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Thread: Building a Mulch Trailer
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7th Sep 2015, 10:35 AM #76Senior Member
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I think we might all learn
Before changing the auger at all, what about placing a length of angle iron, say 50x50x3 lengthwise along the top of the auger with the "heel" pointing up, like ^ or ô . It may reduce the pressure down onto the auger caused by the mulch. It could stop the auger lifting and distorting which makes it hard to turn. It should also reduce what is flowing into the auger and will probably make the material bridge. Somewhere along the angle you could place a cross brace over the angle to help hold it down.
If you do reduce the auger size and with the supports you have to install, consider placing a piece of the 200mm flighting before the support if you reduce the rest of the flighting to 150mm. That way it will help push more material past the restriction.
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21st Sep 2015, 09:16 PM #77Diamond Member
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Been a bit busy trying to get some turns in while there's some snow, and occupied more pressing matters at the vineyard that need to get finished before the vines wake up.
Getting back to the machine, I fabbed up a set of 150mm augers - I did consider a variable-pitch auger set, combining 150 and 200 dia augers, but as they have different tube sizes, it made that option a bit difficult.
So with the hopper about half full, it still needs a bit of oomph to get going, but it does feed out. The smaller auger means it feeds a lot slower, even with the revs up. I did a second load where I was cleaning out the last of my "test" mulch, and in the process must have picked up a bunch of dirt, clay and stones from the bottom of the mulch bay. This somehow dropped in first and set around the auger, making it extremely hard to move, and after a bit of forward and reverse, the drive pipe sheared.
However, with straight, clean mulch, it does work. I'm going to replace the drive pipe with 22mm round bar which should tolerate a bit more torque when needed, then cart it out on site and see how it goes.
Longer term, I think the auger, while very simple, is not the best solution for feeding mulch - all the commercial units use a floor conveyor made of rubber belt or chain with , probably for good reason. So I'll put the machine to work as it is, with a view to building or buying a conveyor as time permits.
This whole process has had me thinking about buying a lathe, as so many aspects would have been quicker and far more effective with properly turned and machined parts.
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22nd Sep 2015, 01:24 AM #78Most Valued Member
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Hi Rusty, at least you have the bin sorted out. You'll be able to use that to make the rest around it.
Have you seen any of the old type bag elevators around your way? If you could find something like that it would be a good start.
Found 1 in Albury on gumtree, $100 if that's any help.Ad ID 1083715194
DAMHIKT, but buying a Lathe is just the start of it, then there's the tooling, then you'll need a mill to make that particular part, then you'll need tooling to go with it, then another special tool, it just never seems to end.
KrynLast edited by KBs PensNmore; 22nd Sep 2015 at 01:35 AM. Reason: More details
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23rd Oct 2015, 05:22 PM #79Most Valued Member
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How are things progressing, any further developments??
Kryn
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23rd Oct 2015, 06:47 PM #80Diamond Member
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Funny you should mention that - was just at the drawbars with the grinder after having it on the back burner for a week or three
So I replaced the auger shaft with 22mm solid bar, re-mounted it, did a nicer rear bearing setup, fabbed a bit of gal sheet to be a kind of wobbly side-feeder, and then realised it's going to be much more practical to feed out the front rather than the back.
However the space between the drawbar is much too narrow to be able to feed the mulch sideways. So I cut the drawbar off, and am in the process of re-attaching it with a much wider space where it meets the front member. It also means the connection area to the chassis will be *much* smaller than before, but, again, for a trailer going max 20km/h full and maybe 30km/h empty, I don't think it'll be a big deal.
So I've just cut the ends off, and I'll now cut some plate to cap the open ends, and incorporate a gusset down at an angle to extend the length of the connection.
Wil post some pics when it's done.
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30th Oct 2015, 06:34 PM #81Diamond Member
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Finally finished messing about with it and loaded it for transport.
Trailer on Trailer.jpg
Final bits and pieces were at the front where I widened the drawbar to allow it to feed forwards and then sideways.
Trailer on Trailer Front.jpg
Just need to modify the little tractor's bucket, move it out on site and see how it does
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30th Oct 2015, 06:48 PM #82Most Valued Member
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Hope everything goes OK this time. Fingers crossed for you.
