[AT] Grain Augers & grain blowers

[Herbert Metz]

In the midwest, grain augers were preceeded by grain blowers. These were a
hot item for a short (<6 year) period. They were installed in floor of
grain truck bed, normally front left corner.  Blowers were V-belt driven by
truck trans PTO(?).  Not sure of that; do know the normal 3 speed trans was
not properly equipped. Blowers worked good, but would crack grain if not
kept fully loaded or if one ran the truck engine/blower too fast.  One
still had to shovel grain over to this corner of the truck bed. In recent
years I have noticed a couple old trucks that had grain blower installed
(probably several decades ago).
Soon after Dad bought a grain auger, I built a 2' deep at the lower side,
metal 8' triangular brain box that worked real well.  It was light weight
so readily moved.  The shallow (upper) corner was half circle shaped so it
could be readily clamped to the auger pipe. Entire sheet metal bottom
sloped to the auger. The unloading side was limited to 2' because of height
of pickup floor/tailgate. This worked well for Dad until the last couple
years when he used custom cutters and they hauled wheat direct to town
elevators.


> [Original Message]
> From: Dean VP <deanvp at att.net>
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Date: 12/29/2011 7:49:17 PM
> 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.
> >
> >
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