Old Chopper Rebuilt Into A Fuel Tank Cleaner

Old Chopper Rebuilt Into A Fuel Tank Cleaner Robert Bauer has spent the better part of 40 years developing his wildly inventive ideas into useful devices for his shop and around his Hastings, Minn., farm. One of his latest creations may be his most unusual yet. “Cleaning residue and rust from tractor gas or fuel tanks was always a real pain until I came up with my tractor-powered tank cleaner,” Bauer says. His rig may be one of the most unusual ideas he or any other FARM SHOW inventor has ever come up with. “I bought a broken down old two-row Gehl chopper for $300 at an auction and started making an irrigation hose reel collector on it,” Bauer says. “Then I saw a couple of reels for sale on Craigslist and bought them both for $200 apiece. My half-built idea sat there unfinished until a lightbulb came on one day,” Bauer says. “I thought to myself, I bet that thing can be used to clean tanks.” His cleaner has a 6-ft. dia. reel mounted on 12-in. channel iron brackets attached to the chopper’s chassis. He had a blacksmith bend pipe for the outside of the reel and used pipe to make the spokes. The chopper’s old cutterhead drum forms the reel’s center, with bearings on each end of the shaft. “To rotate the reel, I connected a few sprockets and chains to an old TMR gearbox,” Bauer says. “That slowed the drive speed; then I added a 2-ft. dia. chain wheel on the side of the hose reel.” The chopper’s PTO shaft, hooked to his Super C tractor, drives the whole apparatus. The gearbox has an on/off lever, and an old foot brake from a Deere B tractor keeps the reel from moving when it’s stopped. To clean a tank, Bauer sets and secures it on a plywood platform inside the reel. He uses old disc blades on the opposite side as counterweights to keep the reel from jerking as it moves. If he’s cleaning a larger tank, he can add more blades. Bauer says, “After a tank is secure, I put a couple of gallons of cleaner in it along with 20 or 30 nuts and bolts, then let ‘er roll. An hour or so later, I shut ‘er down, put the brake on, and drain the liquid. I get the nuts and bolts out with a magnet.” The result is a tank that’s perfectly clean on the inside. Speaking from experience, Bauer says, “If anyone else tries this, I’d advise them never to use rocks because some tanks have a lip on the filler spout, and you can’t get them out.” Bauer says, “The cleaner reel is probably way overbuilt using the heavy-duty chopper frame, but reconfiguring a few things put that $300 investment to good use. It works exactly as I imagined and didn’t take long to build.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Bauer, 10162 160th St. E., Hastings, Minn. 55033.

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