Kryn
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30th Oct 2015, 08:07 PM #83Diamond Member
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I had 40m3 of "fine forest litter" delivered a few months ago. It's shredded green waste that's been aged, then screened into fine and coarse. Sitting there all this time, the pile has become pretty solid from the action of rain and sheep walking over it, so I'll have to break it up quite a bit before loading it...
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22nd Dec 2015, 09:30 PM #84Diamond Member
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Thought I should post some pix t0 show it does actually work. This was a while back, have been a bit busy with other priorities since.
This is the view from the cabin
Spreading 01.jpg
And this is the view in its wake
Spreading 02.jpg
There's lots of room for improvement - for the moment I can smoosh that line of mulch out with the blade, but it'd be nice to throw it a bit and have it land right where it needs to be. However, the bottom line is that I can cart 3+ cubic metres of mulch about 1km and run it out close to where it needs to be, which is a huge improvement on what we were doing before.
When I get a moment I'll make it work a bit more, but long term I think I'll have to buy or fabricate a conveyor to replace the auger as it seems the better tool for the job, but considerably more effort to make than the auger.
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23rd Dec 2015, 06:13 PM #85Most Valued Member
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Thanks for the update Rusty, have been wondering as to how it was going. How did the auger handle the mulch when it was full?? When you put in the conveyer system, are you looking at putting a conveyer to move it sideways also? Just thinking that it could be sped up or down by hydraulics to get the mulch where it needs to be without making the trailer any wider!!!!
Kryn
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23rd Dec 2015, 09:36 PM #86Diamond Member
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If you avoid putting anything damp or compressible (clay/soil) in, it copes pretty well - takes a lot of torque to start, but then on is OK. Did have the odd run-in with clods of clay when I dug too deep with the bucket, and that does not end well.
The plan would be to first implement a floor auger, but then one to do side throw would be ideal - if it was the full width of the trailer you could simply reverse the direction of the motor when going back the other way.
First thing is the floor conveyor, and the ones I've seen tend to use a chain each side with bars going across at regular spacings rather than a belt (although the side conveyors are always belts). Having never made anything like such a thing, I've got my eye out for something similar that I can either modify or replicate.
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23rd Dec 2015, 10:49 PM #87Most Valued Member
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Hi Rusty,
You're probably to young to remember them, but what about the old type bag elevator, they ran on a shaft at each end with a sprocket driving 2 square chains with bars approx 400-500 mm apart.
- Home
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Home > Outer Geelong > Lara > Miscellaneous Goods > Ad ID 1097309156
Bag Elevator
$20.00
Lara, 3212
- me
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- Ad ID 1079612257
Home > The Hills District > Glenorie > Miscellaneous Goods > Ad ID 1079612257
Bale elevator
$2,000.00 Negotiable
Glenorie, NSW
Found these on gumtree, I know the one in NSW is expensive but you get a couple of them, a 3 Phase motor plus a heap of other stuff that could be used or sold off.
Kryn
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29th Dec 2015, 11:16 AM #88Diamond Member
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Cheers for the idea - it lead me down the path to discovering "agricultural chain" which is what you use to make chain conveyors. That said, the stuff is pretty expensive new, and then you need the correct drive sprockets etc. so pulling a machine to bits makes a lot of sense.
Which leads me to the challenges of incorrect spelling in ad titles. Various searches for "bag elevator" "bale elevator" "bale lifter" etc. didn't reveal much more than you found on Gumtree. It turns out to find this one, I should have searched for "bail lifter":
Bail Lifter | Heavy, Farming & Agriculture Equipment | Gumtree Australia Belconnen Area - Bruce | 1092587630
It looks to have 2 chains with tags on them that I can hopefully attach bars to.
Edit: actually, looking closer, it seems to only have one chain...
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29th Dec 2015, 02:40 PM #89Most Valued Member
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That would be pretty useless for what you need to do, as you say it has only the one chain. Machines like that and bag elevators are a rarity on farms now days, all made into Chinese ships and cars.
Attachment Chain
Found this that might be better, as the chain will have all the load rather than dragging the load as per the elevator chain. Flat bar or angle could be bolted on each link to carry away the mulch.
KrynLast edited by KBs PensNmore; 29th Dec 2015 at 02:51 PM. Reason: More Info
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2nd Jan 2016, 08:46 PM #90Member
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Front elevators in headers use 2 or 3 chains with slats across them . There are header wreckers scattered around.
John
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