Building a grain bin. A slideshow of pictures from the outside, and a video of the bin jacks lifting the bin on the inside. Wall Grain has been distributing bins since 1984. Here, one of our bin crews putting up bin from our line of Westeel products.
I have had many e-mail requests from people all over the U.S. On how to dismantle a used grain bin in order to move it to a new site. Here is the step-by-step tutorial I've promised you all. I do not consider this article done; it needs some tweaking. But I've done my best to make it clear and intelligable enough to work from, and if you have further questions or remarks, the Comments section is open at the bottom. By the way, my husband and live in Colorado, and usually do not work out of area. So we are generally unavailable to help you move your own grain bins.
I do not know other contractors out of our area who do this kind of work. Weather can easily make or break your grain-bin moving day. The slightest breeze can turn a bin hung from a crane into a wrecking ball.or a mashed up piece of trash.
A slight shift in a bin, hung six inches from the ground, can cut off a foot or crush steel-toed boots right into your toes. Therefore, we recommend that you use extreme caution when deciding whether this is the day to get your bin moved. If you should start disassembly, and the breeze comes up, the safest thing to do is to set the bin firmly on the ground, put the crane or boom truck arm on top of it, and drive 4' metal fence posts into the ground at intervals close around it.
How many you'll need and how deep to drive them depends on the size of the bin, and on how soft your ground is (or isn't). This will hopefully keep your bin from blowing away (and maybe taking your boom truck with it), until you can return when the weather is nicer.
Besides all this, you should consider humidity. A grain bin is shaped much like a water bottle, and acts much like one, with condensation forming easily, and water vapor finding it hard to exit. Even fairly dry weather outside can mean a sweltering atmosphere inside a bin. If you are doing your bin-moving project in the summer, we recommend trying to work in the early morning(s) as much as you can, before the sun hits the bin full-force. There is such a thing as a 'professional' lifting ring. But they seem to be scarce, so unless you care to weld your own, you're probably out of luck. Most often we use an old semi-tractor wheel with the tire still attached.
On the semi wheel, we used a round plate that is placed under the wheel and is of a size that it cannot fit through the center hole of the wheel. On that, we have welded a large-diameter rod in a semi-cirle, to which we attach the boomtruck hook. You can also make a lifting ring out of a large-diameter spoked iron wheel. Just wrap a length of log chain around it where it will stay level on its own, and be easy to hook up. See illustration, here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-Not-to-Move-a-Grain-Bin.
It takes two experienced people only about 20 minutes to dissassemble a ring on an 18' diameter grain bin. If you use your head about stacking sheets, you can use a tractor or forklift to load them onto a trailer, in the order needed to re-assemble. About hardware: Do not try to re-use the hardware! The water-resistant washers on the bolts may not be good anymore. Bolts and nuts are cheap compaired to a bin full of wheat or other grain - or a leaky cottage, if you plan to use the bin for a residence. Trash the used nuts too, as they are frequently rusty and a bit rounded. Disassembly of grain bin roofs can be tricky.
Some common-sense precautions must be observed. Let's start with scaffolding. Scaffolding is recommended if the diameter of your bin is more than 18 feet (6 meters). You will want to figure out the height at which to set your scaffolding before you get it in place.
It is a good idea to put in the scaffolding as soon in the disassembly process as possible, as it will normally fit through the door of the bin, but not through the roof manhole. Next, even if you don't need scaffolding to work safely, place a ladder inside the bin before starting disassembly, for a potential escape route through the roof manhole, should you need to stop bin disassembly unexpectedly (weather comes up, etc.) Lastly, once you start removing pieces of a grain bin roof, it becomes extremely unstable. The roof as a whole is relatively strong - but as soon as you take it to bits it's nothing but some pieces of easily crumpled, easily bent metal.
For this reason, it is important to work in a specific pattern while removing roof sheets. You will remove the sheets in opposite pairs, to maintain the integrity and balance of the roof as long as possible. When you get down to just a few sheets, it is extremely helpful to have a third, strong person, even if you have managed the rest of the bin with just two workers. First, assess the hardware and accessories. If there are support irons bolted and/or hanging from the bottom of the roof sheets - i.e.
Under the roof ladder - remove the hardware and support irons in a manner that won't give you injuries. Next, leaving the top (collar) and bottom bolts intact, remove the rest of the bolts and nuts from the roof. From the top side, using an electric impact wrench, you should be able to reach about three roof sheets at a time. After all bolts except for the top and bottom have been removed, the person on the ground removes the bottom bolts from a sheet (do ladder sheet first). Then, the person on the ladder removes the top bolt and assists in sliding the roof sheet down.
Do this in a pattern of 12:00, then 6:00, then 3:00, then 9:00, until there are only 4 or so sheets left. You must remove the sheets in opposites, so the roof doesn't collapse. Use extreme caution on the last four or five, using a stepladder or scaffolding as a platform. You will need a moderate amount of strength and leverage in order to safely handle these last sheets.
