Many farmers can’t imagine harvesting without a grain cart, catch cart or whatever they call them in your part of the country. So, it’s not hard to understand why harvest comes to a screeching halt if a grain cart breaks down. Here are wear points to check on carts pre-season to prevent that screeching sound:
1. Engagement dogs on folding augers. Make sure the male and female components that engage the upper part of a folding auger to the lower auger are ready for another season of abuse.
2. Flighting on the vertical auger(s). The first few spirals on augers that lift grain often wear faster than the middle section. The top end of a vertical auger that has to push grain out the spout tends to wear faster than the rest of the flighting.
3. Flighting on the ends of floor augers. The ends that have to push grain into the sump for the lifting auger wear thin because they’re often working against grain pooled in the sump.
4. Axle spindles and wheel bearings. Grain cart operators riding in tractors with air-ride seats often underestimate the stress on the axles and wheel spindles of grain carts bounced across gullies, through road ditches or dropped into tile blow-outs. Any spidery threads of rust on exposed spindles suggest hairline cracks, and any “grumble” heard when a cart tire is jacked off the ground and spun by hand hint that a wheel bearing deserves careful examination.
Additional harvest prep stories from Dan Anderson:
Fix It, Even If It Ain’t Broke: 6 Wear-Points That Dull Performance of Harvest Equipment
Dull is Expensive: Maximum Combine Horsepower Comes From Sharp Edges
