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14 inch Meridian or 16 inch FK or other large auger

53K views 132 replies 36 participants last post by  Jester RM 
#1 · (Edited)
We are considering a larger swing auger. Our Meridian dealer told me that the 14 inch is not available yet. He also said there is no pricing out on them, yet I see one advertised in the paper. Meridian claims 14 - 15000 bushels per hour. I am sure I read somewhere that FK claims 20,000 bu/hr with their 16". We still use a number of old smaller bins ( the 5200 bushel yellow top Westeels). Will a 16" spout fit in these bins? Although I haven't actually timed our 13" my guess is that it is able to move its claimed 7000 by/hr. How fast are these bigger augers? What kind of price tag?
 
#2 ·
I bought a 16"X 84 FK this fall, light kit, hydraulic mover $27000. As far as capacity I can't say its double a 13" but it's close if it isn't. It's 1000 shaft but we never ran the tractor over 1700rpm so never really pushed it to the max. We also have some old smaller bins and it will fit in the hole but it's snug so you gotta be bang on. But very doable. I thought we would use the 13" more than we did but once I started using this 16 we didn't use the 13".
The downside to this auger is the hydraulic mover. Mostly because they need to mount the wheels lower for more hopper clearance. As stated in previous threads I much prefer the 12v electric movers vs the hydraulic. They tried to keep the hopper clearance but never thought about ruts. Overall I still think it's the best bang for the buck. A lot heavier auger than a 13"FK.
 
#10 ·
What I meant was a spout WITHOUT the alarm feature.
I have no use for that.
I thought you drove the combine??? A big bin with a sight glass is all that's required, I don't like filling past the eaves anyway. Maybe if all you filled was hopper bins it would be handy but for me it is an unnecessary thing that would have to be installed and maintained.:(

My local Coop dealer has a 1495 sitting on the lot, I think for $45,000! They look like a fantastic auger but we own a FK 16104 and it does the job. We broke it in high moisture corn but otherwise its been great with wheat/barley/oats/canola/soybeans.
I think there may be 2, was by there today. Is that the one with the swing that telescopes? Funny how the American guy can buy Canadian equipment for a fraction of the price we do. Oh wait.......there would be a patronage allocation on that.:rolleyes:
 
#12 ·
I think there may be 2, was by there today. Is that the one with the swing that telescopes? Funny how the American guy can buy Canadian equipment for a fraction of the price we do. Oh wait.......there would be a patronage allocation on that.:rolleyes:
No its the normal one, the Ag manager at my local Coop ordered it in for my neighbour but he decided against it so it went on the lot. The 2nd one is a 12" i believe.
 
#8 ·
Purchased a 1495 Meridan this year in June and was suppose to be in by July 31... But didn't actually come till middle of September. Paid 31k with hyd winch, bucket spout and electric mover. Someone at meridian CLAIMED 15,000 bu/hr. I don't think they will make 15k... We ran our 1495 meridian at 800 pto Rpms and fill the swing till its full. And got around 10,000 bu/hr. This was in corn and setup to a 42ft 8ring bin ( 35k bu and 44ft tall?). Could get more with full rpm and prolly more yet if you started removing tins in the swing away. We didn't cause auger wasn't limiting factor and worried about shear pins if over loaded. Not to steer you away from meridian they have been very good to work with and auger looks excellent. 8345r doesn't even know the auger is there.... 4850 turning higher hp can barely hear motor work when auger is full. Corn 16-19 moisture. 150hp tractor may run it in dry grain but would work. Also 1495 don't come with extendable axles as advertised... Learned that after delivered. Overall meridian seems to be very heavy built. The swing away is low clearance and does also get hung up on ruts...and that 16in swing away is heavy to get moving again. If you got lots of money to burn or want/need max capacity look at a Westfield 16 in. Unload into a Westfield 16125 at local elevator...timed it from time truck in front of me pulled away to time I pulled away...5 min i unloaded 1200 bu. and I don't think they were even pushing auger to its max.
 
#9 ·
We are considering a larger swing auger. Our Meridian dealer told me that the 14 inch is not available yet. He also said there is no pricing out on them, yet I see one advertised in the paper.
My local Coop dealer has a 1495 sitting on the lot, I think for $45,000! They look like a fantastic auger but we own a FK 16104 and it does the job. We broke it in high moisture corn but otherwise its been great with wheat/barley/oats/canola/soybeans.
 
#31 ·
27 and some change $300 to be exact, plus the tire tax of which I'm never smart enough to remember to get them to eat that while making the deal. Plus I picked it up in Emerald Park which is 45min away. It was a September deal so not a great time to buy. I think the Brandt 1390hp was $32000. I haven't broken my buying blue rule yet but I was close. If your gonna buy an auger winter would be better dealing than August. Thats my bold prediction for 2015:D
 
#20 ·
So let's say a guy has one of these fancy never spill spouts on his new 16" auger, running the auger wide open and full, is there enough time to get the auger cleaned out and shut down before things come spewing out of the eves?

I guess the lower the spout in the bin the more leeway a guy has.
 
#24 ·
One thing I find is that a brandt 90 ft auger goes down about 2 or 3 ft in the bin when full compared to empty. So I have to lift it out to top off bin but then when you shut the grain off it goes up above bin and can spill out. Maybe I should tighten the cable but the tube already curves up a little when empty.
 
