Forage wagon update.....

[Absent Minded Farmer]

After a couple weeks worth of evenings, I think the wagon is ready to use. Maybe? The whole fix up job was done with no money spent on materials except about $5 in screws. Not spending on it, because it's not worth it. Every time I thought I could reuse this that or the other board.... nope, almost too far gone. Most of the wood on there has just enough meat left to hold together. What I added was pretty much for reinforcement. The wagon also isn't straight & there isn't much on center. I'd be surprised if it was when it was new. Looks like everything was eyeballed! So I had to cast perfectionism aside & play it all where it lies. Also had to repair a few past repairs. The last on was the plywood patch on the floor. The endgate kept catching on it. Pried it up, cleaned the area & replaced it with three old license plates (Sorry.... fresh out of A&P coffee cans to cut up.)

The two short videos are essentially the same. The second has a suspense music track added. I'm learning a new editing program & that one is my first vid from it. After like.... 30 tries. Was also trying out a new camera mount with flexible legs & found a good use for my anamorphic lens for my dumbphone.

You can read more about that lens here on the information page: Sirui VD-10 Lens

That way I don't have to bore everyone with details about stuff they don't give a about anyhow.

Mike

A few before pics....

And a few after....

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

A few more....

The end gate on the "new" forage wagon came from the front of this wagon, getting outfitted with the gate from the red one next to it. The red one is in pretty poor shape. Almost worse than the one I just fixed. Might cut that one down to a barge box.

Mike

 

[NY 986]

False end gate wagons were on their way out when I was a kid during the early 1970''s. Dad had the driver in the shed for many years after when he stopped using his in favor of two self unloading wagons. The IH table blower he had had a driver offered as an option although he never bought one for it. I think they also used the false end gates for picked corn to feed into the elevator going into the crib. The neighbor to the south used false end gate wagons until 1975 when they sold their farm.

 

[used red MN]

Looking good!

 

[paul]

Still have dad’s barge box and the home made side extensions to turn it ont one of those, as well as the false front. Think I was 5 or 6 the last time we used it for silage.

Originally they used a tractor with a pto and ran through a model T transmission to Jack shaft the cable winder on the back of the wagon. Hum, I know I have that cable pipe around, but I’m not sure which corner of what shed now?

The last year my first cousin rigged up an electric motor and pulley reduction to run it so less machinery was sitting around.

Good memories from long ago. I was too little for the adults to let me be around the silo unloading much at all, but I remember helping dad set up the wagon several years.

Paul

 

[JimB2]

Dad had three of the false front forage wagons, they were slightly different as they had the winch roller at the rear and it connect to the the blower with a PTO type shaft and you had to manually pull the false front back to the front. He used them up until the late 1960s and the blower was worn out so he bought two larger self unloading wagons an a new JD forage blower. In the summer we removed the box off two of them and used them to haul small square bales.
On your wagons, is the winch driven from the PTO from the tractor?

 

[560Dennis]

️hot set up ️

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Dad had three of the false front forage wagons, they were slightly different as they had the winch roller at the rear and it connect to the the blower with a PTO type shaft and you had to manually pull the false front back to the front. He used them up until the late 1960s and the blower was worn out so he bought two larger self unloading wagons an a new JD forage blower. In the summer we removed the box off two of them and used them to haul small square bales.
On your wagons, is the winch driven from the PTO from the tractor?

Not entirely sure what drives it. It's in line with the PTO, so I'm going to guess, yes. There's a slight possibility it had a separate power unit. The wagon didn't come with either & there was no sign of them at the auction site.

The manufacture of the ratchet unit is David Bradley & was sold through either Sears or Simpson - Sears. Haven't been able to find any info on it.

Mike

 

[JimB2]

In about 1953, the first two false front forage wagons that Dad had, he bought the iron hardware from New Holland as he had bought a NH forage harvester with V4 Wisconsin engine and blower, he also bought two IH running gears. The fall before he cut pine logs and cedar logs for the boxes, he had the pine sawn and planed into one inch boards, the cedar was sawn into 8"x8"x16' sills and 4"x4"x8' cross pieces and 2"x4"x8' for uprights.
My Grandfather and I built the two wagon boxes when my Dad was doing other farm work. A few years later Dad bought a used Gehl forage box at a farm sale.
Photo below, looking at photo Dad used the forage boxes into the early 1970s but they were becoming well used.

 

[Duey C]

Sure, I remember the swinging two-door Dokken boxes at our last silo fillings.
The first silage came out as a wall, wiggling the hopper and hitting our legs like a hammer. Clean it up.
When big enough, you lift and lower the hopper.

But I had thought maybe, just maybe I had been around one these cable-operated wedge type feed wagons before. Maybe.
Recognizing the drive setup too? Nah, couldn't be.. Memory sees a guy pushing the wedge towards the front.

The tall board to hold the back door open nailed it! Yep! I've been under that! Wham goes the silage.
Was I just watching? Just how young was I when handed a 90 degree fork?

The auger feed on the earlier blower was kinda scary looking compared to a spreader chain, for a little boy.

My sisters and I spent seemingly much time in the open-top silo. Forks and a pick. I ran the pick.
I hit the cement on the wall once and felt bad. Must've been something dad said about hitting the wall.
Unlocking a square door with two levers and letting it fall down the chute as we forked the silage out...
You all know the drill.

Thank you for the memory nudge!

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Sure, I remember the swinging two-door Dokken boxes at our last silo fillings.
The first silage came out as a wall, wiggling the hopper and hitting our legs like a hammer. Clean it up.
When big enough, you lift and lower the hopper.

But I had thought maybe, just maybe I had been around one these cable-operated wedge type feed wagons before. Maybe.
Recognizing the drive setup too? Nah, couldn't be.. Memory sees a guy pushing the wedge towards the front.

