Windstorms have tipped over 4 of these augers in the last 15 years, it just took me this long to get smart. A chainfall ties the auger to the forklift. However, I haven't had a severe thunderstorm to test the counterweights since I started using them. The right angle gearbox is actually from a Hutch/Mayrath auger that was blown over, but I think Westfield offer them now as well. The companies are both owned by AGI. Getting the tractor out of the way makes it much easier to dump. Hvy 1ton, if malt barley is worse than milo I don't want anything to do with it.
Harvest around here has been over for a while now.
Thank Gawd!!! Cold and wet there too currently
We use a 4040 for PTO mule. It doesn't really fit our operation anywhere else other than sitting on an auger, but fits that niche pretty well. I can start everything while standing flat on the ground. Couldn't do that with any of our newer tractors. How quickly can you switch from using the right angle PTO to inline PTO? The right angle setup would be great for filling our small bins with beans, but wouldn't work with our wet bin setup as the grain dryer is in the way.
Haven’t seen any right angle drives around here, most bin yards are spread out enough to allow trailers to be backed alongside the tractor/auger. I had mine set up with an electric, remote powered swing auger that i could control from the cab of the truck as i was backing up. I kept a remote in each truck as well as one in the tractor. I also had a camera on the top of the auger to see if i was hitting the hole when positioning the auger, especially at night when changing bins. I had numerous 2200bu bins and the biggest was only 5000bu. A lot of the big guys around here have a leg and a complete handling system
Just for something completely different - we're just starting harvest here in Western Australia. This video is from a large wheat/barley/canola farm in the Eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, it's poles apart from your U.S. harvest. Look up "Cascade, Western Australia" on your maps to see where he's located. This year has been a total disappointment with a very poor level of rainfall right throughout much of the State. Some of the marginal Northern and Eastern-most farms will not even break even this year. As a guide, the State produces around 20 million tonnes of grain in total (1 tonne - 2,204lbs). The last 4 years have been bumper years, with the 2022 crop being a State record, ending up with 25 million tonnes of grain produced for the year. This year, the total is forecast to barely reach 15 million tonnes, and that is quite a bit below the average. The farm this guy is operating on is probably around 15,000 to 20,000 hectares (1 hectare = 2.471 acres), and this is a common size farming operation in the Eastern and Northern broadacre farming areas of W.A. You'll see the road train picking up the grain to haul it to the local grain collection centre (called "the bin" here). We use only end-tippers (end-dumps), no belly dumpers here, the end-tippers are more versatile. You can calculate the gross load of the triple road train, we can get 16.5 tonnes (36,366lbs) on a tandem, and 20 tonnes (44,080lbs) on a tri-axle. Airbags are popular, the authorities give you higher axle loadings for airbags here, they say they damage the roads less than steel springs. You'll hear him talk about paddocks - that's fields to you guys in the U.S. and U.K. and Canada. You'll also hear him talk about "utes" - that's "utility" vehicle here, or pickup as you know them in the U.S. Auto-steer is nothing short of an amazing invention, it never existed when I farmed 40 years ago, but these young guys talk about how it's been around all their lives! You'll notice the fire truck features big in our harvesting operations. Fires are quite frequent, usually starting from a seized bearing, and they have to be tackled promptly. He's talking about the day being 37° - that's 37°C, about 98°F. We have days of extremely high fire danger (usually when it gets over about 40°C with a strong, hot Northerly wind) - and those days are declared "fire-ban" days. On fire-ban days, everything stops in the paddocks, no-one is allowed into any paddock with any machinery or vehicles. This is to stop fires that might become uncontrollable otherwise. The "seed terminators" on the rear of the harvesters crush and spread the weed seeds and straw to ensure that the weed seed bank is reduced, so a reduced level of weed spraying is the aim for the following year. All the field silos are portable with fold-down wheels, so they can be transported from paddock to paddock with a vehicle or tractor, as required (only when empty, of course). The chaser bins are all locally made, all the tractors and harvesters are fully imported from the U.S.
Chaser bins---those are called bankout wagons here. No fire ban days here in the fields--it's hot you keep cutting.
We use a 4040 for PTO mule. It doesn't really fit our operation anywhere else other than sitting on an auger, but fits that niche pretty well. I can start everything while standing flat on the ground. How quickly can you convert from right angle PTO to inline PTO? Right angle wouldn't work with our setup when filling our wet bin.
A repost.
