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Rebuilt Silage Bagger Fitted With Own Engine
Jim Brown, Oto, Iowa, converted a pto-driven Eberhardt silage bagger into an engine-powered unit that allows him to unload directly out of rear-unloading trucks.
The silage bagger was originally designed to be loaded only from the side by front-unloading silage wagons. Brown used the original machine for a number of years before deciding to convert it for use with dump boxes.
He kept the rotor and tunnel from the bagger and added parts from a Bearcat grain mixer and Winnebago motor home, as well as the engine off an International combine. The 220 cu. in., 6-cyl. gas engine belt-drives the bagger's rotor which packs the silage. Brown made a new 8-ft. wide, 10-ft. long feed table that's operated by an orbit motor off the reel of an old Massey combine. The feed table can be hydraulically raised or lowered.
The bagger still has the original hydraulically-powered cable rewind system that determines compaction pressure of feed in-side the bag. The cable is connected to a "backstop" at the end of the bag and to a brake drum on the machine. Brown uses a truck to load the bagger.
"It does everything a commercial model will do yet cost only a fraction as much to complete," says Brown. "I paid $9,000 for the original bagger and spent $5,000 to convert it. A new bagger like this of comparable capacity would cost much more. I built it because I wanted to use a truck instead of self-unloading forage wagons, which have many moving parts and require much maintenance. Trucks are also easier to back up.
"Whenever I build something I have a contest with my kids and offer them a reward for whoever comes up with the best name. I call it my Silomaster 8200 because it makes 8-ft. dia., 200-ft. long bags. I used it last fall to fill four 200-ft. long bags. Altogether it has filled more than 50 bags for me. The feed table has a metal bottom with sides made from rubber belting. I used chains and sprockets to gear the feed table down so that it doesn't run too fast."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jim Brown, 3821 280th St., Oto, Iowa 51044 (ph 712 827-4155).


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1998 - Volume #22, Issue #1