Silage Conveyor Built From Corn Picker

Silage Conveyor Built From Corn Picker COMBINES Corn Pickers(13) 16-4-9 "Three years ago we switched from storing corn silage in bunker silos to a silage bagger. However, the bagger was intended for use with rear-unload wagons and we had side-unload wagons. Conventional silage conveyors are too small to handle the volume of silage from a side-unload wagon so I built this high-capacity, bagger-mounted conveyor from an old New Idea 1-row corn picker," says Randall Morrison, Nahunta, Ga. The conveyor is powered by an 8 hp Honda gas engine that belt-drives a drive shaft. Morrison built the frame of the conveyor using 4-in. angle iron, plywood for the bottom, and wooden sides. The conveyor chain, flights, sprockets, and idlers were taken from the corn picker. The conveyor attaches to the silage bagger by means of a steel arm mounted midway under the conveyor. It pivots on the arm and can be moved back and forth on a rubber tire mounted under the hopper end of the conveyor. "It cost less than $200 to build including the engine which came off an old portable cement mixer," says Morrison. "It has saved us a lot of money because side-unload wagons can be purchased much cheaper than rear-unload wagons. When I built it three years ago I already had two side-unload wagons and since then I've purchased two more. Total cost for the four used side-unload wagons was less than the cost for one new dump-type wagon." Morrison notes that the gas engine could easily be replaced by a hydraulic motor powered by the tractor's hydraulic system. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Randall R. Morrison, Rt. 1, Box 215-B, Nahunta, Ga. 31553 (ph 912,462-6911).

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