[AT] Grain Augers

Al Jones farmallsupera at earthlink.net
Fri Dec 30 20:06:17 PST 2011


Totally forgot the bulk barns!  Yes, there were oodles of them too around here.  Never really heard anything much bad about them.  Didn't they sell them up until fairly recently?  A "BTO" had a yard full of newer barns before he quit tobacco and I just about believe they were Long.

Haven't I read somewhere that Silent Flame was purchased by Long?  Long had a series of tobacco harvesters, I want to say 70's vintage, that looked a lot like the old Silent Flame harvester with the chain-driven front wheel and the tiers/loopers working on the "top story."

For me the ultimate for my collection would be an original Silent Flame tobacco harvester but I am afraid they have all gone to the big scrapyard in the sky by now.

Al


-----Original Message-----
>From: john hall <jtchall at nc.rr.com>
>Sent: Dec 30, 2011 8:24 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers
>
>Al, I am surprise you haven't mentioned bulk barns. They sold quite a few up 
>this way in the early '70's. We had a farmer/dealer about 3 miles from here. 
>He sold quite a few of those barns in this area. He sold some tractors as 
>well, don't know how many though. I imagine all those barns have worn out by 
>now. We put in new burners in ours about '87. I think there are a few not 
>far from me that were retro-fitted with the mandated improved heat 
>exchanger, but that guy has since given up tobacco farming.
>
>John Hall
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Al Jones" <farmallsupera at earthlink.net>
>To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 6:34 PM
>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers
>
>
>> That Long was a nightmare.  They sold a lot of bins, and grain equipment 
>> but a lot of it wasn't very good.  Starting at the ground, where you would 
>> dump into the auger, you had about a 7' section, which ran up to a big 
>> "box" about 10" wide and 1' deep.  Out of this came the rest of the auger. 
>> THat meant you had the gearbox run by the tractor PTO, which drove the 
>> upper (long) section of the auger, plus two sets of sprockets, two chains, 
>> and a drive shaft to run the bottom section.  In general even now it seems 
>> like most grain equipment is "just barely enough" in terms of design and 
>> construction.  Dad has a bin and unloader now that is about 4-5 years old, 
>> and to tell the truth, it is not great.....something has gone wrong with 
>> the gate on the center well so now it is wide open and I can't close it. 
>> So you have to turn the auger on and off every few seconds so I don't 
>> overflow the little portable auger that carries the corn from the unloader 
>> head to the grinder mixer.  It'll!
>>  be summer (hottest time of the year!) before we will get enough corn out 
>> so we can access the well and see what is wrong.  I guess the engineers 
>> that design grain equipment are the ones that graduated at the bottom of 
>> their class.....
>>
>>
>> Al
>> 
>
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