Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

farmermatt,.. i feel your pain with the 6 inch auger! one of the farmers i pull corn for has one with a bad belt on the drive motor every year,i just take me an extra 31 inch v belt and a good shovel when i haul for him,last year it took a tad under 2 hours to load,but he's a good freind,so we chat between scooping and i don't schedule anything else that day.

 

We've got several old bins with 6 inch pull augurs. We usually set a buggy under them and leave em running. Load the trucks off the buggy and never move if there's room. Otherwise get close and bring the buggy over and load. Much quicker that way. It's nice to have that buggy sitting there loaded when you get back. Much quicker turnaround. Somebody does have to be there to watch it is the only downside.

 

Ya guys think I could teach one of them pups to drive the truck. That would be a real good thing! West of Hutch where 50 and 61 split I seen a milo field getting finished up today.

My day started off with the gal at Hutch Salt yelling at me. Made the mistake of going into the office at 4:55. She had the door locked, but seen me walk in the entrance foyer. She jumped up, walked over to the door, and started tapping the glass real hard with her finger (glad it wasn't my chest) "WE DONT OPEN TILL" 5 she snarled at me. The day just went down hill from there LOL...

Not sure how the crossfires are doing yet, only had them on for a day now, and I need to add air to two of the four sets. Guys at the tires shop said they are very much a hassle. Them guys was saying they always leak where the valve stems connect. We shall see... I paid them $20 to put them on for me. We mounted them to the axle center bolts, and not the lug nuts. I was glad to see the center caps still worked with them mounted there.

 

When I got home, dad told me about something funny that happened to him today. When he was leaving Beardstown empty with his tarp open, going down the street there was a power line with two squirrels on it, both running towards each other. He drove under it about the time they met in the middle. Didn't think any more about it, when he got back to the field he walked to the back of the trailer and heard a scratching noise in the back hopper. And you guessed it, there was a squirrel in the back hopper trying to claw his way out, but couldn't get anything to grab ahold of! Dad was a nice guy and opened the door so he could go free. The city squirrel became a country squirrel.

The other funny thing that happened today, I pulled up behind another hopper also leaving Beardstown, and boy, it was as dirty as mine is. A Wilson, had mudflap weights on it like ours, "Hmm, that sort of looks like..." About that time, it turned the corner, and sure enough it was dad. They're so dirty from running on gravel when it was sloppy that our name on the back is completely unreadable. We have wiped all the lights clean however...pet peeve of mine. That was also dad's squirrel trip, although neither of us knew it at the moment.

Wow Kansas, 5 minutes early and you get a talking to! Nice start to the day. I've never owned any of the crossfires, I've seen a few of them though. If they leak at the valve stems, I wonder if you could take them loose and try putting some thread sealer on them? Or did the tire place try that? I think that would be just a plain threaded fitting, not a compression fitting? If they leak it kinda defeats the whole purpose.

 

kansas,..sorry bought your day. i been looking at getting crossfires,but i think i'll wait and see how you like e'm first.i have heard good and bad on e'm

 

the crossfires are a little bit of a hassle when changing tires,but unless you are changing them every week or two the difference in time checking the air in them will make up for the aggravation. when you put the lines on the valve stems get you a wrench & make sure it is on good & tight. you shouldn't have any problems then.if the guy's at your tire shop are like the ones at mine, they're not happy unless they have something ro b!tch about.

 

RW,.. thatis funny,if the other squirrel had jumped into your hopper,ya'll could have sold movie rights to disney. ditto on the dirty lights,plus i hate dusty guages in the cab,i'm always taking my thumb and wiping e'm off