Our bin site is fairly tight to access. It was setup back in the 1960's or early 1970's. When my grandpa bought the farm, this little bin site was not included in the sale, even though it adjoined a parcel he bought. A neighboring farmer bought it, and owned it until 2009 or so when he quit farming and sold it to us. It had two 15,000 bushel bins on it, and a large foundation where a bin sat, but had been removed before I was born in the 80's. We had the foundation inspected, and upon approval, had a brand new 50,000 bushel bin erected. We produce about 25,000 bushel of soybeans annually, and around 105,000 bushel of corn. We typically put up 20,000 bushel of high moisture corn for feed, fill our big bin, and then grain bank (future feed purposes through local elevator) or market the remainder of the corn as it comes out of the field.
Double post.
Running that auger with the 4020 is cumbersome with PTO engagement on one side and hydraulics on the other side of the hood.
As far as switching out the right angle gear box, I've never done it. But it would be pretty easy. Gear box attaches with 4 bolts and a 8020 coupling chain. Put the inline PTO shaft on and you are good to go. I was using some legacy bins and started a larger bin site on one side of the legacy bins. Then a tornado came through and removed the legacy bins, damaged one new bin, and laid 2 of the big pto augers on the ground. I wasn't very happy at the time, but in hind sight selling those 3 old bins to the insurance company wasn't a bad deal. They were both useless and useful, at 22,000 bushel, a bin that is filled in 6 hours isn't much value, but it still beat setting in line at the elevator for an hour.
Several companies make transfer conveyors that are either swing away or drive over. If you can't do everything with an integrated swing away, that's probably the way to go.
I know. I brought that option up when a new unloading auger was being quoted. It was dismissed. Ultimately, it's not my money and I get paid hourly, even if it would save labor and my back. @terex herder , how many acres do you farm and what kind of yields do you get? It would take us a good week to fill 22,000 bushel of soybeans. We could do that in a big day running good corn, but we rarely get to because of our dryer capacity.
In other parts of Australia there are bottom dump trailers. Lighter and simpler than walking floors. Also do not have to get the air hose out to clean-up compared to a double-B trailer end tipper. Some places some B-double bottom dumps are rated to 104K pounds of material. Pumpa Manufacturing, Swan Hill, Victoria Bottom Dumps - Pumpa Manufacturing pumpa.net.au Crestmead, Queensland GLT Bottom Dump Trailer – Custom Australian Made Custom Australian-made GLT Bottom Dump Trailers. Lightest in the range, low tare, PBS-approved, chassis-less design, multiple chutes, air bag suspension. www.grahamlustytrailers.com.au
We had heavy rain Saturday night and again last night, but we're still plugging along. Looks like we will also be putting a new floor in our grain platform this winter too.
Whole farm APH on non-irrigated corn is 141 bu/ac, this years production is 95 bu/ac. On beans APH is 48 bu/ac, this year's production is 15 bu/ac. Total precipitation so far this year is 23", 6" behind normal. It is unusual for a crop to need to be artificially dried here. Irrigated corn, long season (120 day), sprayed with fungicide, finished up last week and was 15.5% average. Started with some drought stressed Aug. 25 at 12 moisture. Sometimes local terminal will offer a reduced drying charge to get corn in early to spread out harvest, hasn't been needed last couple of years. A significant amount around here was chopped for silage. Some whole stalk was swathed and baled as there wasn't enough plant matter to push the stalks into the silage chopper head.
I'm too old for this kind of crap any longer: Going to sandblast and paint all hardware before it goes back under. Trailing arms are tight and ubolts are not stretched with very clean threads. I could have taken them off with a 1/2" ratchet so not very tight at all. Regardless no galled or pulled threads. Will replace front springs, then rears leaving the trailing arms in place. Spring shop had the one in stock and three more will be here in a few days. Took me all of about an hour to get these out so not bad at all. Being family it won't pay very well so best not have a lot of time wrapped in the job; kinda like a good, true friendship where you take care of one another.
I too am getting REAL Old and Tired real fast these days to Heavy Awkward work!!!
I slept crooked or something night before last and it was damned hard to wrangle under that axle to jack the trailer. Up, down, off, and on that creeper on top of shuffling around to slither under the air cans without leaving skin or having more knots on my skull took more time than usual. Feeling a bit better this morning after a nights rest. First use of that new 30 ton air jack that was a gift from a friend for mounting him up some tires at no charge. That sure made it easier. Headed into spring shop this morning to hopefully bring home a new front set for my R model Mack tractor. Several different variants used so good photos hopefully will provide fruit. I cannot locate numbers on the spring packs anyplace. Got all this crap going on and I'm retired. Still haven't figured out how I had time to work a full time job in years gone by.
You guys thought the manual swing hopper was a back breaker... Our new(to us) double bottom hopper sits too low to get the swing hopper underneath. I set the swing hopper at its lowest clearance height and it still won't go under the hopper. This single auger transfer hopper we have just barely fits. Going shopping for a drive over transfer pit before we start our corn harvest.
