2010 - Volume #BFS, Issue #10, Page #99
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Pooper Scooper "Super-Sizes" Loader Bucket
With 48 horse stalls to clean each day, Jim Evans needed a faster way to handle manure. His "pooper scooper" does the trick. The steel basket slides inside the loader bucket to super-size its carrying capacity. Evans and his wife operate a horse boarding and training facility and raise a herd of Boer goats. Time is at a premium.
"With the scoop in place, we can clean out the 48 stalls and 10 to 12 runs in our barns and sheds in less than two hours a day," says Evans. "It handles the equivalent of 8 to 10 times the volume of the original bucket."
Evans scoop is 6 ft. long and the height and width of his 74-in. bucket. He left just enough room for the scoop to easily slide into the bucket. The 1/8-in. steel was cut at a nearby metal shop. Evans welded the scoop together, adding two 12 by 3-in. strips of steel to the inside of the rear corners. The strips were welded in place to extend a couple of inches above the sides of the scoop. Holes drilled in the top of the straps house a 1-in. steel rod welded in place and extending out several inches on each side of the scoop.
"I cut hooks out of 1-in. steel and welded them to the top sides of the loader bucket," explains Evans. "To connect the scoop, I just hook the rod, lift the bucket and the scoop slips in place."
When not in use, Evans parks the scoop on a couple of old tractor tires. In use, it does double duty, carrying manure away from the stalls, and spreading it on nearby fields and pastures.
"It spreads evenly, and I follow up with a drag or rake or use a rototiller to mix it in with the soil," says Evans. "The hooks on the loader have come in handy for everything from picking up corral panels to pulling T-posts and stretching fencing. The whole thing cost me about $700, and it works great."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, James L Evans, New Paradigm Ranch, 2386 Vera Way, Gardnerville, Nevada 89410 (ph 775 783-9905; jlejr@isp.com).


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2010 - Volume #BFS, Issue #10