Custom Hoppers Make Concrete Mixing Easier

Custom Hoppers Make Concrete Mixing Easier BUILDINGS Miscellaneous Richard Naish of Lebanon Ohio recently sent FARM SHOW photos of his home-built loader-mounted hoppers that he uses to make concrete He uses his Deere loader tractor to transport the self-unloading hoppers which are made out of galvanized steel One hopper is designed to load sand and gravel into the mixer The other pours the finished concrete into a trench Both hoppers have an inverted piece of angle iron at the top that allows Naish to pick them up with the edge of his loader bucket     “These hoppers save a lot of time and protect my back ” says Naish “I bought a Jaguar portable cement mixer years ago and modified it for use with either an electric or gas motor which can be changed out by removing one pin However as the years went by I found that shoveling sand and gravel into the mixer was becoming more difficult I always seem to have trouble finding help when pouring concrete ” One hopper is triangle-shaped with an 8-in square bottom section that has a trap door and chute at the bottom The hopper sets on a metal stand for loading “I sized this hopper to hold 3 1/2 cubic feet of sand and gravel which is what the mixer is rated for ” says Naish Naish first dumps about 4 gal of water into the mixer then uses the loader to fill the hopper with sand and gravel He then lifts the hopper off the stand and moves it over to the mixer “When I tip the bucket back the bottom of the bucket contacts a lever on the hopper that trips a trap door and dumps the load into the mixer After setting the hopper back on its stand I add a 45-lb bag of Portland cement to the mixer and more water if necessary ” The other hopper is square at the top and funnels down to a manually-operated trap door at the bottom The hopper can hold a full mixer load of concrete “This hopper replaces my wheelbarrow and lets me position the load more closely for dumping ” says Naish “The entire system works great It takes nine mixes to make a cubic yard of concrete which I can do in about one hour “I recently used the hoppers to pour the footing for my new front porch My friend Jeannie Christian helped me and took the photos ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Richard J Naish 1873 S Nixon Camp Rd Lebanon Ohio 45036 ph 513 932-5077

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