Two farms used to pickup at when hauled grain had pit dumps, handy but critters loved the damn things. Mice snakes looking for mice, tons of bugs the mice were eating on. Food Chain.
Stopped by spring shop yesterday morning and trailer springs will be here on Tuesday to get this project rolling along. Going to install a few LED lamps replacing the incandescent types currently installed as have a couple double bulb side markers with only one bulb operating. They didn't have the correct bushings I want for the spring shackles so awaiting those which are now ordered for my Mack tractor. I've replaced the originals many years ago with the standard rubber types and don't want to do that again. I have a front spring that is noticeably less in it's arch so new springs with poly bushings and hardware along with new shocks. He also found me a nice clean pair of ball seat Budd style aluminum wheels, (I think they are Accuride) so should be able to install new tires of the steer shortly too. This trailer I'm working with is also very low clearance for the swing auger to get under. The "curtain" around the perimeter drags on the hopper and you work it back and forth till it is upright before starting to dump the contents into it. Doesn't take long at all but it would be nice if additional clearance were available. Other trailers are on tall rubber where this one is not and is on Dayton hubs so kind of limited without some money being spent. Being single hopper it's the one preferred to fill bins with as only takes a single person to both place and operate it.
Hutch/Mayrath looks to have a good drive over. But you have pretty low traps so you better check the height first. Ag hoppers sure are nice. You can also build small hills for the tandems to give more room for the traps.
Not sure my 'nads are that big, but I'd sure like to give it a shot!
Flat Landers need not apply!
So, just how many of them get rolled? Or do they just slide when they start to go? Straw is so slippery!
Every now and then, depends. A rain wash/rut is the worst.
Not something I would be happy to do! It is often asked: "How do you know when the sidehill is too steep?" Answer: "Oh, don't worry about that, you'll know." We were installing a generator at a home where the foundation was poured 9' tall on native soil, then fill was brought in to surround the foundation. Only a few feet of near level lawn surrounded the house. We had to bury a propane tank & trench for generator underground conduits, gas line. Seth backed the backhoe in, about 50' from the driveway, stopped & said "It's too steep." I disagreed, & tried it myself. I too concluded it was just too steep! We switched to a little Kubota backhoe, one I believe is built for people who retired too early & want to plant posies. After 1-1/2 days trying to do a job that'd take half a day with the big 'hoe. I called it a fail. I dug a trench to put the uphill tires in, so the tractor wouldn't roll over sideways & finished the job.
The drive over belts are super low. Aside from price, I always thought they looked like the way to go.
Something like this:
One of 2 lots of silos my BIL and his family own. They were abandoned by Grain Corp after the railway was shut down and all his grain is stored in these until the prices increase after the harvest. Google Image Result for https://www.blandshire.nsw.gov.au/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/weethslle-silo-art-by-heesco.png?w=1200 These are over 100 years old and were hand poured concrete. I had a conversation with a trucking contractor he gets in for the harvest about using bottom dump trailers. He won't have a bar of them because they aren't versatile enough. After the harvest he carts grain to the ports and usually back loads bulk fertiliser so he'd never be able to unload them.
There is a lot of dry fertilizer here that is hauled/backhauled in bottom dump hopper trailers usually hauling grain, sometimes road salt (don't buy one of them used). They are even used to haul frac sand.
Pretty common around here too, The Ag place I worked I had a set of Western Hoppers re-sloped with stainless hoppers-because of fertilizer.
The problem here with hauling fèrt is the roughness of the roads which pacts the load tight and not allowing it to fall out.
I installed hopper thumpers because of that very problem.
I want to get one for our 30 ft hopper. The slope is shallow enough that the high moisture corn doesn't flow out very well like it does on our 40ft, double bottom.
Two guys around my cousin haul fertilizer and their trailers are sprayed with some type of teflon bearing liner and it is very slick. It is almost as slick as water pooled on top of glare ice and nothing sticks to it. No idea to cost and both trailers were very close to new.
Spring packs arrived at the spring shop this afternoon and they'll be delivered tomorrow morning. Today I dragged out my small pressure pot and unburied (from all the crap I can accumulate) the hoses, helmet, vest, and all the ancillary crap I use when blasting. Also dragged out a small tumble blaster to do some hardware using glass beads to remove flash rusting before painting. This hardware is from a 1962 Mack tractor I'm going to get off my duff and reassemble all the brakes on finally. Truck has been on stands since 2009 and all new relined brakes and brake hardware on a bench in front since then. It is the lead truck in my avatar to the left. Good running old girl I plan to use next harvest for a spell.
Went ahead and blasted hardware for front axle clean this morning. Took 20 minutes to go from this: To this which is a bit better and look nicer painted up: Nuts are currently soaking in parts washer and will be pitched into tumble blaster in a bit. I don't tumble anything dirty or greasy in those.