We have been asked what kind of trailer we use most for grain bin moving, especially when we don't completely disassemble a bin. It is basically an iron framework.and it is too big to be legal in most areas, being 16' wide. Be aware that, on any interstate, you cannot legally move anything over 8'2' inches wide without over-wide permits. But - if you have completely disassembled your bin, as shown in this article, this shouldn't generally be a problem. We have hauled bins larger than the one shown in a pickup box trailer. However, be sure your trailer and towing vehicle can handle the weight and size of your bin. Check width restrictions on the highway(s) along which you will be moving.
Check your State's agricultural equipment highway laws, too. It is perfectly legal in many states to pull practically anything down the road with a tractor, or with a truck that has 'Farm' plates on it. If your State is this way, you won't need overwide permits, provided you can use farm equipment or a truck with farm plates.
Fin: As I have said in an earlier post you don't have to disassemble them from the bottom up. You can use scaffolding on the inside and good ladders on the outside and take em down from the top. Not sure if you want to go the trouble but it does work as we took down and reassembled an 18'D and a 21'D 6 ring each high this way. Works best to have about 3 people doing each panel and lower and raise them with 2 ropes attached to quick release clamps. Gets less scary the lower you get. Just be careful up top. Thanks for the offer, but we are not interested in traveling to dismantle bins.
The price will be influenced by what size of bin you have, and possibly site restrictions. For example, what is the diameter and height in rings of this bin, and is it a clear site, with crane/boomtruck accessibility? I do not know of anyone in your area who builds or deals with grain bins, but if you look through the comments section here, you are likely to find a phone number for such. Also check the Comments section on my How to Move a Grain Bin article.
Zach, If you buy the bin for $.20 a bushel, pay $.30 a bushel for a complete tear down, transport on a trailer, then pay $.30 a bushel for re-erection.this would probably be justifiable.if it's not a rust bucket. That means you're paying $.80 a bushel for the procedure. It is a lot of $, but not as much as a new bin. Hubby does not want the job. Contact RPM (under Grain Bin Construction in your Yellow pp.). They are in the Grand Island area, are competitively priced, and have all the equipment. There are a number of grain bin companies in the G.I.
Area, for new construction, as well. Many of these are listed in my Finding Bins article.
Ken Koester (sp.) also does great work. He's near Elsie or Madrid. We have worked personally with him. I had his phone # ready for you, but part of my message was deleted initially, so I will have to look it back up, if you are interested. I don't have it at hand, as it's in my husband's cell phone. Last I knew, Ken's # wasn't in the regular book, but that may have changed.
Hard to say how long it took to raise one bin cause it was done in 3 different segments. Getting several people together is the key to safely putting up the higher sheets. We had 3 on the outside on ladders and 3 on the inside on scaffolding.
Also another really helpful piece was taking the time to pour a 12' wide foundation ring. We have 2 bins that will be connected to each other by a 20' long solarium so it took a bit to get the foundation forms all level but is so worth it to have a nice flat surface to start on. I drilled holes in it afterward and put 8 - 5/8' bolts down around the inside with a hand made steel plate 3'w x 4' long to hold down the lip of the bin. One for each sheet. Haven't gotten the roof pieces up yet but will let the young guys handle that though I want to make a 2 x 4 brace that sits on top of the scaffold to hold the center ring in place before connecting the roof pieces.
Also plan on laying some heavy plastic around the outside of the bin before covering with sand as there is just no overhang on the roof to direct water away from the foundation. I will try to post some pictures soon. Well we got our 2 bins disassembled (18'D & 20'D) from the top down without any special equipment or even air.
Put C clamps on each end of each sheet and lowered them with ropes. The bolts pretty much all came out with a socket mounted to some cordless drills. Everyone was right on the weight not being much. Maybe around 40lbs each sheet. Any double axel trailer would have carried both the 18' and 20' diameter bins easily. We finally got the bigger one put up from the ground up 6 rings high equals 16'.
Used the same C clamps and ropes to lift each sheet and just put enough bolts in to keep going to the next sheet. Now to finish off putting in a 1000 more bolts and closing in the roof. The round shape seems pretty good in the wind so far.
Just hope I have enough anchor bolts holding it down until we can frame up the inside and back fill a couple of feet on the windward side. Kristin, Due to the fragility of the roof panels when separated from each other, there is no safe or logical way to dismantle the roof first, that high up in the air, and work down from top ring to bottom ring. The strength of the roof is rather great when it is whole, but it can be delicate when taken to bits.especially half-way through the dismantling process. (Just like with a stone arch.it's hard to break when all together, but if you start taking stones out, you wind up with a mess in a hurry.) Either a crane or boom truck, or grain bin jacks, need to be available for safe dismantling of a grain bin. I hope this helps, and you're welcome for the info in the articles.
I must confess, grain bins hold a certain fascination for me. I remember how I loved to try to walk around Dad's bins on the bit of foundation (it was pretty narrow), and I always thought it was so neat to be there when Dad opened the doors to get the bins ready for harvest. However, I must agree with No Body - I would run screaming from a trailer full of bin parts that needed to be assembled, and the thought of the disassembly leaves me just as cold.
An interesting hub, though; I admire those who can and will work with such a process. For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: Show Details Necessary HubPages Device ID This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. Login This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
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