MOST GRAIN VACS use a length of rubber hose at the end of the main steel flex hose, to make handling easier inside the bin. But when the rubber starts to wear or crack, it either is shortened to eliminate the leak, or replaced.
Gordon Muth, inventor of the Ultra Cart hose caddy (see FARMING, January 04), says shortening or throwing out the rubber hose is expensive and inconvenient. He designed a clean-up hose with rubber and steel sections, which he says is more durable and longer lasting, yet remains as flexible as a solid rubber hose.
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“There’s five pieces of steel and four pieces of rubber that alternate. It has a lock system on one end so it can clamp onto the nozzle. We can make them five, six or seven inches in diameter, with different ends on for different styles of grain vacs,” says Muth, who also farms near Sylvan Lake AB.
“Most guys have a solid eight-foot chunk of rubber hose. What happens when you’re bending and twisting is it eventually cracks. I think what a lot of guys do is just cut it and make it shorter.
“With the four pieces in this hose at 15 inches long, it goes out to about eight and a half feet when it’s all put together. Then you only have to replace sections of it when those chunks wear out.”
With replacement parts, Muth says you can always keep the clean-up hose the same length. The steel is less expensive than rubber, so he says this setup is cheaper than a solid rubber hose.
Handles on the multi-piece hose make it easy to move around the bins. Or it can attach to the Ultra Cart remote-controlled hose caddy.
“I’ve got an air valve towards the end of the hose that helps even the flow. You adjust that and you can eliminate a lot of surges,” says Muth.
“With the testing I’ve done, I’ve found that alternating has reduced the static pressure in the hose, so it doesn’t restrict the flow so much. In certain crops, my hose is quicker.”
Muth sells the multi-piece hose himself, and it is also available through REM dealers across the prairies.
“The reason I came up with a hose like that is the pricing. You only have to replace sections of the hose instead of replacing the whole hose when it wears,” he says.
“The main response I’ve had from reps is that it makes sense. Why do you need to buy a whole chunk, if you can get the flex in just by putting in little chunks of rubber hose?”
To speed cleanup, Muth has also built a wider nozzle for grain vac hoses.
“The original nozzles are mostly 22-inch, but the 32-inch nozzle makes for quicker cleanup,” he says.
The nozzle is made for a standard seven-inch hose. For smaller diameter hoses, Muth uses reducers to attach the wider nozzle.
Contact: Gordon Muth
403-887-3487