Shiny makes everything work better eh?
Have a question about corn. Seems to be a lot of corn left standing in the fields around here all dry and brown looking. Forget if this is something normal. Can it still be harvested and used for feed even if it is rained and even snowed on some?
They can run a corn picker through it and collect the ears of corn. Then, when needed, the farmers can run the ears of corn through a grinder and make feed. Lots of acres of corn are still standing here in SE Ohio. The farmers will pick it as weather allows this fall and early winter.
The corn kernals are fine. They are pretty well protected by the husk. It's still in the fields because it's been too wet to get in the fields to harvest. We just started shelling corn this last week, but could have ran a couple weeks sooner if weather would have permitted. We've harvested corn in January before due to a monsoon fall. Had to wait for everything to freeze to get access. If that happened today, we'd hire a custom harvester crew with tracked combines to shell for us to get it done.
I've done the bump and slide with normal combines. I'd have to watch the downhill mirror to know when to unload. The 3/4 bin alarm wouldn't go off on the steep ones.
my part of the country is alive with corn & bean pickers last couple weeks looks like all did well
I have a 1947 Jeep that i got when i turned 16 that i started rebuilding years ago i need to work on. To many prodjects .
Will be getting after these that arrived late yesterday afternoon: Swear the damned building is shrinking on me. I need to move this trailer so have some room to work:
mowingman and others, thanks for the info! Not sure why I never noticed before, maybe this thread just got me thinking about it? The two "small" fields just east of my property were all picked weeks ago.
These are the degreased nuts for the u bolts ready to go into one of my small blasters. I have three just alike and this one cleans up old parts using fine coal slag as the media: I'll check them at 10 minute intervals to see how they are cleaning up.
10 minutes later: Going to run them another 10 minutes because it's so much nicer assembling with clean hardware.
Good enough for who it's for I suppose: Spray som paint on them and button the front axle up. Springs slipped right into their mounts to so just need to assemble the hardware and tighten.
Started our high moisture corn today. We're going grind 20,000 bushel and bag it all. Slow, dusty process, but it makes great feed and the cows milk well on it. Plus, it saves a bundle in drying charges since the weather has been miserably wet the past 6 weeks and the corn is still at 25% moisture.
Had to give the ubolts a little bit of a squarsh in the bench vise to make them be a slip fit through the saddles: All eight of the nuts drew up to the saddles with my bare fingers: Zipped everything up tight with the 3/4" impact wrench: And all the rear axle hardware removed as easily as the front axle did. I got most of this cleaned up with the blast pot before a hole was worn through one of the media feed connections. By the time it was replaced with a spare, it was getting dark so wrapped up for the evening. This is the rear axle hardware before blasting: I'll do a bit more cleanup of the parts tomorrow afternoon and get them into paint for installation in the late afternoon.
Our beans were harvested on tuesday, last nite we got slammed with 1" of rain.... Ed
Around here u-bolts are rarely re-used because of the severe rust from calcium/salt used in the winter. Torch off and use new ones is a lot faster and easier.
Same story around here. I don't like throwing out good stuff, but not all things are worth saving.
Same practice with me most times. However, this trailer since new is only out of doors during the harvest season actively running grain, and everything had only flash rusting and dirt buildup on it. Nothing pitted I could find and certainly no pulled, or distorted threads were found. The spring shop readily makes ubolts so they were not ordered but they will thread and bend while you wait. This is probably the first unit I've worked on and not replaced them in many years unless a rear, or complete axle is changed out on a late model unit. A quick wire brush on a 4" grinder around the threads, soak them down with ATF in a pump oiler, and zip them off without problems. Was going to blast everything regardless so when the first ubolt looked good, the rest were getting the same treatment. I ran one nut full thread length as they were almost as clean as being freshly chased, but were not. Headed back out shortly and will torque to specs, touch up paint chips from the impact socket bearing upon the flats, and call it good. Sure it's overkill, but I want the job to hold up long term. I'll get the trailer rolling again and going to have a young guy come over and break all the tires from the rims on both the truck, and trailer so I can blast the rusty rims clean, and apply some nice off white color to them. Truck and trailer should look a lot nicer then.
Tire problems to start the morning. Lots and lots of grinding. Filled the first bag, 250 ft. We will start the second bag (200ft) tomorrow.
Don't see too many of those large bags around here but there are a few. Most large feed operations have moved out west further from what I'm told. Never have seen any of the work that goes into filling them as whenever I get by they are complete. Cousin was telling me the wetter it is put up the better the cows like it for some reason? We have a lot of silos in this area that haven't been used for years and many have been taken down but the bases remain; same with bins. Always interesting to me the equipment needed to run a feed operation. Have an uncle who raises his own fields with/for feeder calves, and then sends them along. Always something to do even with the smallest operations.
