Pipe Bridge Transfers Liquid Manure Across Roadways

Pipe Bridge Transfers Liquid Manure Across Roadways MANURE HANDLING Equipment Thanks to Fort Equipment’s pipe bridge farmers wanting to pump their liquid manure lagoons or pits across roadways now have an overhead option rather than the usual under-road route “It’s always been an issue for farmers to get draglines to all their fields ” says Fort Equipment owner Greg Fortkamp Europe has something similar to our bridge but not to this scale ” The transport-positioned bridge features a 12-ft wheelbase but a new 8-ft 6-in wide telescopic axle option is under development for narrower roadway transport The pipe bridge lifts and lowers using hydraulics and electric power Two self-contained hydraulic power packs two batteries solar panels and a wireless remote control are used to set up take down and position the equipment “Solar panels keep the batteries charged so you never have to worry about carrying a charger ” Fortkamp says “Just pull up to your job site hit the buttons on the remote control and it goes up It takes about 70 seconds to raise and 50 seconds to take down from start to finish ” The 25-ft upper horizontal pipe reaches across most standard 24-ft roadways In the raised position a turnbuckle ensures the unit is level even when the wheels are on a slope or partly in a ditch The bridge is 20 ft tall on flat ground to accommodate 16-ft clearance regulations It maintains the minimum clearance even up to 4 ft into a ditch Fort Equipment makes an 8-in and 10-in hose model to fit about 80 percent of the manure pumping operations Hose adapters are available for farms using 6 or 12-in hoses The 8-in bridge sells for $37 800 and the 10-in retails for $40 900 Manufacturing is based in Fort Recovery and units have been sold from Colorado to Vermont and into Canada Fortkamp recommends checking with local township and county road authorities for permissions and required signoffs “I had a customer tell me the pipe bridge opened up 300 acres for them and another said it eliminated 5 miles of hose ” Fortkamp says “It’s a niche product but when you’ve got a road in the way it’s extremely useful ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Fort Equipment LLC 3216 Wabash Rd Fort Recovery Ohio 45846 ph 567-644-5927; contact@fortequip com; www fortequip com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.