Bucket Bean Dispenser For Gravity Wagons

Bucket bean dispenser for gravity wagons CROP STORAGE Handling Equipment 16-1-9 If you use your gravity wagon or grain truck to supply soybean seed for your planter, you'll like this no-spill "bean dispenser" made by Richard Layden, Hoopeston, Ill., that mounts below the grain chute and lets you easily fill two 5-gal. buckets at a time without spilling. "It's a simple, low-cost idea but it works," says Layden. "The dispensers are easy to install and easy to adjust. Most farmers who try to fill 5-gal. buckets out of their gravity wagons or grain trucks end up spilling a lot of beans, and they can fill only one bucket at a time. By the time they get back from unloading one bucket into the planter, the other bucket is full and already spilling beans onto the ground. My bean dispenser lets me fill two buckets at a time and when they're full, the seed flow automatically stops." Layden simply clamps a 6-in. wide sheet metal tray under the wagon's unloading chute. He cuts a pair of 2-in. dia. holes spaced about 2 ft. apart in the bottom of the tray, then bolts a small slide gate under each hole. Layden attaches old socks (with the bottom cut out) to the bottom of each slide gate to form flexible fill tubes. To fill the buckets he sets one under each sock, then opens the unloading chute about 2 in. and opens the slide gates. As the beans fill the buckets they also fill up the socks which causes the seed flow to automatically stop. "The buckets are usually full by the time I get back from the planter with two empty buckets," says Layden. "Once I got onto it, I found that I didn't even need to use the slide gates. I just grab onto the end of the sock, pull the bucket out, and drop the sock into the empty bucket." On gravity wagons with an unloading chute close to the ground, Layden doesn't have to use fill socks between the slide gates and buckets. "Make sure the holes are spaced far enough apart so they're centered over each bucket," saysLayden. "Someneighbors have used my dispensers to fill buckets with ground hog feed. However, the holes should be bigger, about 3 to 4 in. in dia., so feed won't cake up inside the holes once the flow stops." Layden sells the bean dispenser for about $50. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Richard Layden, RR 3, Box 67, Hoopeston, Ill. 60942 (ph 217 283-6864).

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