Add-On Silo Blower Gives Silage Chopper More "Throwing Power"
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"My Deere single row, 3-pt. silage chopper wouldn't throw silage back far enough into the wagon unless I ran the tractor engine at a constant high throttle, which I didn't want to do. I got tired of having to haul a lot of small wagon loads back to my silo so I mounted an old Deere silo blower just behind the chopper's knives. Now the chopper fills the wagon completely full and I don't have to run the engine so fast," says William Miller, Mansfield, Pa.
To mount the blower on the "integral 25" chopper, Miller first removed the steel housing just behind the knives and the blower spout. He bolted a homemade steel bracket to the back of the 36-in. dia. blower housing and then mounted the blower on the chopper toolbar. The chopper had a 6-in. dia. opening to the original blower spout while the silo blower had an 8-in. dia. opening so he made a new tapered housing between openings.
The chopper was originally equipped with two pto shafts spaced about 8 in. apart. One of the shafts extends all the way through the toolbar and is used to unload wagons. The other one drives the chopper. He installed a sprocket on the chopper driveshaft which chain-drives a jackshaft that in turn belt-drives the blower.
"It fills the wagon up completely and lets me run the tractor engine at about 2,000 rpms instead of the 2,400 rpm's I had to run it at before," says Miller. "The blades on the silo blower ran in the opposite direction as the knives on the chopper so I had to reverse them. The blower is only inches from the back of the blade chamber. Before I made the conversion the tractor barely had enough power to fill the wagon, even though I sharpened the knives and set knife-to-housing clearance all the time. Part of the problem was that the knife chamber had to fill up with silage before any silage got thrown, which robs horsepower."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, William K Miller, 532 Aumick Rd., Mansfield, Pa. 16933 (ph 570 549-6001).
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Add-On Silo Blower Gives Silage Chopper More "Throwing Power" CROP STORAGE Silos (50) 23-3-4 "My Deere single row, 3-pt. silage chopper wouldn't throw silage back far enough into the wagon unless I ran the tractor engine at a constant high throttle, which I didn't want to do. I got tired of having to haul a lot of small wagon loads back to my silo so I mounted an old Deere silo blower just behind the chopper's knives. Now the chopper fills the wagon completely full and I don't have to run the engine so fast," says William Miller, Mansfield, Pa.
To mount the blower on the "integral 25" chopper, Miller first removed the steel housing just behind the knives and the blower spout. He bolted a homemade steel bracket to the back of the 36-in. dia. blower housing and then mounted the blower on the chopper toolbar. The chopper had a 6-in. dia. opening to the original blower spout while the silo blower had an 8-in. dia. opening so he made a new tapered housing between openings.
The chopper was originally equipped with two pto shafts spaced about 8 in. apart. One of the shafts extends all the way through the toolbar and is used to unload wagons. The other one drives the chopper. He installed a sprocket on the chopper driveshaft which chain-drives a jackshaft that in turn belt-drives the blower.
"It fills the wagon up completely and lets me run the tractor engine at about 2,000 rpms instead of the 2,400 rpm's I had to run it at before," says Miller. "The blades on the silo blower ran in the opposite direction as the knives on the chopper so I had to reverse them. The blower is only inches from the back of the blade chamber. Before I made the conversion the tractor barely had enough power to fill the wagon, even though I sharpened the knives and set knife-to-housing clearance all the time. Part of the problem was that the knife chamber had to fill up with silage before any silage got thrown, which robs horsepower."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, William K Miller, 532 Aumick Rd., Mansfield, Pa. 16933 (ph 570 549-6001).
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