[AT] Grain Augers

Thu Dec 29 20:17:37 PST 2011

When I was in college, I had to take an ag engineering class for my major.  It was a pretty interesting course, at least the lab was.  We spent a lot of time in class learning welding symbols and a lot of theory about metalurgy, etc. that you would never, ever, EVER use in a high school classroom.  Come to find out, the instructor had worked for Long at some point.  I must say my confidence in his abilities plummeted when I heard that.....He must've been a pretty competent ag engineer though to have sense enough to quit them!

They sold a lot of grain bins and related equipment here.  I guess it's hard to screw up a grain bin. Again their augers were pretty rube goldberg.

Long built some tractors too.  My dad likes to talk about the neighbor that said it would be a LONG time before he was dumb enough to buy another LONG!

al

-----Original Message-----
>From: Dean VP <deanvp at att.net>
>Sent: Dec 29, 2011 7:38 PM
>To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group' <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers
>
>Al,
>
>Our experience with a LONG baler in the 1950's was very similar.  We had "The Long
>Engineers" out to our place a couple times trying to figure out what was wrong with our
>baler. They never did fix it. I wasn't very old at the time but between some choice words
>my father had about their competence and my observation of their diagnostic approach, the
>conclusion reached was they really were not engineers that had graduated from any college.
>Much later on in my career I coined a term for this type of engineer: "Kaleidoscope
>Engineers". Keep tweaking the design until it did what it was supposed to at least one
>time. No real theory underpinning, No worst case design analysis and no real margin for
>component manufacturing tolerances.  I wasn't around the farm much after the 50's but I
>did get exposed later on to some of Long's products occasionally.  Their designs usually
>were not very impressive. Their sales prices must have been quite a bit less expensive
>than their competition.  I haven't thought about that stinking POS LONG baler in years but
>it must have left a permanent negative mark on my memory.  We also had a chain/blade
>elevator made by Sears (A Sears trade name which I cannot remember right now) that also
>was a complete POS. Usually my father selected pretty good stuff but the Long Baler and
>the Sears elevator were the worst designed things I ever saw on our farm. Both had a
>tendency to break at the most critical of times creating a crisis of some kind that
>usually ended up being blamed on me for some convenient reason. I guess I was the path of
>least resistance!  :-)  In 1962 when my father's farm equipment was auctioned off,
>needless to say neither item even received a bid. If I had had my way, they both would
>have gone directly to melt down heaven. 
>
>Dean VP
>Apache Junction, AZ
>
>"People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will
>lose both!"
>Benjamin Franklin
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]
>On Behalf Of Al Jones
>Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 4:34 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>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
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Ralph Goff <alfg at sasktel.net>
>>Sent: Dec 29, 2011 5:53 PM
>>To: Antique tractor email discussion group 
>><at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers
>>
>>On 12/29/2011 11:43 AM, Al Jones wrote:
>>> And here I thought out 8" x 47' was a cadillac!  Sure is faster (and less
>trouble/maintenance) than the old POS 6" Long Mfg. model it replaced!
>>>
>>> Al
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> Al, no doubt your 8x47 is a cadillac compared to the auger it 
>>> replaced . My "little" 10x50 footer is now considered small compared 
>>> to some of the 13x70 augers the neighburs have. When I bought it they 
>>> called it "the backsaver" and its true. No more struggling to lift 
>>> the heavy bottom end of an auger and push it to the bin or wherever. 
>>> This Farm King hitches to the tractor and I back it into position, 
>>> raise by tractor hydraulics and it will empty a 300+ bushel truck box 
>>> of grain in a few minutes. We thought we had the world by the tail 
>>> when we got the 7 inch Sakundiak auger back in 79 but this ten inch 
>>> FArm King is way faster even at idle speed.
>>Herb, first of all, that was a Wisconsin engine in the video and I've 
>>always had better luck starting them than a Briggs. And second,  in the
>>90 plus videos I have on youtube you might find my face in there 
>>somewhere  but I'm not sure where. For now I'll just direct you to this 
>>one from last July showing both grain augers in action when I was 
>>transferring some canola from one bin to another. Theres even an 
>>antique tractor in this one to keep on topic. :-) Uncle Don's old 730 Case.
>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxzNh4XyvuQ
>>
>>Ralph in Sask.
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>AT mailing list
>>http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>AT mailing list
>http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>_______________________________________________
>AT mailing list
>http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at