Giant Manure Spreader

Giant Manure Spreader MANURE HANDLING Equipment 21-1-18 "It has a capacity of about 25 tons," says Randy Kudrna, Manning, N. Dak., about the giant manure spreader he built with help from his father Edward and brothers Russell and Gary. "We can spend more time loading and spreading and less time driving back and forth. We use it to haul manure and straw up to a mile away and spread it on some highly erodible land that requires winter cover. "We built it because the commercial spreaders we were renting were constantly breaking down and didn't have enough capacity. We spent only about $3,000 to build it. We feel it paid for itself in less than two years." The Kudrnas use a Versatile 875 4-WD tractor to pull the spreader. The tractor isn't equipped with a pto so they mounted a 4-cyl. gas engine on the hitch that's used to shaft-drive the beaters. An orbit motor is used to operate a 4-speed transmission coupled to a truck rear end that's used to chain-drive the floor chain. All controls are in the tractor cab. They started with the frame of a 40-ft. semi trailer with tandem axles which they bought from a local farmer. They cut 20 ft. off the front and built new steel sides, then welded steel I-beams (salvaged from an old bridge) onto the frame to reinforce it. More I-beams were used to build the hitch. The orbit motor that drives the floor chain operates off tractor hydraulics. The 4-speed transmission mounts under the floor and is direct-coupled to the 2-ton truck rear end. A shaft coming out each side of the rear end is used to chain-drive the floor chain. Chain speed and direction are controlled by the transmission, and its speed is controlled by a flow control valve in the tractor cab. A lever on the transmission is used to change gears. The engine (salvaged from an old swather) belt-drives a right angle gearbox on front of the spreader. A steel shaft leads from the gearbox to another gearbox at the back which shaft-drives the bottom beater. The top beater is chain-driven off the bottom beater. "One nice feature is that if a big pile of wet, heavy manure falls down on the beaters and kills the engine, we can reverse the floor and pull the load away from the beaters until they can work the manure out," says Kudrna. "The only time we change gears on the transmission is when we're hauling dry straw and want to unload it fast. We use a 6-volt battery to electronically start the engine right from the cab. We can also operate the throttle and choke from the cab. A hydraulic cylinder mounted next to the engine is used to engage the belt. Gauges connected to a pressure relief valve show how much pressure is applied to the belt which lets us keep it at just the right tension. "We built the beaters from scratch using steel pipe for the shafts and sucker rod for the teeth on the top beater. We used sheet metal to make the flighting on the bottom beater. The beaters are part of a one-piece steel frame that can be removed with two bolts, allowing us to dump manure into low spots without spreading it." A door at the front of the spreader provides access to the back side of the engine. A wooden pole is bolted onto the top at each side of the spreader. "If the poles get damaged by the loader bucket they can easily be replaced," notes Kudrna. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Randy E. Kudrna, HC 1, Box 98, Manning, N. Dak. 58642 (ph 701 573-4342).

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