2017 - Volume #BFS, Issue #17, Page #106
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Zero-Turn Mower Makes Great Barn Scraper
Dave Wampler cleans out his dairy barn fast with his zero-turn scraper. The modified mower has the speed and maneuverability that makes barn cleanup easy.“Cleaning these areas has always been a 2-man job, and now one person can do it,” says Wampler. “Making a zero-turn scraper is something I'd wanted to do for years.”
When he and his brother Keith replaced a zero-turn Simplicity with a new mower, Wampler had the chance. The older mower had started using a lot of oil, so he went to work on it, replacing the head gasket and stripping away the mowing deck.
“I used a lot of the linkage for the mowing deck, cut a couple of notches in the front frame, and swung it out front,” says Wampler. “I mounted a half truck tire trimmed for scraping to the linkage and cut a slot in the platform deck for a foot pedal. When I push it down, the linkage raises the tire scraper up.”
Wampler says the zero-turn goes where they can’t take their tracked skid steer with its scraper blade. The housing area for the cows has rubber mats.
“If we go in there with the skid steer on tracks, it'll rip them up,” says Wampler. “The zero-turn is no problem.”
He says the scraper has been a real labor saver, which was extra valuable when his brother had shoulder surgery.
“We use it every day, sometimes twice a day. It really helps out and only uses about 6 gal. of gas a month,” says Wampler.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, David Wampler, Buttermilk Road Dairy, 675 Buttermilk Rd., Mt. Sidney, Va. 24467 (ph 540 421-9310).
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