??

All right, I will bite.

I've used the flags. I've tried the marking paint. Ditto on leaving small pieces of wood down as markers. But the problem I kept running into was how many different combinations I have. I have 4-5 different wagon brands and sizes. "Generally", I try to keep the wagons hooked in tandem with the same partners throughout the harvest. Yet, invariably there will end up being some changes, and then all the marks, flags, and pieces are in the wrong place.

And even using the same wagons with their respective marks, I found it difficult to reliably get the spout placed in the sweet spot. Especially in the wee hours of the night after long days. Being close would work, But I found I would get more splash from the corn if I was off by more then a few inches.

To add to that, several of my larger wagons (Brent, Parker), have wide spouts. Being off more than a couple inches, the corn would pile up away from the intake of the auger and actually take longer to unload.

I mostly work by myself, but there are times I may have an uncle, or cousin come to help. In those instances, it was not very easy for them to get lined up reliably, without spending a lot of time backing up, or going around again to redo the approach.

Then, there is the fact that I have several different bin sites. I would have to set the marks for each bin site.

Granted, I like the KISS system. And I have four kids getting close to college age, and large land payments. So I am all about saving my $$. It took me a few years before I finally pulled the trigger on this optical system.

But, you know what? The several hundred $$ I put into it has been money well spent. I save a lot of time from getting my wagons lined up, and they are ALWAYS set right where they need to be. No climbing in & out of the tractor at 2:00AM because I can't get the back wagon set right. Nor, do I have to worry about large piles of corn on the ground because my help dumped the corn "close", but not "in" the hopper.

I'm sure you must have something on your farm which "you" feel saves you time and money......and which I, or others would likely not use on our farm.

I'm somewhat surprised at the backlash of this particular system.

 I'll say......don't knock it 'till you've tried it.

(Harvest (4) - Copy.JPG)

Harvest (4) - Copy.JPG (117KB - 201 downloads)