The high moisture corn (HMC) is put up wet to allow for fermentation. Fermentation increases palatablility and digestibility. It is one of the cheapest sources of starch we can produce per ton of dry matter. HMC is harvested just about any time after black layer which is when maximum starch is available in the kernel. Our nutritionist says 30% moisture is ideal, but how the corn is going to be processed also plays a role in moisture content at harvest. We prefer a hammer mill for processing as it pulverizes the corn to a fine powder that allows for excellent digestibility, but the corn needs to be closer to 25% moisture to go through the hammer mill. We have two harvestore silos that we used previously. We would put the whole kernel corn into the silos at 22-24%, and then grind it when we took it out. One needs a new roof, the other has a rust hole in the side allowing air in which spoils the feed. They are both currently sitting empty while we decide whether we invest a substantial amount into repairs, or have them taken down.
The thing with grains with high moisture is they start to sprout and during this process the starch turn into sugar. I found this out when we had a big dump of rain just as we were going to start harvesting a crop of wheat and it sprouted in the head. The millers didn't want it but biscuit manufacturers did and wanted it milled. IIRC the farmers got paid a premium for it because the biscuit factories didn't have to buy as much sugar. Swings and roundabouts of farming.
Lots of grain bags used where we used to live up in the Peace Country as well as other areas for dry grain. Good for ‘temporary’ storage but ravens, deer, or elk can poke holes in them and have to be monitored and taped up as required. Hard to keep the critters away from them if they are out in a field and not in the yard. Believe it or not, ravens seem to be able to tell which ones have oats in them- they are their favourite
Those Harvestore silos are referred to as prairie tombstones around here, as nearly everyone who put one up went broke within 5 years, as they didn't work as described until they put the bag in top to allow it to breathe without pulling fresh air through the silage. Pretty much everybody has gone to piled silage, then covered with a tarp.
All it was on the dairy, 250 ton in a pit covered with black plastic, that was in the 60's.
Almost happened to my grandparents too. They had a 25x80, a 20x80, and a 20x60. I'm 38 and I don't ever remember using the 25x80. It was taken down about 20 years ago and some farmer from Pennsylvania bought it and paid to have it trucked away. Trucking cost as much as he paid for the silo. We dug a big hole beside it and toppled the foundation in once the steel was gone. We quit storing silage in the smaller two in the 90's, changed out the unloader to an auger system and started storing HMC in them exclusively. Worked very well for that until recently. The 60 needs a new roof, and the 80 has a sheet about 60 ft up you can see speckles of daylight through. Last fall was our first year not storing any corn in them. We fed out what was left over from 2021 harvest by April of 2023 and started feeding HMC from a bag. The 10ft ag bags work well for HMC for our operation. We don't feed it fast enough to keep a larger surface area fresh. We finished filling a 250' bag yesterday, and are a couple hours away from finishing a 200' bag. Should have it done by lunch time tomorrow. As for the Harvestores, I don't know their fate yet.
Harvestore base removal is a good job to run from. Had a demo job at a defunct beef operation, owner asked me to try the silo base....lmao. 843 Bobcat with a hydraulic hammer, the hammer didn't even chip it. He ended up having them removed.....with explosives. Ed
Some dairies around here have Harvestores. We refer to them as ‘pickle jars’
Earlier I had dropped the trailer back onto it's suspension and went for a drive. Everything seems and performs normal so going to move on to the cosmetics cleaning the wheels up for repaint.
Nice work, @1693TA . We had our 30ft steel hopper bottom repainted last winter, looks really nice. Now I need to pull the wheels off the tractor I drive and have them painted. They look real shabby compared to the fresh paint on the trailer. The tractor could also use a good wax and buff, but we'll see how cold it is when we are done with harvest. On harvest news, we're plugging away. We finished grinding and bagging our HMC on Sunday. Now we are working on filling our bin. Corn is wet, ranging anywhere from 21‐25% moisture depending on variety and type of soil planted in. We've shelled 255 acres since Thursday morning, which isn't horrible for us given we start our days in the barns doing cattle work, and then we're backed up against the dryer by mid afternoon. Ground corn falling into the rotor during packing My son (left) being taught how to rake out the corners of the truck beds by another employees son. Saturday nights sunset Small part of the line at the elevator. There was 8 rigs ahead of me when I pulled in.
I remember some of those lines well.... Always nice folks to yak with too. Everybody just doing their job(s).
