In honor of the "Empire" being erected for the first time in 3 yrs just two days ago.....and this nifty new DIY section...and the countless emails I have received asking for instructions- Here it is!
The purpose of this feeder was to have a large feeder that I didnt have to drive 5 hours to fill in the off season as often as a smaller feeder. I wanted to be able to fill it without a ladder, so I went with the winch up design. The triple pulley system was incorportated to make winching it up and down a breeze!
On a DIY scale of 1 to 10 I will give this project a 7 or 8....simply because you need to be able to cut and weld thick steel. Everything else is just bolted together.
There were no plans for this project, only a napkin scetch some where in the back of my mind. If I could do it again, I would spread the legs quite a bit more.... other than that, its all good. Tpost and barbed wire have kept it up just fine!
Total project cost: about what a quality single drum winch up feeder would cost you any where!
First thing I done was gather all the stuff I would need. I actually went to a couple local metal yrds and was given the round plate of steel to use for the top and paid like 8 bucks for the three cutoffs of sqauare tubing to insert legs into. Ask around for scraps, you never know if you dont ask.
I first made the top frame for the legs and pulleys. I just eyeballed the angle and as I said above, if I could redo it, I would widen the stance a little more for sure! I dont know what angle and never figured it out...
the key to the double barrels on my project is not the welds or how they are connected but the outer frame system I made. All of the weight of the corn is on the outer angle iron frame and not at all on the banned barrels. To join the barrels I actually did weld them together a little(not easy on that thin lip) I then silicone them around the welds and put a band or lid ring around the two joined drums. I then siliconed the ring around the two drums again to keep moisture from joint area at all. Here are a few more various photos.
This photo was taken the first time I stood it up with all 24 ft of legs....they were of course cut down quite a bit later on!
filling it up is not that bad unless you are not quite as tall as I am. It holds like 15 bags of corn if I remember right. There is a funnel in the bottom drum only. It is wide open between the two drums. It winches up about like a normal single line 55 gallon winch up. Not to bad for 700-750 pounds of corn. When I first put it up in Cotulla the motor was fried after a stomy weekend...I honest to God think it got hit by lightning! A red light on top may be required around certain air spaces
The purpose of this feeder was to have a large feeder that I didnt have to drive 5 hours to fill in the off season as often as a smaller feeder. I wanted to be able to fill it without a ladder, so I went with the winch up design. The triple pulley system was incorportated to make winching it up and down a breeze!
On a DIY scale of 1 to 10 I will give this project a 7 or 8....simply because you need to be able to cut and weld thick steel. Everything else is just bolted together.
There were no plans for this project, only a napkin scetch some where in the back of my mind. If I could do it again, I would spread the legs quite a bit more.... other than that, its all good. Tpost and barbed wire have kept it up just fine!
Total project cost: about what a quality single drum winch up feeder would cost you any where!
First thing I done was gather all the stuff I would need. I actually went to a couple local metal yrds and was given the round plate of steel to use for the top and paid like 8 bucks for the three cutoffs of sqauare tubing to insert legs into. Ask around for scraps, you never know if you dont ask.
I first made the top frame for the legs and pulleys. I just eyeballed the angle and as I said above, if I could redo it, I would widen the stance a little more for sure! I dont know what angle and never figured it out...
the key to the double barrels on my project is not the welds or how they are connected but the outer frame system I made. All of the weight of the corn is on the outer angle iron frame and not at all on the banned barrels. To join the barrels I actually did weld them together a little(not easy on that thin lip) I then silicone them around the welds and put a band or lid ring around the two joined drums. I then siliconed the ring around the two drums again to keep moisture from joint area at all. Here are a few more various photos.
This photo was taken the first time I stood it up with all 24 ft of legs....they were of course cut down quite a bit later on!
filling it up is not that bad unless you are not quite as tall as I am. It holds like 15 bags of corn if I remember right. There is a funnel in the bottom drum only. It is wide open between the two drums. It winches up about like a normal single line 55 gallon winch up. Not to bad for 700-750 pounds of corn. When I first put it up in Cotulla the motor was fried after a stomy weekend...I honest to God think it got hit by lightning! A red light on top may be required around certain air spaces
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