Anybody move grain bins?

[pharmer]

I see in some classifieds there are some bins f/s to moved. 2-50,000bu and 5-25000 bu. I was wondering if anyone has had experience in buying/moving home big bins from another site to their farms?

I have read one story on the net about 1 guy who bought bins for 10cents/bu but by the time everything was up and running at the home place the cost/bu was quite a bit higher!!!

Just curious as to what anyone's thoughts/experiences are

Thanks
Pharmer

[marlands]

From what little I've seen of bin moving the most cost effective bins to move are the smaller ones, the 6,000 bu or less that can be moved pretty much whole. But then who really wants to go to the trouble for small storage space unless it's to fill a niche in an operation?

If you take one down sheet by sheet you'll need new bolts to re-erect, Several air or good battery guns, bin jacks, possibly extra insurance , and you'll need to keep track of which sheets go where in relation to strength. Any tubes from a leg to the bins? If so, you'll need a crane Unless the leg is already gone). How far are the bins from home? Have you got enough friends or family that you can count on to help or are you going to have to hire help?

If you are friendly with any local bin erectors ask them how many hours would be involved in taking down and rebuilding with whatever size crew they'd use. Or, if you know an employee of an erector could you talk them into doing it as a side-job? Even just directing you and your crew could save a bunch of headache and hassle.

[silagehauler]

I got (read forced) help with a 20,000 bushel bin move. We started by taking up the floor then took apart the rings two of 3 pieces at a time until the top two rings and the cone was left. we backed flat bed trailer underneath and let the bin down on that to move it about 3 miles down the road. The bin was about 30 ft wide, and REA came out to raise the power lines as the bin went under them. Pretty simple, just a lot of never ending work.

[GleanerKid]

This probably wont be of much help, but a while back some of my relatives received 3 5,000 bushel bins for free from a seed plant that went out of business. These bins were tall and skinny. They had a group of people who specialize in taking down bins and moving them take the bin down. The bottoms of the bins kind of looked like this.



They un-bolted them from the cement, and had a very old truck that had a large pole on it so they could take it down and put it up. They provided the trailer and we provided a tractor to pull it. We went on alot of back roads with it, and they had a simple way of raising the power lines, they had a big wooden pole that they could pick up and raise the power lines while the bin went underneath it. Once we got to where they would be moved to, the big truck with the pole on the back would raise it and and set it down.

[87jumpy]

We moved a Grain bin when i was litte...A neighbor sold his small farm and the new owner didn't want the bin...he told us we could have it for free as long as we got it out of there...we numbered every sheet and would leave 2 pieces together making things somewhat easier...we rented bin jacks from the local crew and had a generator on site for electric impact guns. We loaded the floor on one trailer, the bin on another and the roof on a third...the roof we split into about 4 pieces? i think.... we moved the bin about 3 miles to a new pad and re-erected....my cousins and i along with a bunch of neighboors (all free labor) pictched in when we put it back up and it seemed like we had it up again in notime...

[orangeandslverman]

We have moved quite a few bins in the last couple of years for friends and ourselves. Six of us can take down a 15,000 bu in one day if the floor is already taken up. We use (3)electric impact guns. We most often use manual bin jacks. If the bins are older or have rust on them take a torch with you to cut the anchor bolts off flush to the concrete. Cost wise the labor was traded. New bolts, vents, concrete, electric service and cement blocks for the floor added up to about $6,000 plus 750 bucks for a 15,000 bu bin. $6,750 isn't a bad price for a brock bin IMO.
P.S. We put it up with the same crew in three days from roof to floor

[marlands]

Yesterday I was vaccing a 36 foot bin for a guy and he commented that the bin was fixing to be moved. Thinking of this thread I asked how he was doing it. He said there's a guy in Iowa that can move bins that large. Said the guy will come in and lower the top half onto the lower half and take it down the road. Evidently it'll be low enough to not need any power lines raised plus they will try to do it when frozen this winter to make the move even simpler by going across country. He did say that every time the guy has to raise the bin to get over a bridge there was an extra charge.