[AT] Grain Augers & grain blowers

[john hall]

That's a new one on me Herb. I have heard of the old timers talk about a 
sort of drag to unload trucks. Basically you removed the tailgate and 
crawled up on the load with something that resembled 2 plow handles attached 
to piece of plywood. It had a cable attached to it to pull the load of the 
truck. I guess you had to sweep and scoop what was along the edges.

John Hall

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herbert Metz" <metz-h.b at comcast.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 9:57 AM
Subject: [AT] Grain Augers & grain blowers


> 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.
>
>