Corn Crib - Elevator Length Question

MFan

Member
Today"s math question:

I have a center alley corn crib that is 24 feet wide, 12 foot high crib walls, and overall roof ridge height in center approximately 18 feet.

How long of an ear corn elevator, such as Kewanee 500, etc., is needed to reach in to a hatch on the roof ridge?

My main concern is elevator reach as opposed to discharge height. Being able to extend over the roof far enough to reach center hatch and avoid elevator support frame from hitting roof edge.
 
Just guessing from our 28' that hasen't been used in years I would say 50' to get the distance required from the support structor to end and without getting too steep of an angle for it to not run at full capacity. Shorter may work but not run at full capacity do to extra steep angle. The 28' at 14' high to fill a 12' high crib reaching in 3' only was too steep to run at over half capacity.
 
If the grade surrounding the crib is level with the floor :

You can use a forty foot three inch elevator raised to 26.5 degrees. This angle matches the pitch on your roof.

You can use a thirty three foot eleven inch elevator raised to 45 degrees. A seven foot chute would extend one foot into the crib.

Others please feel free to check these numbers !
 
Going out on a limb here, based on long past experience when Dad was still alive.
Like Bob says below, I drew it out to scale. Add a couple feet for "wiggle room". Comes out to 40' ( 39 + a fraction).
Quick & dirty, presuming you can remove the hatch cover from inside. Tie a long rope at the ridge. Stretch rope out to the ground so it almost touches the roof. Tie a knot to mark the spot, take the rope down & measure.
I would imagine you want the "hood" to extend through the roof so chute can be swung to side for filling ends of crib.
As to the carriage clearing the wall- IIRC, geometry of carriage usually is made to keep the wheels close to center of overall length to maintain balance, so shouldn't be a problem.
HTH
Willie
 
MFan,

I might be missing something here, but I would think that a simple right triangle calculation would work.

How tall? (That's one side of the triangle.)

How far from the middle of the crib to where you want to locate the base of the elevator? (That's a second side of the triangle.)

Then, the square of the hypotenuse (the length of the elevator) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

Might work.

Tom in TN
 
On paper a 40 foot elevator might work to reach from the ground to the roof ridge, but what a right triangle equation does not take into account is when the front support frame of the elevator truck runs into the roof edge. That was the purpose of my question. Thanks.
 
Your crib roof sounds fairly flat: 6 foot of rise over a 12 foot run. If you extend that ratio to the ground it would be 18 foot rise over a 36 foot run = 40 foot long conveyor.

Extra elevator length is nice to have if you can use it. Grain capacity is higher at flatter angles, and you can dump bales further into your barns or closer the the center of an outdoor stack. Carrying each bale five feet less distance makes a difference after 1000 bales, that's almost two miles of walking back and forth, half of it carrying a bale.
 
That is exactly why I said I think 50' in my post as most are not taking that into consideration.
 

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