Ain't near as much fun as used to be: Now home giving my back a recuperation break after making serious attempt to physically break it manhandling these sumbitches this morning. Truck is up on stands and tires broke down by me. To my surprise I can still swing a bead hammer. Also removed front bumper from the truck. Awaiting a couple of #40 sprockets to build up a little apparatus that will rotate these wheels whilst they are blasted clean. Going with a silver/argent paint color on the front bumper and the wheels will be a yellowish/creamy white color rather than stark white the truck is. Inner, and out Budd nuts are currently in the tumble blaster and they will be painted black then possibly covered with chrome stainless covers. Be a lot nicer than the current old paint and rust now.
I found two inner rears that the lug nut seats are worn out on the rims probably from overzealous use of a 1" impact wrench at the truck tire service places. These could be used on the inner positions of the drive axles, but I'm going to ask if they can be replaced with new aluminum rims for the steer axle. The truck only sees use three to four weeks a year during harvest, so don't know how this will be handled. Sprockets did not show up in the mail yesterday. USPS is the carrier so no surprises their tracking is inaccurate. This is the fifth, (yes, 5th) package in a month that has not arrived according to their tracking. One was ordered over a month ago and arrived last Friday bouncing between St. Louis, Boise, ID, and Indianapolis, IN several times. Package finally arrived to me clearly labeled, and undamaged so no idea why this disarray took place. Vendor refunded the $$$ paid and told me to keep the package.
Some guys are not aware that aluminum BUDD wheels usually require longer studs and also the inner nuts require the longer inner threads. A lot of tire shops don’t check, especially nowadays that unimount wheels are the most common and some kids have never seen a BUDD wheel
Don't forget to look for the L
After a quick few minutes of the right side hardware to remove the rust and road grime that builds up on the nuts, they are all getting replaced. I have found two inner nuts with hairline cracks, several with what I consider severe pitting to the bearing surfaces of the ball seat are(s), and several destroyed threads from probably being run loose. This is a single example: I've not run these to completion as of yet but with the percentage of defective, (my call) of the inner nuts, I feel it best to replace all nuts meaning inner, and outer with new. Truck has outboard drums and all the lug studs appear to be clean, so no need to address them yet. That could change as I clean them up with a wire wheel shortly. I typically run the left and right sides separately as I'm not smart enough to know the difference...... Actually no need fighting finding out you have a L, when you need a R when trying to remount tires so I just keep them separate out of habit. I know the difference between left and right threads but many don't. Many of the younger set don't know the term "unimount". Only hub pilot, stud pilot, Budd, or Dayton. Of course "Spoke" also. If it ain't a spoke, it's a Budd...... I don't even try to get into discussing multi piece rims.
And, some torque wrenches will not work for LH threads. On mine for LH, i take the ratchet head apart and reassemble the drive square out the other side. I could drill a hole in the opposite side of the detachable handle but it would be too easy to get it mixed up if someone else is helping me. This way, there’s no doubt about which way its set up
I have an older AMMCO 3/4" drive torque wrench that is similar but the center section pushes out and flips over to change direction. You pull a small detented pin out on the side and the ratchet section then drops out. Don't see too many places using torque wrenches on wheel end work around here. It's either rattle till tight, or "torque sticks" in use. I had one employee that wanted to use them as he was sold on their accuracy. My torque wrench, (which is calibrated) did not agree with their rating(s) so it never came up again.
My guy uses a Milwaukee 1" impact that you can set at 450 ft lbs. He said he just goes around twice. We used it around once then put the torque wrench on it and just a little bit and it clicked. Twice around sounds good for me. All other tire shops put on with a 1" so I don't go to them.
I have an old CP 1" impact with extended anvil that will easily snap wheel studs off when fed with a 3/4" air line. It starves out on air with 3/8" quickly. I bought that used from a tire guy back in the very late 1970's and don't use it much except when semi truck lugs won't come loose with my 3/4" impact. Most times that impact is sufficient followed up with a click type torque wrench. I remember well when buying that 1" wrench the guy telling me it will readily crack aluminum Budd rims between the studs. I never have but I really only use it for loosening stuck fasteners. It is so damned heavy and unweildy to use it rarely comes out from under the bench.
Its a deal keep a old truck in good shape so many things you never think about go bad over time. My 63 f600 the hood is coming apart at the spot welds the head liner is messing up to . I am going to have to figure out if i want to spend a thousand or two into it or get a dump trailer to pull with my 1996 GMC.
Been a very busy two weeks, but all of our corn is done. Our three bins are full, two ag bags full, and another bins worth hauled off to elevator for later. Overall, it has been a good harvest. The line up, ready to roll on the neighbors corn starting tomorrow morning. 200 acres and we can put it all away for the winter.
New lugs should arrive this afternoon but I have other things to do outside of the shop so won't be there. Here is the lineup from the LR wheel after a 10 minute clean up blast. They were pretty crusty looking when they went in the basket but I really didn't think they'd come out looking this deficient: The right side looks just as bad and they too are being replaced.
