Tire Grabber Has 3-Way Action

Tire Grabber Has 3-Way Action TIRES/WHEELS Handling Darcy Goossen had an idea for a way to lift tip and rotate the big tires he used on his high clearance sprayer He built it patented it and now he is selling the Tire Grabber “It took a while from drawing it on paper cutting it out on cardboard and then finally starting on steel with a cutting torch ” says Goossen an Alberta Canada farmer “The first one was crude but we built it up from there It took a couple of years We wanted to make it strong but not clumsy ” Goossen succeeded He patterned the movements of the Tire Grabber after the way a wrist moves The telescoping arms are attached to plates mounted to the Tire Grabber’s hub The arms act in unison as they are driven by a single hydraulic cylinder As the ram extends all 3 arms extend to reach the desired diameter As the operator moves the skid steer-mounted Tire Grabber forward he retracts the ram and the 3 arms clamp down on the tire holding it securely Goossen wanted to avoid the problems he had using a pallet fork to change tires All too often as he drove forward the tire’s lower edge would bite into the ground and the tire would pitch forward “The rotation of the plates help keep all the arms even ” says Goossen “They move simultaneously and clamp the tire evenly 3 ways Once the tire is held the operator can unlock one side of the Tire Grabber and swing the tire to the other side ” Using the Tire Grabber to attach the tire to the wheel hub couldn’t be easier The operator simply drives up to the wheel hub aligns the height and then rotates the tire to match the bolt holes to the hub bolts One of Goossen’s goals with the Tire Grabber was to leave plenty of room for a worker to access the hub of the wheel He managed to do so by making the rotating hub of the Tire Grabber small At the same time it is substantial as it rides on a 3-in shaft made from 4140 steel with a 36 000-lb breaking point Everything about the 700-lb tire grabber is heavy duty The tubing the shaft sits in is 1/2-in thick material The arms can extend outward to handle an 88-in dia tire or retract to grab a 52-in tire “After we built it it was reverse engineered ” says Goossen “It was given a 3 300-lb load rating We have made our new ones even stronger and they have a 4 000-lb load rating ” The Tire Grabber is priced at $7 995 with a skid steer plate Goossen is currently working on an attachment for a forklift as well as one to mount the Tire Grabber to knuckle booms “The Tire Grabber is a lifetime investment for a farmer ” says Goossen “If you’re not a tire shop I don’t expect you will ever wear it out ” One feature that Goossen is especially proud of is the Tire Grabber’s ability to lay a tire down flat on the ground or in a stack and then later pick it up again Check out the Tire Grabber video at FARM SHOW com Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tire Grabber RR1 Ferintosh Alta Canada T0B 1M0 ph 780 678-4288 or 780 678-0808; info@thetiregrabber com; www thetiregrabber com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.