The tall board to hold the back door open nailed it! Yep! I've been under that! Wham goes the silage.
Was I just watching? Just how young was I when handed a 90 degree fork?

The auger feed on the earlier blower was kinda scary looking compared to a spreader chain, for a little boy.

My sisters and I spent seemingly much time in the open-top silo. Forks and a pick. I ran the pick.
I hit the cement on the wall once and felt bad. Must've been something dad said about hitting the wall.
Unlocking a square door with two levers and letting it fall down the chute as we forked the silage out...
You all know the drill.

Thank you for the memory nudge!

Thanks for sharing your memories!

To a point, I wish I had a silo to fill. That interest dies below 32ºF. I've helped free up a few frozen unloaders & I don't even own one!

Mike

 

[Hoenes]

When we filled silo, it was still a coop type affair. Traveled from farm to farm, within the same group of farmers. Most wagons had hydraulic lifts, but ours didn't. We had end gates of the same design, but had "pull cables" attached, and had to have a dedicated "pull tractor" to drag the end gate towards the blower. PTA cables always in the way. Part one of this post, someone mentioned a chopper with a 4 cyl Wisconsin. We had a John Deer chopper, Model 64, with the same. I'll never forget the sound of the chopper when the governor kicked in, under a load. Good memories indeed.

 

[used red MN]

When we filled silo, it was still a coop type affair. Traveled from farm to farm, within the same group of farmers. Most wagons had hydraulic lifts, but ours didn't. We had end gates of the same design, but had "pull cables" attached, and had to have a dedicated "pull tractor" to drag the end gate towards the blower. PTA cables always in the way. Part one of this post, someone mentioned a chopper with a 4 cyl Wisconsin. We had a John Deer chopper, Model 64, with the same. I'll never forget the sound of the chopper when the governor kicked in, under a load. Good memories indeed.

Your wagon unload system sounds a lot like what I described in one of Absent’s earlier post on this wagon. In this linked thread see reply 7. Earlier silage wagon thread

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Meant to put this here in my wagon thread & not the chopper thread.

Doesn't pay to be in a hurry!

As quoted from the other post:

"Just updating my wagon post with a recent vid. It consists of a few pics that I've already posted here, some manual wagon unloading footage, silly music, etc.

There should be another 45 baler in the garage vid coming up for Turkey Day.

Enjoy!!"

Mike

 

[Richard Nixon]

After a couple weeks worth of evenings, I think the wagon is ready to use. Maybe? The whole fix up job was done with no money spent on materials except about $5 in screws. Not spending on it, because it's not worth it. Every time I thought I could reuse this that or the other board.... nope, almost too far gone. Most of the wood on there has just enough meat left to hold together. What I added was pretty much for reinforcement. The wagon also isn't straight & there isn't much on center. I'd be surprised if it was when it was new. Looks like everything was eyeballed! So I had to cast perfectionism aside & play it all where it lies. Also had to repair a few past repairs. The last on was the plywood patch on the floor. The endgate kept catching on it. Pried it up, cleaned the area & replaced it with three old license plates (Sorry.... fresh out of A&P coffee cans to cut up.)

The two short videos are essentially the same. The second has a suspense music track added. I'm learning a new editing program & that one is my first vid from it. After like.... 30 tries. Was also trying out a new camera mount with flexible legs & found a good use for my anamorphic lens for my dumbphone.

You can read more about that lens here on the information page: Sirui VD-10 Lens

That way I don't have to bore everyone with details about stuff they don't give a about anyhow.

Mike

A few before pics....

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And a few after....

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We used false end gates for corn silage chopping on our Wisconsin dairy farms back in the 1950s & 60s. We had our revolving pipes on the rear, however. One was on a Ford F-6 2 ton truck and the other on a chopper wagon that I built using plans from the USDA Ag Agent. It worked OK, at least it was better than pitching bundles. We had a gear reduction unit with an electric motor that could be easily attached to the pipe and then removed and attached to the next load coming up. I don't see how anyone could off load a full rack of wet corn silage by hand the way you're unloading a half full box of dry material, though. Wasn't there some other method of rotating that pipe?

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

We used false end gates for corn silage chopping on our Wisconsin dairy farms back in the 1950s & 60s. We had our revolving pipes on the rear, however. One was on a Ford F-6 2 ton truck and the other on a chopper wagon that I built using plans from the USDA Ag Agent. It worked OK, at least it was better than pitching bundles. We had a gear reduction unit with an electric motor that could be easily attached to the pipe and then removed and attached to the next load coming up. I don't see how anyone could off load a full rack of wet corn silage by hand the way you're unloading a half full box of dry material, though. Wasn't there some other method of rotating that pipe?

I think the unloader was either PTO powered or had a drive motor of some kind. The shaft on the ratchet unit is in line with the PTO on the tractor. Not sure if that's set up for a stand alone power unit or not. There was a casting inserted into the pipe I was cranking on. It is square & I would guess it accommodated a crank or an unloading motor of some type.

Still have no info on it.

Mike

 

[NY 986]

I think the unloader was either PTO powered or had a drive motor of some kind. The shaft on the ratchet unit is in line with the PTO on the tractor. Not sure if that's set up for a stand alone power unit or not. There was a casting inserted into the pipe I was cranking on. It is square & I would guess it accommodated a crank or an unloading motor of some type.

Still have no info on it.

Mike

Dad's was an electric motor driven of which the base sat on the ground. The neighbor had a similar set up. I've mentioned the blower driven units but have never seen one live. I have never heard of a PTO driven unit until now. Dad sold his to a fellow still using false end gates during the 1970's well after dad bought self-unloading wagons.