Combines Truck mounted grain cart

Cart mounted on truck, that would be fine if you lived in the desert, but around here we took 4 wheel drives off carts and replaced with quad tracs to get through, so it would not work here.

Saw one this summer mounted on a fertilizer spreader with high floation tires south west of philipsburg, ks.

A neighbor of ours had one back in the late 70's and early 80's that was mounted on an old Terragator dry fertilize speader rig. It was a 3 wheel rig with the large floatation tires all the way around. They built it because they had a freshly cleared farm where rice and soybeans often had to be carted 5 miles or so to the nearest road when it was wet. I think the bed was adapted from an auger truck, with a much larger pto driven unloading auger. I don't remember how much it held, maybe 800 bushels or so, but it seemed huge given that most grain carts in use at the time were 300 bushels or less. They quit using it a good many years ago, after they roads built into the farm it just wasn't practical anymore. I seem to remember another one that was mounted on an Army 6x6 truck around here too.

I'm thinking you already have a few ideasIJ How much does it have to haulIJ There's no reason why it wont work. It is more efficient to haul weight than to tow it. I think it would depend a lot on your farms requirements. like, do you have to drive down the county or state roadIJ Will you be just on your farm, and running a short distance to the binsIJ One idea, which is somewhat dependent on how far and fast you have to travel, is a crawler carrier. Several manufacturers make them. Used they are quite affordable. I think the larger ones are rated at about a 15 ton payload. They already have a dump body on them, you would just have to extend the sides a bit. The drawback is the top speed. I think they top out around 10mph. If you want to use your current carts, but just want to get away from putting all those expensive hours on your big tractors, you could easily track an old army 6x6 and gooseneck the hitch on the cart with a king pin. Another idea would be, if the combine can make it ok in the field, buy an old wore out combine and take all the insides out and rework the bottom of the tank. Then you'd have good visibility with the operating combine and hydrstatic drive to meet his speed easily. Or just remove the whole threshing unit and integrate you cart to its frame. If you just rework the bottom of the tank and extend the vertical auger, you'd already have everything you need to unload into the trucks at the road. If they're dumb ideas, just have a good laugh on me.

I've seen one or two in farm magazines. They used old fert. tenders and spreader trucks. Wasn't too long ago either Successful FarmingIJIJ

My wife's cousin had a grain cart that he made out of an old pumper fire fighting truck the kind you see at airports actually I think it was an old foamy truck unit. I know when I watch old reruns or "Emergency" you see them out at the airports on the show sometimes. Anyways he revamped it took the water_foam tank out put in a grain hopper it would hold about 1100 bushels he put dual wheels on it for great floation it. In the summer of 2000 we worked on a harvest job south of Hays KS and it could keep up to 4 combines and the winter wheat was making right at 50 bushel an acre. It had tons of power it had a 500+ HP Cat engine it had a 6 speed automatic transmission in it and the top road speed was about 40 to 45 MPH. He had painted a nice silver to match his R72's. He had gone south harvesting but quit in 2002 he used to work in the Phillisburg KS area maybe you saw it their. After he quit harvesting he sold it off to someone. I have pictures of it but I am computer challenged don't know how to post them.

What we did was get a 500bu buggy mounted on the back of an old Big A floater fron EZ-Trail. We tweaked it a little from the way they had it plumbed. It runs really smooth across the field and doesn't leave ruts when it gets wetter in no-till fields.

My guess would be it would be a very small market, and you may have to use a CDl driver. A lot of companies do built auger boxes for trucks, but they are all about half the size you're talking about. I'm not sure but I think the liability would be different to for something that is intended for installment on a high speed truck. Plus all the width limitations. If you can only go 8 1_2' wide, you would have to build it pretty tall to get the capacity you are looking at would'nt youIJ All the corn in this area is fresh corn, but we all use dump boxes behind tractors. One reason is the stalks seem to like fuel lines and air lines on the trucks. Another reason is the inevitable wet spot that once the truck is stuck will be a bear trying to make up all that lost time. If you build one or have one built, let us know where we can view pictures of it please. Maybe on farmphoto or redpowermagazineIJ

A couple of concerns I would have with your idea. Very high center of gravity. Unless you farm very flat ground it sounds like a accident waiting to happen. The flotation tires would make it higher yet,throw in the higher speed of a truck, the suspension system and the tires squishing and hopping, a thousand bu. and a turn especially going down hill and I sure would not want to driving the thing. Braking could be a hair raising experience too. You would have too completely redo the entire braking system on any straight truck for the amount of weight you are talking about. Sorry, I don't mean to be so negative.

My father in law has a old freightliner he put a grain box on that hold 650 plus bushels and hooked a 400 bushel box behind that, the truck is legel for the weight but dot cant includ the wagan because it is hooked to the truck so he can go to the elvator and have more then a semi loadedIJIJIJ