Truck-Mount Fiberglass Manure Spreader Tank

Truck-Mount Fiberglass Manure Spreader Tank MANURE HANDLING Equipment 13-6-36 "My truck-mounted spreader unloads more than twice as fast as a conventional round `honey wagon' spreader and can be hauled at road speeds of 40 to 50 mph. And yet it costs only about half as much," says Jim Off, inventor of the new On "Quik Spred." The spreader is a 3,400-gal. fiberglass tank measuring 16 ft. 3 in. long, 7 ft. 6 in. wide, and 6 ft. high. It mounts on the bed of any tandem axle truck or it'll slide right inside a truck box. Nylon binder straps secure the tank to the truck bed. The top of the tank is equipped with a large 4 by 4-ft. fill hopper. A linear actuator activated by a toggle switch in the cab raises a rear discharge gate that unloads manure across the full width of the tank. On, who farms near Apple Creek, Ohio, built the tank because he needed a faster way to spread liquid manure on his 250-cow dairy farm. "Traveling at 10 to 15 mph in the field you can unload the entire tank in 1 min. Going 6.2 miles round trip, I've hauled loads round trip every 10 min. I had been using tractor-pulled spreaders, but they were so slow that I ended up hauling manure late into the fall when weather and field conditions were less than ideal. Last fall we used a pair of Quik-Spreds to haul more than 1,000 loads, applying manure at a rate of 10,000 gal. per acre. We spread 3,800,000 gal. of manure in just two weeks. Faster hauling and faster spreading means you can haul when the fields are ready so there's less chance of runoff. And hauling manure at road speed makes travel to distant fields more economical. When we used a tractor and spreader we didn't want to take the time to go to distant fields so some of the fields closer to home got too much manure." Off says most farm trucks are well-designed for hauling large loads of manure. "Brake systems on trucks are heavier than on most tractors. Using a truck for road use also gives you the advantages of having the proper lighting for legal road use. And in the off-season you can remove the tank and use the truck for other hauling jobs. You can switch from hauling silage to hauling manure in 15 min. because of the unique nylon strap mounting system," says Orr. Steel tubing reinforces the tank's sides and bottom. The tank contains two inside baffles which are corrugated for better strength and load control. All bolts and hinges inside the tank are stainless steel. Everything else exposed to manure is fiber-glass so the tank's not affected by the corrosive effects of manure. Orr built his own 2,250-gal. overhead fill tank which is designed to fill his spreader from a 20-in. wide valve. "It takes only 55 sec. to fill the spreader. I simply reach out the truck cab window and pull a lever on a hydraulic pump to open the valve," notes Orr. He mounts the tank on the truck with an overhead chain hoist and a skid steer loader. "Two front-end loaders could also be used to lift the tank onto the truck," he notes. Sells for $5,000. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jim Orr, 9354 LautenschlagerRd., Apple Creek, Ohio44606 (ph 216698-1802) or Monarch Plastic Inc., 516 Jefferson Ave., Orrville, Ohio 44667 (ph 216 683-0822).

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