Huge Manure Tank Wagon Carries Low Price Tag

Huge Manure Tank Wagon Carries Low Price Tag MANURE HANDLING Equipment 6-5-7 A home-made 5,000 gal. manure tank wagon helps Iowa hog producer Leon Teske, of Eldora, empty his 500,000 gal. above-ground liquid manure Slurry-store holding tank "in about three days if I get an early start". The huge tanker, which cost Leon $2,700 to build, is larger than anything he and his brother Marvin could find factory-made, and theirs cost much less than the biggest commercial tank wagon they could find. It held 4,200 gal. and cost $12,000, according to Leon. His brother Marvin helped design and build the low cost tanker. The Teskes bought the used fuel tank, made of 1/4 in. steel, already mounted on an old 2 ton truck chassis. The chassis was equipped with an earth-mover axle with wheels, and old but adequate tires. The wagon is two-wheel, and a lot of its weight rests on the tractor drawbar which, along with the 2-ft.-wide tires, prevents soil compaction from the payload weight of 50,000 lbs. Leon told FARM SHOW that he's now installing a set of five knives on the rear of the tank at a cost of $3,200: "It'll slow me down from a spreading speed of ten minutes to about five." He can fill in 4 1/2 min., using the storage tank's pump, and now unloads at 6 mph. The home-made tank wagon has been used three years. A 175 hp. row-crop tractor does the pulling, and supplies the hydraulics to pump out the tank. Leon says he did get the tank and tractor stuck in mud once, but simply let out about a fourth of the load and drove away. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Leon Teske, Rt. 1, Eldora, Ia. 50627 (ph 515 858-5989).

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