Super-Sized Spreader Carries 45 Tons Of Manure

Super-Sized Spreader Carries 45 Tons Of Manure MANURE HANDLING Equipment Texas farmer and custom operator Arno Gunnewick is all about big highly-productive ideas His latest is a 40-ft long manure spreader that he and his crew built The 10-gauge reinforced steel sides resemble those on an open-top railroad hopper car Its undercarriage is made of thick beams taken from a worn-out step-deck semi-trailer The rear end rides on the trailer’s tandem axles that they widened and rebuilt to mount 48 x 31 high flotation tires The trailer’s gooseneck-style hitch mounts to a receiver on a 4-WD 8144 Terra Gator that originally carried a large bulk tank for dry fertilizer Gunnewick has used Terra Gator power units for 6 years to haul silage in his custom harvesting operation “We’ve had nearly 20 of these over the years and they work great ” Gunnewick says “They’ve got plenty of power they’re comfortable to drive and capable of road travel at nearly 40 mph ” Operators don’t need a CDL to drive them as they do with a truck or semi-tractor The Terra Gator’s hydraulics power the spreader’s apron and its giant vertical discharge beaters They bought those from a spreader dealer and modified them to fit the back of the box The completed super spreader can haul 40 to 45 tons in one load “The idea behind this is to replace the loads and trips from four or five spreader trucks with two of these super spreaders ” Gunnewick says “With the gooseneck rather than a drawbar hitch we don’t need to use high horsepower tractors with a bunch of electronics we don’t need Big tractors can be a lot more expensive to operate ” Gunnewick says he’ll use the second spreader behind a Case IH 4520 applicator power unit and figures the two rigs will save his business thousands of dollars a year in operating costs Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Arno Gunnewick txharvester@gmail com

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