Grain Bin Jacks

[KY Corn]

I am looking for a set of plans to build a set of grain bin jack so I can move bins. I will only be moving bins less than 5,000 bushel so manual jacks will be fine. Can anyone help me?

 

[loco]

Sir, since no one has answered I'll let you know how me and three others dismantled an old Butler grain bin that was ~18' diameter and 4 rings~10' tall. After spray painting numbers on the inside starting at the door (bottom ring was 1-1 through 1-6, second ring was 2-1 through 2-6 and so on till I reached the top ring, then I climed on top of the dome and numbered each section, I think mine had 24 or 26 sections. All I used were 4 farm jacks that would lift the whole grain bin from some aircraft style cables (rated at ~1600 lbs.)that I ran through holes though where two ring sheets would join, I just removed two nuts and bolts from each seam on the second ring from the ground. Lift up just enough to clear the ground and dismantle away. Once I took off a sheet, I would place 4 or 5 pallets under the next ring for safety, because the jacks will "shuffle", then 3 guys lift and 1 guy would pull 1 or 2 pallets off a stack and then we'd lower the next stack till the next ring would almost be on the gound. Repeat
the technique till the last ring, it gets lighter each time When you get to the top ring disassemble the roof all except 2 opposing sections, once those two are left undo them but be careful because that fill hole might be heavy and pinch or crush you. Once you remove the roof dissasemble the top ring and you're done. I just did this this past Christmas Break and start to finish it took us about 12 hours. Hope to build a big-old-a-frame using oilfield drill stem to put it back up after I pour my pad for it. Good Luck With Yours

 

[Heat Houser]

The manual bin jacks that I have seen were an A frame (next to the bin) and a brace leg extending back away from the bin maybe 4-5 feet. The A frame portion had a spread at the bottom of maybe 4 feet with some round pads welded to the bottom of the 2 inch pipe to prevent them from punching into the ground. A wire rope "boat winch" was attached to the bracing between the A frame legs and a pully was on a shaft at the top (Apex) of the A frame. The wire rope was run over the pully and attached via a bracket to the existing holes in the bin sheets. The winch was tightened to lift the bin. I built an A frame crane (seen on the right of the photo) and used cast iron V belt pullys for the sheaves. (You could do the same for your A frame pullys) I had to machine the pullys out a little bit to allow for clearance on the head shaft. The crane is mounted on my big round bale mover and uses bales for counterweight.
Typical bin sheets are 32 inches so your A frame should be at least double that plus 2 ft or so. You can then do two rings without re-hitching.

I have moved a 24ft 5000 bu bin using a mobile home trailer frame and a rough terrain squirt boom fork lift. We split the bin 1/2 way down and used a tire in the hole to lift the roof and two rings. We set it on the trailer, bolted the front and rear to the trailer frame and went down the road. The mobile home trailer frame had some bolt-on cross members to catch the outside bin sheets. A better description of the cross members would be perpendicular to the trailer frame and one would stick out towards the ditch side and one towards the center of the road catching the outside edges. I don't have photos of coming apart but this is one of going back together.

To pick the bottom 1/2, I made some brackets out of 4 ft pieces of light channel iron and welded four pieces of 1 1/4 inch pipe (split lengthwise) to the channel to fit into the ribs on the sheets. I then drilled holes thru the channel and the bin sheets and bolted the brackets to the sheets in four places. I used long pieces of wire rope attached to the brackets to get to the lifting hook to minimize the chance of pulling in on the sheets and collapsing the bottom half.

 

[JMS/.MN]

I"ve moved a half dozen from 1400-5500 bu. ABove 3200 bu. I used bin jacks like the other poster described, 3 legged with winches on. Split the bin half way up, split the lower half and pulled it inside, then lowered the upper half and bolted the two halves together, set on a trailer and went down the road. 3200 and below I moved intact with 2x4 up the front of the roof, over the top, and down the back side- carries wires over and beyond. You need 4-6 jacks for a 5000 bu bin. Some builders will rent them to you. If you build your own- the 3 base pads should have holes in them to drive an anchor pin into the ground. Winch mounts on a crossbeam about shoulder high.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Helped move a 24ft bin we picked the whole thing up with a skytrac set it on a trailer with 2x12s laid across halved it set the other half on another trailer move it about 5 mile and reversed the process, another time just used the skytrac to lift one ring at a time