Nice day today so jumping back onto this job. Blasted the crusty steel wheels, and front bumper clean this morning and they look good. I'll probably paint this stuff up over the weekend as it's forecasted to rain both days. The rims actually cleaned up a lot better than I'd thought they would so will paint them a nice "off" white, and the bumper either an argent, or black depending on what I have in the shop. Two best rims staring out. Closest is blasted clean, furthest is as removed from truck: After blasting but prior to final blow off and cleanup: Front bumper: That chain binder has been laying in the driveway at least three years rusted solid. Never could remember to blast it but remembered today. It is not free and works well. This kind of stuff keeps the boredom at bay. Now heading into dealership to deliver a new skid steer and bring back a trade in 120hp tractor and loader.
Took these for Dave. Digging out media, (coal slag) to blast the wheels with and remembered this setting back under the junk: Over the winter months this one will go onto running gear so it will be easier to get out for remote work. I'll then entertain selling off my GB-318 Hobart engine drive welding machine. But then again, maybe not.
Did you leave the valve stems in when you blasted? Will they bleed rust later?
They remained in but will be replaced when tires are remounted. They don't usually leak or creep rust but these are many years old and very well could be original from 1987. Rims are all original to the truck and stamped 1987. They are "Budd" manufactured. I'll spot blast the areas when the stems are out but didn't have approval when ready to blast to replace as just goes to figure that came this evening. This was the first, or coarse blast and they will be touched up with a much finer media. If you look at the second photo you can see a dark ring in the one rim. It could be camera, or parallax error, but I have a 45 degree blast nozzle and will ensure this is clean before moving to the next step. The small blast pot and hose/nozzle combination in use would not adequately abrade the surface at the needed angle and this will be addressed with another blast hose/nozzle combination. Once acceptable, a two part epoxy base and a single stage industrial enamel paint will be applied. Cousin was concerned the local DOT cops working the area around harvest time may not like the rusted wheels. I think he thought they were much worse off than they are. Was hoping to get a dozen conveyor rollers back from the machine shop today I had made. These are to be chain driven via hydraulic motor and will support six wheels at a time rotating them while they are painted.
Getting back onto this project later today with the rain now moving along. That dark ring was not missed during the blast and was a shadow best I can tell from camera angle. I did however forget to blast the faces of the two rims that are face down on the pallet. Ordered a new box of stems from the tire service supplier yesterday and he'll drop them today at the shop. Have a couple more farm tractor rims to blast clean along with the finish blast these will receive. I do this blasting in two steps as the coarse media readily strips paint and roots rust out, and the very fine media smooths the surface enough that further prep is not needed.
I'd meant to update this but have quite a bit moving along with the new year coming and forgot. Fingers are still in a lot of pies but starting to rescind. The pit idea is moving forward. I could do this myself but going to hire a couple of young bucks to do this work. Talked to the taxing body about it and if I don't install a concrete floor, or plumbing and water in the interior of a steel, or wood space frame shell utility shed/building such as I'm wanting, there will be nothing additional for them to tax as considered "non permanent". Basically another "yard barn" as called around here. Posts such as a pole barn uses are still considered "non permanent" but rather "anchors" to keep the structure from blowing away. Thinking I'll build a rectangular box in the ground, (pit) of concrete, then compact and gravel much the same as you would a roadbed around the pit keeping elevation low enough to overlay the gravel with planking. This is just an idea. I would most likely incorporate a rolling "jacking beam" into the design of the pit perimeter. If doing this, the complete interior except the pit floor and walls would fit their vision of a non permanent structure. The pit would be masonry with a steel upper support perimeter for the beam to roll upon. I think the structure about 16' in width, 28' in length with 12' sidewalls, and having a 2/12 pitch roof would be about perfect for fitting my dozer or a semi tractor in for servicing. A personnel walkdoor in a sidewall, and 12' wide coil up door in the endwall with a power operator would be good. No need for a drive through setup with this shed idea. Just pull straight in, back out. I'd insulate the roof to keep the condensation at bay but have to see how much use would be actual before doing anything with the side, and end walls concerning insulation.
Blasted those two faces and cleaned up the backside of two rims that had flash rust from getting wet. Removed all valve stems and touched the area(s) up with blast media so good for a prime and paint possibly tomorrow. All rims are stamped very close to this and the truck was built in April, 1987: Nice crusty old rims from my mowing farm tractor. Was afraid they were going to blow through but they didn't. I have new rear tires for the tractor that are larger so going with new replacement rims there. These are a saleable item so will offset the cost a bit. The original tires are still about 50% but 1984 vintage and original to the tractor. Get these two jobs wrapped and I'll move onto my drop deck. Going to roll it over onto it's back in the yard to replace spring hangers and torque rods with new. Rusty old trailer but will still do what's needed for me.