#40 ·
I see I wasn't the only one that dug into the formulas ( I cheated, I used an online plug in the numbers computer sheet ) the other day and it had me scratching my head also, how it is possible to double capacity. One item that would make a little difference although I don't happen to know the diameter of the drive shaft/tube in the center of the flighting but that area would have to be subtracted in each case to be fair.

Another unknown is the flighting pitch or put another way, how far in distance the grain is moved per revolution of the auger as that has a lot to do with auger capacity.

Finally its the auger speed, but typically the larger the auger flighting, the slower the speed.

But it all comes down to what Don pointed out, all sorts of equations can be formulated in percentage but the only true way of telling is by testing the units with a specific grain type and bushel weight and elevation height to know the truth. I would expect there are strange things in how grain flows, how full the flighting within a pitch of the flighting will fill with grain and make use of that volume of the tube. Probably nearly impossible to figure out on a piece of paper.
 
#46 ·
all sorts of equations can be formulated in percentage but the only true way of telling is by testing the units with a specific grain type and bushel weight and elevation height to know the truth. I would expect there are strange things in how grain flows, how full the flighting within a pitch of the flighting will fill with grain and make use of that volume of the tube. Probably nearly impossible to figure out on a piece of paper.
In addition to testing in normal grain and canola PAMI used to run something they called "standard density material" through, kinda like small fertilizer prills made of plastic and not subject to breakdown, great way to compare augers!

I know what some are thinking, excellent, if I ever happen to auger little plastic balls, but it was done for the same reason the NTTL test tractors are run on concrete, you have to standardize conditions and eliminate as many variables as possible.:)
 
#41 ·
There is more to it than just the labelled diameter of the tube. The way the swing, and in particular the tray, feeds the main auger makes a difference too. That is why the Meridian augers are so fast and maybe why the 16" FK is so fast??? Might be marketing hype too.:rolleyes: I would tend to believe a farmer over what I read in a brochure...

I found out that my Meridian 12" and my Brandt 13" aren't much different in diameter at all and aren't far apart on performance either.
 
#42 ·
Was at local dealer on Friday, bs-ing salesman. We priced out a Brandt 1685 just for fun. With hyd mover(extra $2k for electric mover), but no spout or light kit, list price was around $51k. I had no intention of buying so you can make your own assumptions where a cash price would be.

I thought we would never see the day when we bought a $20k auger, but I do have to say it has almost replaced a truck driver just with the 13" we have.
 
#43 ·
We use to pull our JD 7721 combine with a 160 HP tractor and thought we were doing something; now we need 175 HP on our grain auger. Farm King says 150 HP on their 16" and claims 20,000 bu/hr and Westfield says a minimum of 175 HP and 23000 bu/hr. It would be nice to hear some real world numbers.
 
#47 · (Edited)
If you are looking to save minutes when you pull up to the auger, some remote tractor controls make a big difference. We seldom use the radio remotes, but the momentary toggle switch on an extension arm over the unloader to have the throttle close to the truck is excellent. The switch for the PTO is not momentary.

We use one for the throttle and one for the PTO. They are just electric servos pinned on the levers in the cab on an older tractor and the engine is usually left running.

We found a 150 engine HP tractor to be insufficient on a 16x105 with a televeyor option.

280 HP running at about 2/3's speed has more capacity than you dare use.

The Televeyor had to be converted to mechanical drive, and you need a camera for the spout to position it in a bin in a timely manner.
 
#44 ·
Yes, who would have thought that this large a tractor horsepower would ever have been required to run an auger, perhaps not quite this large as in the video but a narrow tracked machine certainly would be nice due to its narrow width.



As was pointed out about the capacity of the short swing auger/hopper/boot assembly, that certainly can make a huge difference between augers in what an auger can move. An example I have although two different auger brands is the 13" westfield with the low profile hopper and the 13" Farm King also with low profile hopper. There is a marked difference in the volume of grain that the Farm King can move, both timing it and noting the amount the slide on the trailer can be opened and even though its a shorter auger at 70' vs the Westfield 91' , it takes quite a bit more power showing its grain moving ability. I believe the bottle neck on the Westfield is that low profile hopper with two very small flightings as they can't seem to feed the auger to capacity.
 
#48 ·
The electric movers are essential to speed. Unless you want to keep your tractor running all the time which I'm not willing to do with my current harvesting capacity. I lied in another thread a while back when I said my trips to the truck and tractor would not increase with the hydraulic mover. They did. The mover is an essential part of the whole deal. They seem way overpriced but the add on Rodono extend auger in this situation might be a real time saver. If it can buy some time it might pay for itself.
 
#49 ·
I put a spray test remote start on my auger tractor for my Buhler 1684 auger and have wireless remote for the swing. Works excellent and gives the tractor a little more warm up and cool down time than the electric swing.

Auger was $25,000 as compared to Brandt 13" auger at $34,000. Really like the auger. Only problem is some trailers have the hoppers too close to the landing gear and it won't hit the center of the swing auger and reduces capacity. Very good auger for the price.
 
#51 ·
Yeah I thought I heard the spray test guys quit making their remote starters. They were great guys to deal with. We had problems the first year with ours and they came out during harvest to figure things out during a rainy spell.
 
#56 ·
We have a NH t7040 which is rated at 180 pto hp. I would think that should handle a Farm King 1684? I am about ready to make a deal on one. I am thinking I will buy the hydraulic version and either add the electric over hydraulic remote control ($1300) or swap for the Hopper Walker on our current 1370.
 
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