Central Illinois | Thud - 11/3/2014 20:23
No idea on how many total bushels you a moving but I'm gonna say that your assumption that semis are more expensive to run then straight trucks is wrong. You have to think in cost per bushel moved . A semi will haul 2x the grain as a straight truck. It will get poorer mileage BUT gallons per 1000bu hauled will be lower, fewer drivers required, less maintenance lower insurance etc when figured on a per bushel hauled basis
Depends on where you are, I asked about this in a thread specific to Illinois and for our needs, 60,000 corn a year and 20,000 beans a year with 30 mile round trip to elevator two single axle straight trucks and 440 brent wagon is by far the cheapest option for Illinois, but we are a state dominated by Chicago so farmer exception laws are minimal so semi licenses are insanely pricey. One truck and wagon sits at the end of the field while the other is going to the elevator, almost the moment the driver gets back the other truck is ready to go in corn and usually about a 30 minute wait when in beans (I would like to step up to a 35 foot head, currently run a 20 on our new to us this year 9760). We can get about 800 bushels on a load and between the trucks, and wagons we only have about 30,000 total value with a minimal licensing fee due to the single axle truck. We do have an old Killbros 475 but its tires are looking bad and the value to replace them is worth more than the wagon so it will likely be scrapped in a couple years. We use it some, but mostly only place it at the end of long row fields to allow us to empty a few bushels each pass to get us back to the other end of the field, never dump on go as we would really need another worker. |
Semi Vs. Grain truck Vs. Cart opinions
