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| does any one do they'r own repair on these
also is there aftermarket replacement chains available |
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Central Illinois | We no longer use a bottom unloader in our harvestor but when we did we got our chains from New Paris farm store in Indiana. Lasted longer and were half the price |
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northeastern Ohio | I have 6 Harvestores that I am still running. 3 Alliance, 2 Goliath, and one Hercules unloader. I do all my own service and repairs. Yes there are several aftermarket chains to choose from. I have been having good luck with the cast link chains from QPI. The UST chains are not too bad. The cheap china chains are junk. I'm not sure who is making the Harvestore chains right now, but the Jeffery chains that they were using a couple years ago were ok. Rex used to make a decent chain, but I have not used them in the last 10 years, so I don't know how their quality is currently.
The hooks seem to be more important than the chain itself. A good set of properly designed hooks will cut your unload time in half and thus reduce your chain wear substantially. The only two hook designs that have been good for me are the "Chisel" design from Harvestore (they used to be called Olympic), and the Samari hook from QPI. When you install a new set of chains and hooks into a silo, you need to check the clearance of the bottom hook. If you have too much clearance, then your arm can "ride" up on the silage and cause the arm to get stuck. If you have too little clearance, then the bottom hooks will catch on the deck plates. You can change the clearance by changing the wheel or by changing the bottom hooks. |
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Central Nebraska | I have 2 Goliath with all QPI chains and hooks. Very good chains and hooks. We just put a set on last Nov-Dec time frame. They are not that hard to work on, put together fairly simple for the most part. |
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Edgerton MN | Jay, have you had any experience with the XL unloaders? |
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northeastern Ohio | DVR,
I've looked at the XL's and they are impressive. Unfortunately, the price tag is unrealistic for me. I paid $17k for a brand new Alliance back in 2000. I was quoted $40k for the small XL and $60k for the big one last year. I could build a pretty nice bunker for $40k... And I don't trust the electronics. Of the three Alliance unloaders I currently have, the electronics only work in one of them. The other two are operated manually like the old Goliath (the parts are identical). I will simply continue to rebuild the unloaders that I have. |
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harvestor silo unloaders
