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Tractor Talk Discussion Forum

Thawing a manure spreader, any hints?

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barnrat

02-05-2007 14:11:48




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Ok took a little too long to get both barns cleaned today. Being about -5 F with -25 F wind chill. Both barn cleaners were as stubborn as could be to do their daily duties. In the process things started to freeze in the spreader. By the time I got to the field to spread, couldn't get the door to open. Whacked at it with a sledge for till I was blue and it finnaly opened. Only to reveal that the manure was frozen on the inside. I whacked at that with a bar to try to punch a hole with no luck. I have it backed in the shop with the heat on right now, which in this weather it might make 40 degrees F. This is a Gehl 1312 V-type manure spreader any thoughts or ideas that wont get the fire dept here will be appreciated.
third party image
This is how I found it this morning.

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msb

02-05-2007 18:40:25




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
Way back when in the dark ages. we put a spigot in the bottom of an old milk can, filled it with used oil and turned the oil on slowly when running the barn cleaner.Used some old oil in the floor of the spreader that kept it from freezing. That was before spreaders had endgates.We used straw to plug the beaters



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mjjjk

02-05-2007 17:24:54




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
Barnrat, that looks like you have a super 500 jamesway drive on your barncleaner, great drive as long as you grease it and keep that cover on it, good luck on the spreader



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barmrat

02-05-2007 17:28:50




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to mjjjk, 02-05-2007 17:24:54  
I've actually 2 super 500's one for each barn.



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Bill(Wis)

02-05-2007 16:55:00




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
We used to get the spreader in a closed building (machine shed-unheated), throw a tarp over it and point a torpedo heater under the tarp and let it run until thawed. Be careful, you can melt things. It's also a good way to get a tractor going. We could get the whole tractor almost too hot to touch. When you get the spreader thawed out, clean it as good as you can after each use and let it run all the way in from the field. That will cut grooves in the frozen manure to allow moving parts to function. Then, and this is very important, test the spreader just before putting anything in it on the next run.

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barnrat

02-05-2007 17:20:10




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to Bill(Wis), 02-05-2007 16:55:00  
I've used v-tank spreaders(never used a box/chain spreader) since I was 14 years old. I do know the standard procedure come winter time. Scape the sides, run the pto all the way home, leave the door open, break everything loose before you fill. Did that today only barn cleaning took so long that things froze before I could get unloaded. My shop is 2 miles from the farm so parking the spreader inside isn't an easy option. I have it in there now and the its covered, with the nipco heater blowing underneath it so we should be good. Thanks for all the tips and storys everyone.

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Robert Searcy

02-05-2007 15:32:38




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
There is no doubt the nipco will do the trick as long as you get the plywood around that thing, should be easy since it is much more rectangular than a tractor trying to trap the heat so it would flow up, the bottomm of the spreader will form the top so the heat will be force up by gravity

since the chains are on the bottom that will be the first thing to come loose.

we had everyone of those tractors running in sub zero temps within 15 minutes, i couldnt believe it!!!

it was a 150,000 btu nipco

i had never used one before, but man was I sold!!!

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Robert Searcy

02-05-2007 15:31:23




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
There is no doubt the nipco will do the trick as long as you get the plywood around that thing, should be easy since it is much more rectangular than a tractor trying to trap the heat so it would flow up, the bottomm of the spreader will form the top so the heat will be force up by gravity

since the chains are on the bottom that will be the first thing to come loose.

we had everyone of those tractors running in sub zero temps within 15 minutes, i couldnt believe it!!!

it was a 150,000 btu nipco

i had never used one before, but man was I sold!!!

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Alex-41JDb

02-05-2007 15:19:49




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
Like the plywood comment earlier you can just use a tarp, just make sure you don't melt it. Those ready heaters (or torpedo heaters) are extremely handy.



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dhermesc

02-05-2007 14:49:58




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
The picture looks similar to the time I loaded silage the night before so I could get off to school faster the next morning. Spent half the day with a pitch fork and small shovel unloading the Kelly Feed -R- Wagon and never did make it to school that day. Learned more at home about sub 0 temperatures, cold metal and high moisture feed grains and the amount of physical strength it takes to separate the two.

Short of selling it that way or waiting for spring there aint no easy way to fix it.

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Robert Searcy

02-05-2007 14:31:27




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
1) I would get the snow off the seat first
2) good luck starting that tractor let alone getting the manure to spread
3) We used a blast heater, nipco, kerosene jet engine thing and sheets of plywood around the tractors outside to create a cavity under them at a farm sale a couple weeks ago so the heat would form underneath and then be flow up by gravity, this worked perfect getting them all started outside in the zub zero temps. Doesnt take long either, it was amazing.

I bet if you had one of those or put sheets of plywood around the side of your spreader, put a heater under it, it would create heat under it where the bed chains are and loosen things up.

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barnrat

02-05-2007 15:18:05




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to Robert Searcy, 02-05-2007 14:31:27  
No problems startin that tractor. That's why its on the spreader. I dug out the old nipco heater and found out fuel/air lines have been chewed up by varmits. I'll get them fixed and try the plywoood thing tonite after chores.



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BLinWMi

02-05-2007 20:57:38




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 15:18:05  
had to many of my share of Gehl V bottom spreader headaches also. Besides the advice of setting a heater up around it, we have also run a hose up and dumped a hundred gallons of hot water on top of the load. If it is like most Gehls, the door seal won't be very tight but I would close the side door and just let the hot water trickle down around the load. But at that point there is no turning back, cuz if it freezes the added water, it will be spring till you are spreading again. Curious, it looks like a stall barn, any chance you can back it in the barn over night and the cows will help thaw it out. I was able to do that with a spreader at a farm right on Lake Michigan once, backed it in with a skid loader and adjusted the fan thermostats to warm up the barn to about 60. Also ran in a hose from the milk house to add hot water, alot of it had drained out by morning but just ran right into the gutter. And knowing how easy they snap shear bolts, better have 3 dozen of them handy. Might do well to take the drive chain off the big auger too, it will more easily start up if you can get the slinger spinning and cleaned out. If the hydraulics still work on the auger, after the hot water sinks in, you might be able to raise the auger enough to pop the whole load loose from the side. Hope ya luck, theres a lot of ways to make one of those nasty things work, just takes some farmer engineering.

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mike a. tenn.

02-05-2007 14:27:18




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to barnrat, 02-05-2007 14:11:48  
uh...wait til spring?

had a crew bury a D-9 cat in the mud one day. the idiots left it there over night. the temps dropped to below zero and the cat froze in the ground. they worked on it all the next day with a jack hammer and backhoe, only to find when they had dug out all around it, that the mud was frozen in the tracks and it wouldn't move.

two weeks later we had a thaw and finally got it going again. good luck with your spreader.

-mike

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2x4

02-05-2007 16:09:13




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 Re: Thawing a manure spreader, any hints? in reply to mike a. tenn., 02-05-2007 14:27:18  
that happened to me at the sawmill. Took slabs & built fire beside both tracks. Better not be a leaky tractor! Still took half a day to thaw. After that we drove it upon the sawdust pile & held first one lever, then other, til it buried itsself, then used scoop shovel to fill in holes. Never froze again no matter how cold. The old icehouse trick reversed.



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