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He Built His Own Grain Vacuum
"It works as well as any commercial grain vac on the market and lets me suck grain from almost anywhere. Best of all it cost less than $1,000 to build so I saved a lot of money," says Victor Larson, Freesoil, Mich., about his 3-wheeled, home-built grain vacuum.
The grain vac's components sit on a channel iron f
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He Built His Own Grain Vacuum GRAIN HANDLING Miscellaneous 23-5-3 "It works as well as any commercial grain vac on the market and lets me suck grain from almost anywhere. Best of all it cost less than $1,000 to build so I saved a lot of money," says Victor Larson, Freesoil, Mich., about his 3-wheeled, home-built grain vacuum.
The grain vac's components sit on a channel iron frame that mounts above the axle off an old Volvo car. Power is supplied by a 3-cyl. diesel engine mounted at one end of the frame. The engine clutch-drives the blower which is a "super charger" off a Cummins truck engine. A 4-in. dia. steel pipe leads from the blower down to a rotary valve at the bottom of the unit. Another 4-in. dia. pipe leads from the blower to the top of a big tank. A cyclone mounted on the end of a 5-in. dia. swing-out pipe is used to load grain.
To suck grain out of a bin, Larson hooks a pipe on the tank up to a pipe that mounts permanently at the bottom of the bin. Then he turns a crank to swing the cyclone out over whatever he wants to fill. He pushes a button to start the engine and engages a clutch lever to start the grain flowing. A throttle is used to control engine speed.
"I've used it for five years on wheat, oats, and corn and it hasn't been in the shop yet," says Larson. "It'll move 350 to 400 bu. per hour. I use it to fill everything from gravity wagons to grinder-mixers to semi trucks. I pull it with my pickup. One time I used it to clean up a big spill at a local grain elevator. I may install a hydraulic pump on it so I can use hydraulic motors to drive the rear wheels and make it self-propelled.
"I used a water well tank to make the big tank and a ębladder' water tank to make the cyclone. The cyclone telescopes vertically up and down 5 ft. by means of a crank, allowing me to reach over the top of a semi trailer and fill it.
"I use augers to fill my bins and have no sweep augers in them - I just go into the bins and suck the grain out."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Victor Larson, 1163 W. Townline Rd., Freesoil, Mich. 49411 (ph 616 464-5619).
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