Load the bins the easy way....sorta

Yesterday was the day to load the batch of UAE into the rolling bins in the basement.Last summer I bought a 10ft long by 4 in diameter auger.It was used in a plastic recycling factory and looked in decent shape.After getting everything in position and plugging it in,it sat there and just made the coal hop up in the air without anything moving up the tube.It took a little while to figure out that the auger was turning opposite direction.Now what? It has a good quality 1 h.p. motor on it and the motor itself was able to be reversed by swapping T5 andT8 motor leads.The biggest problem was finding young eyes to see if there were any numbers on the wires.After that was all switched ,it worked very well. So well that it took longer to set up than it did to unload the full load out of the trailer.This thing isn't light and I know every year it will get heavier but for right now I am enjoying the heck out of it. Mike

Good for you.
Anything we can do to help make short work is a beautiful thing.

I too acquired a old used auger in the spring, 19' x 5" w/ a big old electric motor. Tube is heavy gauge galvanized steel.
Aren't we now getting sophisticated here.
I can relate to the heavy statement...I'll be using a rope and pulley affair to temporarily raise this one.

My plan is to fill a 72" tall super-sack on a raised pallet over the AA-130's auger...we'll see.

That super sack idea sounds good. Six foot high sounds like one sack would be good for a ton all by itself, Mike

congrats on saving your back!! how much coal did you move, and how long did it take? thinking of the same thing myself.

The trailer had 3500# in it and I did not time it out but my crazy guess would be about 25-30 minutes running auger time.A slowdown was caused by having to roll the various mobile bins under the delivery chute in the basement causing an auger shutdown. The auger was the "smart" part. Now I am thinking on how to refine the not so smart part of this process.One other thing to think about is dust management.I got so pleased with the trailer side that I forgot to closely monitor the basement side.My wife saw the fine layer of black and then the pressure relief went off,and the boiler wasn't even lite yet.The moral is water can put out more than one kind of fire. Mike