Side Dump Box Works Great For Silage

Side Dump Box Works Great For Silage TRUCKS Accessories 1-5-13 If you store silage in a trench or bunker silo, you'll be interested in side dump boxes which can be opened or closed automatically right from the driver's seat. "They've caught on fast in Colorado and other states for filling horizontal silos," says Mel Brown, president of Mobile Farm Supply, which has just introduced a new electric controlled, hydraulically operated sideboard latch. With it, the driver never has to leave the cab to close or unlatch the sideboard. "There are very few rear dump trucks used in pit silos in this area," explains Brown. "Most farmers prefer to drive through the silo because it helps pack the silage. Rear-dump trucks are more apt to tip and, in general, more inconvenient. At the large Monfort feedlots, for example, they put up several thousand acres of corn into pits using 16 to 20 cutters and 80 to 100 side dump trucks. We work very close with them as they use a mechanical latch on their own side dump trucks that we make and sell." Brown, who every year puts about 600 acres of corn into his own silage pit, has found that a side-dump truck equipped with automatic opening and closing gains a minute and a half every load over rear-dump trucks: "Drivers don't have to stop. After they dump the load, they keep right on going and close the sideboard while on the move. With the automatic latch, you can use women or others capable of driving a truck but not able to wrestle with heavy, manually-operated sideboards." To operate the latches and hoist, you first pull the lever to raise the bed. The small 2 in. cylinder controlling the sideboard has less resistance than the large hoist that raises the bed so the hydraulic latch operates before the bed starts to raise, allowing the sideboard to drop and swing freely. The manual control sells for $456; the electric, hydraulically operated control for $584. "Both systems are being marketed in a do-it-yourself package the average farmer can install in about four hours of shop time," says Brown. Most of his new sideboard latching systems have gone on Freeman side-dump boxes but will fit other makes, he points out. Brown's company also offers automatic end gate latches, either mechanical or hydraulic, for rear dump trucks. For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mel Brown, Mobile Farm Supply, Box 580, Johnstown, Colo. 80534 (ph. 303 667-8988).

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