Valve stem hole before and after, but different angle: Center plate which bolts to tractor lugs and rim. This is pretty thick and will bolt to the new rims. It cleaned up well also:
Talked to the guys that did my downdraft paint room trench this afternoon and one of them is going to run out later in the week to see what I'm wanting to do. Also talked for a spell to the somewhat local "Menard's" home center about a post frame building and they'll shoot me over a price yet this week. May make this happen in the 1st quarter of the new year.
Received a message in the overnight hours about this project trench. For the job scope basically $3.50 per new laid block and $1.50 for any clean used or provided block they set in any fashion desired on a clean and unobstructed base. This includes any labor, expansion joint, mortar, and sealants required. Also includes a solid top course to which I can stub anchor studs/bolts into for the top, or finish pour. Once I decide upon finished interior dimensions of the trench, I'll probably dig about 18" wider than this, (each side) and 8" deeper for acceptable floor thickness and perimeter footing, then pour a simple level floor to build the walls upon. I only have a 24" bucket on the backhoe so limited there. Preliminary thoughts are a 30" width, 20' length with a 60" depth finished interior dimensions. I am open to suggestion on anything but really don't want to be on my knees, or on a step stool each time working under something if possible.
I went down 5' 10" from finished floor height. Put a 2x6 frame & poured a footing. I had used about a mile of galvanized electric fence wire to lace the footing forms in place & provide reinforcing to the form. Built 5' tall sidewall forms of plywood & 2x6. I anchored the wall forms to the 2x6 footing forms with 3" drywall screws, a lot of them. The transit mixer brought 8 yards of concrete for the walls, he must have been in a hurry. Dumped his whole load in seconds. it was way too wet. As he was backing away, it sounded like machine gun fire as the 1000? drywall screws broke. All the ruptured form loss was outboard. I did some form revision & they brought another 3 yards late day. Backfill hid the disaster. Outer form was stripped off. inner cut down to floor level. A Full 2x3 was screwed to the inner form & the floor was poured & screed to it.
Had basically the same thing happen with the oil, water separator pit at the shop when being built. Pit was to be concrete and the back wall form broke apart. This was to the inside so the balance of the form was pulled out and the spilled concrete became the floor instead of the rear wall. The pit was then blocked up by these guys the next day and waterproofed later in all three chambers. It works well discharging clean water into my septic system. Thinking I may go down another six inches to floor elevation as the headroom would probably be welcome without a lot of extra reach required.
I'm only 5'8", my son is 6'2". The pit at about 5' 2" works reasonably well. I'd go a bit deeper if I were doing it again, he bangs his head occasionally on a pumpkin under a non big tired Jeep. He was 11 years old when I built it
You and I, along with sons are about equal. I probably wouldn't use this pit much for automotive work as have two Rotary brand surface mounted, and a portable scissor lift in the shop for that work. This pit area in reality would serve as a place to service and keep the dozer parked under cover, along with service heavy trucks. Probably get used on a lot of things I'm not thinking about also. That back wall form blowing out on the separator pour is the reasoning behind the selection of block for the sidewalls. However in reality, I need to evaluate compressive strength of block with an 8" formed and poured top cap to allow a buried angle steel track for the jacking beam to travel in/on. Logic says the compressive strength is there, but I'd like data proving the theory. Also need sidewall loading for soil type as don't want to blow a sidewall inward from compressive downforces. I am open to changing plans and going with poured walls also but all things considered the block is less money as already have most needed on hand.
Forgot to update this but have talked again to the party that did my block work for the spray room all those years ago. They are scheduling work the last week of April, and first week of May 2024 and will do that trench "turn key" finished for $3K. Using my existing block, and furnishing any additional needed, I will be left with a compacted subgrade however far down from finish grade I ask for. This also includes a bedded in angle weldment at inner perimeter edge. I would provide this weldment to support both a sliding jacking beam, and a sectional trench cover if not being used. Think I'm going to give the "go ahead" on this and have the subgrade left about 12" below finish grade to allow 2" clean, followed by 1" clean stone for a finished elevation as one idea. Another idea for a finished floor height would be rail ties as have a friend that buys them by the semi trailer load. Wouldn't be too concerned about grouser bars tearing anything up with them. Given the entrance for the shelter will only allow for a straight in and out approach, I could use a lightweight plastic trench covers without much concern for it collapsing from a wheel, track, or anything heavy, but fully support someone standing upon it. Ideas are welcome so feel free to contribute.
Getting some paint on my harvest wagon finally. Told cousin my "magic powers" must be waning as I commanded the bumper and lug nuts be silver, but came out black: