Hey JD seller

notjustair · Nov 25, 2015

How's the old boy that fell down the silo (working on the unloader, was it?)? I think of him each time I have to climb a grain bin. I thought of him this morning as I have to climb the silo this weekend. Every year I hoist a 7 foot star to the top of the silo. Wife thought that woud look neat. It does. I sure do hate doing it, though. All of the doors are long gone so every other step is missing. It will be even more fun with this broken right foot.

Mike M · Nov 25, 2015

I'd say time for a new tradition. Forget that star ! Too dangerous.

JMOR · Nov 25, 2015

(quoted from post at 11:29:10 11/25/15) How's the old boy that fell down the silo (working on the unloader, was it?)? I think of him each time I have to climb a grain bin. I thought of him this morning as I have to climb the silo this weekend. Every year I hoist a 7 foot star to the top of the silo. Wife thought that woud look neat. It does. I sure do hate doing it, though. All of the doors are long gone so every other step is missing. It will be even more fun with this broken right foot.

hat wife request makes it sound like you are carrying too much life insurance. :wink:

Bruce from Can. · Nov 25, 2015

Why not go up and mount a pulley with a rope rigging , and rais and lower the star from Tera Frima ?? I have seen stars on silos, and they do look very nice, becareful .

Billy NY · Nov 25, 2015

That's risky, you need fall protection, harness, lanyard and a means to tie off safely,(not sure how you do that on a silo). 190 lb person falls 6'-0" its 32ft per second per second, that's 1000 lbs of force at 6'-0", and it compounds/doubles until you hit the ground. I've given up on climbing a 60' tree stand I used for years after a foot peg on another tree stand, put up by someone else bent off and broke, and the darned things are supposed to be good steel.

In retrospect, every year on the farm that Walmart resides on now, always had an illuminated cross on the concrete stave silo, I appreciated seeing it every year from my large kitchen window looking out from the hill, now there's a strip mall, parking lot lights and all the rest, liked the farm better!

keh · Nov 25, 2015

You are planning to climb a silo using a ladder missing a lot of steps, with a recently broken foot?? What happens when you are up there and another step decides to break? What are you thinking? I would forget that project.

KEH

JD Seller · Nov 25, 2015

Notjustair: Steve the young fellow that fell down the silo is doing pretty good for what he went through. He walks with a slight limp and had some limited movement in his one arm. For how bad he was injured he is pretty lucky. HE is purely a ground man now. The old up right silo bit the dust as soon as weather permitted it after he was injured. My middle son and him are in partner ship on cattle and crop land. There is a totally new feed setup on his farm now. It can be done mainly with equipment with much less physical labor. It was designed with the long term in mind as he expects that his injuries will bother him when he is older.

As for you climbing that silo to put up a Christmas decoration. I would skip it for this season or get some one younger/not injured to do the climbing.

retired farmer · Nov 25, 2015

You better rethink that plan and stay on the ground. Your health and well being are far more important than putting a star on top of a silo just for Christmas.

retired farmer · Nov 25, 2015

Glad to hear that he is recovering, I often wonder how he is doing.

jimg.allentown · Nov 25, 2015

A fool's errand if I ever heard of one.
Climbing a silo with every other step broken off?? And with a broken foot?? Sounds to me like you would like to be crippled for the rest of your life. You will either compound the damage to your foot or have a whole new set of injuries when you fall. Don't be a fool. Even if you were 22 years old and in perfect health, the risk is too great. The broken steps would be a deal breaker for me!!!!

caterpillar guy · Nov 25, 2015

For the risk of climbing the silo with the injured foot why not just rent a manlift to get it up there with a pulley installed then you could just pull it up from the ground each year after. The rental could possibly be deducted from taxes if you used it for some other farm things also . Sure would look better than a hospital visit. Cheaper too.

showcrop · Nov 25, 2015

I think that the rigging a pulley is a good idea, even though I know that the steps that are still there aren't going anywhere. I've often wondered though, where did all the doors go? How many different places could there be to put them? Not sayin' of course that I remember where I put them.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 25, 2015

I've read some awful stupid stuff on here but I do believe this takes the cake.

Why would anyone in their right mind climb a ladder with every other step broken? Let alone doing it with a broken foot.

I could see it if it was a desperate life or death situation but to put a star on top of a silo?

Give your head a shake man!

notjustair · Nov 25, 2015

Well boys, I do have a pulley rigged up at the top. I still climb to the top because I'm afraid that the sun and weather would deteriorate the rope that I use. I believe it is nylon, but I don't need that thing falling from there. It's probably a crazy thing to worry about. I usually get the role strung up there and then use a tractor to pull it it to the top. Then I tie it off on the silo for the season. You can see it for miles. I kind of like that part.

I go to the surgeon on Friday. I'm thinking he will probably end up putting in pins to immobilize things. Then I will really be stuck. I'm hobbling around trying to get projects done before he puts me out of commission for a good long while. It actually doesn't hurt much once I have a work boot on. Putting it on is a killer, but I am good then as long as nothing touched the end of that boot.

David G · Nov 25, 2015

Use some common sense, no way you should worry about the star.

showcrop · Nov 26, 2015

(quoted from post at 16:26:59 11/25/15)
I've read some awful stupid stuff on here but I do believe this takes the cake.

Why would anyone in their right mind climb a ladder with every other step broken? Let alone doing it with a broken foot.

I could see it if it was a desperate life or death situation but to put a star on top of a silo?

Give your head a shake man!

Hot wrench, I don't see it as that big a deal, but maybe that is because I am familiar with the "rungs" not steps, that the OP is referring to. You see, the old silos that were usually unloaded from the top had a top to bottom opening that was approx. 20 inches wide, which, as the silo was filled was blocked off with "doors" that were square, approx. 20"x20". These doors went in from the inside and were held in by a horizontal bail on the outside that doubled as a step. During filling they were added a few at a time to contain the amount of silage going in for the next several hours. During unloading they were removed more like one at a time as the level of silage came down below them. These "bails" were of course 20 inches apart, In addition to these bail steps, there were the heavy rings that run around the whole silo to hold it together. They were approx twenty inches apart and approx. one inch thick. With the doors in place you could not get even your toe on the rings, so they were NOT AVAILABLE as steps, thus you had only every other step when the silo was NEW.before the silo could be filled someone had to climb up on these rings in order to open the port on top and secure the spout of the blower. It was incidental!!!!! I find it hard to believe that anyone who is familiar and a fair amount of fitness would have a problem climbing up there on these indestructible rungs. Another factor is that these openings and rungs are usually covered by a vertical tube. At age sixty five I wouldn't have a problem climbing one of these, provided that I wasn't expected to do it very quickly.

Billy NY · Nov 26, 2015

Yes, UV light from the sun will eventually ruin nylon rope. It starts to get chalky, brittle, makes splinters and its actually really nasty to handle with bare hands. I have rejected rope on job sites I thought was questionable that used for someone in a safety harness on a swing stage scaffold way up to tie off their lanyard to.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 26, 2015

(quoted from post at 11:54:29 11/26/15)

(quoted from post at 16:26:59 11/25/15)
I've read some awful stupid stuff on here but I do believe this takes the cake.

Why would anyone in their right mind climb a ladder with every other step broken? Let alone doing it with a broken foot.

I could see it if it was a desperate life or death situation but to put a star on top of a silo?

Give your head a shake man!

Click to expand...

Hot wrench, I don't see it as that big a deal, but maybe that is because I am familiar with the "rungs" not steps, that the OP is referring to. You see, the old silos that were usually unloaded from the top had a top to bottom opening that was approx. 20 inches wide, which, as the silo was filled was blocked off with "doors" that were square, approx. 20"x20". These doors went in from the inside and were held in by a horizontal bail on the outside that doubled as a step. During filling they were added a few at a time to contain the amount of silage going in for the next several hours. During unloading they were removed more like one at a time as the level of silage came down below them. These "bails" were of course 20 inches apart, In addition to these bail steps, there were the heavy rings that run around the whole silo to hold it together. They were approx twenty inches apart and approx. one inch thick. With the doors in place you could not get even your toe on the rings, so they were NOT AVAILABLE as steps, thus you had only every other step when the silo was NEW.before the silo could be filled someone had to climb up on these rings in order to open the port on top and secure the spout of the blower. It was incidental!!!!! I find it hard to believe that anyone who is familiar and a fair amount of fitness would have a problem climbing up there on these indestructible rungs. Another factor is that these openings and rungs are usually covered by a vertical tube. At age sixty five I wouldn't have a problem climbing one of these, provided that I wasn't expected to do it very quickly.

Okay, that's a lot of good information that I didn't know, thanks.

However, the man said he has a broken foot, it would seem to me to be a fools errand to attempt this in his case, but hey, he's free to do what he chooses.

It's his life and his families problem if something should go wrong over a dumba$$ move like this.

bison · Nov 26, 2015

(quoted from post at 16:26:59 11/25/15)
I've read some awful stupid stuff on here but I do believe this takes the cake.

Why would anyone in their right mind climb a ladder with every other step broken? Let alone doing it with a broken foot.

I could see it if it was a desperate life or death situation but to put a star on top of a silo?

Give your head a shake man!

hat's what was thinking.

Hey JD seller

notjustair

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Mike M

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JMOR

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Bruce from Can.

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Billy NY

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keh

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JD Seller

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retired farmer

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retired farmer

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jimg.allentown

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caterpillar guy

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showcrop

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Anonymous-0

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notjustair

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David G

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showcrop

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Billy NY

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Anonymous-0

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bison

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