CENTRAL BUTTE, Sask. – Like most farmers, Dallas Bryan finds handling his feeder house a bit of a chore when he’s got his combine in the shop for repairs.
“It’s such a hassle to take the feeder house off,” the Central Butte farmer says.
“Normally we’d block it up with an oil barrel and a railroad tie, then back the combine away from it. Then we’d have to move it around to get it perfectly centred to put it back on.”
The feeder house is usually left outside so Bryan can work on the combine inside the shop, but it will end up inside if it needs repair and will usually be in the way.
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With a small shop, Bryan said it’s difficult to move the combine around after it’s inside.
“I thought it would be easier to move the feeder house around, instead. A three-wheeled dolly was the first one I had, with a crank jack on the back. But it was a little tippy. Then I went to a four-wheeled one with a hydraulic jack on it. It’s more stable and easier to manoeuvre.”
The dolly is built from two by two steel, with 1 1/2 inch steel on the front. The side frame is two by six inch channel iron that allows forklift forks to slip into it.
Bryan said it is four feet long, with a minimum width of 32 inches, which is what a forklift is designed to spread to. A lip at the front, made from a two by four inch piece of steel mounted upward, holds the front of the feeder house solid so it can’t slip out of position.
“The back is adjustable, both to the length of the feeder house, the width and the height. You raise (the dolly arms) up into position, take the weight of it off the combine, remove the pins and roll it away.”
Bryan designed the dolly with extendable arms to adjust for different feeder house designs. They’re adjustable from 20 to 36 inches wide.
When lining up the dolly, Bryan advises putting the pads of each adjustable arm on a more stable part of the underside of the feeder house rather than on sheet metal.
“When the jack is positioned at the four foot mark at the back of the dolly, it can range from 32 inches up to 48 inches in height. But you can move the jack and the height positioner forward to get more lift. That can come forward about 18 inches,” he said.
“The way the range is, I don’t see why it wouldn’t fit every combine. I’ve used it on a lot of John Deere makes and on New Hollands. I’m sure it would fit a Case IH, as well.”
Bryan switched from a manually operated hydraulic jack to an air powered hydraulic jack.
“Instead of pumping the hydraulic lift on the jack (by hand), the air compressor does it for you. It keeps you out of the way instead of being underneath it when you’re lifting it up,” he said.
“When the feeder house is up, when you first roll (the combine) in, I usually unhook the hoses and belts before you get the dolly underneath. After that, you set it down on top of the dolly, unhook the rams and the main hinge pins, then (roll) it out of the way.
“It makes it convenient if you have repairs to perform on the feeder house. When you’re done, you can roll it away until you have to reattach it. The main thing is it’s a heck of a lot easier to take it off and on. On wheels, it gives you a lot more options to deal with it, especially if you’re in a smaller shop.”
The lift mechanism is fully removable so it can become a flat dolly.
“You can carry heavy things around on it pretty easily. We’ve used it for a differential in a half ton and as a pallet mover for chemical in the shop.”
The base price for a Bryan feeder house dolly is around $700. A fully adjustable dolly costs $800 to $900.
For more information, phone Dallas Bryan at 306-796-4427.
