Going to buy a new swingaway, as all I can find used is worn out junk. We wanted one for several years and now with me being on my own its almost a necessity so I dont have to unhook every wagon when i pull 2-3 wagons at a time.Have been pricing Mayrath and Westfield 8 inchers. This is Mayrath country here, but a few westfields are starting to show up.
I also thought I wanted corn screens altho some have told me they make as much damage as they create. Westfield does offer the screens in an 8 inch, Mayrath must be purchased thru parts and welded in. I do not want or need a 10 inch, my spreaders wont handle it and I am not really in that big of a hurry. There isnt much price difference between the two.Also, I dont know why anyone would price something that heavy and -new- on used car tires, but thats another story entirely.
Until this year my last 4 augers were Westfields. Last year bought a new 10'x 71' Westfield swingaway & had nothing but problems with it. It would shear the shear bolts like they were going out of style, wasn't unusual to shear 3-4 on one truck load (semi) and would even shear bolts when empty. Dealer couldn't find anything wrong and claimed it was us - feeding too fast, spreaders too small, corn to wet, blah blah blah, but never the auger. I asked him then why our other 10'x71 Westfield swingaway that we had been using to fill the same bins for 6-7 years very seldom sheared a bolt but he had no explantion for that.I posted about the problems on another forum & someone e-mailed me what the problem was. Seems the company had welded in the gearbox on the swing auger in off center & that caused the flighting to drag in turn shearing bolts. Seems they did this on several augers.
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I told the dealer what the problem was & he contacted his district man who denied there was a problem. Dealer finally put a new swing suger on & that solved the problem.I traded for a new Farm King swig away this year. We haven't used it yet but it looks a lot heavier built & more farmer friendly than the Westfield. For instance, on a Westfield when you move the hopper to the opposite side you have to unpin it's lift crank & move it to the other side, then you have to remove two pins from the cable support arm, move it to the other side & replace the pins. On the FK the crank remains in the same position & on the cable support arm you remove one pin, ppivot it the opposite way & replace pin. No big deal but it saves several minutes work that you have to go thru with the Westfields.As for the used tires. Every auger I have ever purchased came on used tires.
WE pull some of our augers close to 15 miles one way to different bin sites and have yet to blow a tire out. A 10'x71' swingaway will way quite a bit less than a car or p.u. Quess I have never seen a reason to pay the extra for new tires. JM2¢FWIW, I traded a Grain King swinaway auger in on the Westfield swingaway I bought last year. IIRC, Grain King was built by the co that built Cardinal augers.
That Grain King ran a lot smoother than any of my Westfields ever did & the hopper didn't thro out near the amount of grain that the Westfields do. Boog, You forgot the part where that dealer that helped you out got his ass reamed by the head office.lol.I like the westfield we have sold them for 30 years. Good augers they just had some problems last year. But they didnt handle it right trust me.later,WillWill.
I sent Jason a PM telling him 'the rest of the story' I didn't want to mention names in order 'to protect the innocent' Also told him I e-mailed the company & let them know what I thought of what they did & that they had lost a long time customer. Do I doubt if losing me as a customer worried them too much. Probably never even read my e-mail. The best auger we have ever owned is an 8x60' Feterl that has a hydraulic drive swing hopper, that poor auger probably has a million and a half bushels through it now and keeps going even though the tube has been duct taped in a few places where it's worn through.
We've been new flighting in it once along with new bearings and the hopper in the swing auger is on it's third set of flighting but the hydraulic drive swing hopper eliminates two gear boxes and alot of headaches. The problem is the gear boxes that drive the swing hoppers are made in China and all the brands use the same exact boxes, if I bought a new auger I'd pull the gear boxes out and replace the bearings and seals with American made parts and that would probably double the life of the boxes.
If you are considering a Westfield a Wheatheart might be another option. We took on the Wheatheart line this year and like them better than the Westfield. They are the same tubes and swings but use the Batco scissor under carriage. If you look how a Westfield raises it uses an upsidedown 'A' that expands. The scissor expands from back at the undercarriage a goes strait up. Brandt uses a similar design. They allow a bit more fudge room with a shorter auger/taller bin allowing you to get closer without the A frame hitting the side of the bin.
There also built much better. There's no cost difference around here either.To comment on Cliff's deal with the gear boxes I did mention it would be nice to go to USA gear boxes on them to the block man. They are not hard to get to but some things just would be better that way. I also asked if he has heard about Boogs auger. There was thought that maybe a flighting got bent before installation or got put in backwards. Had a westfield,and you couldn t keep a shearpin in it,then we bought a farmking,it was built alot heavier,but was crudely built,but didnt give any trouble,last year we bought a brant,thing built heavy,and works excellent,runs alot smother than the farmking didSomething I didn't learn until selling the line is that the westfield/wheatheart use a special bolt. If you use a bolt out of the bin it has threads where it should have a shoulder.
That said before I bought my 8X61 westfield I tried an older one that was like a $2500 auger. It sheared bolts like crazy. I told him to come get it. I wonder if that bottom section gets wore and they start doing that? I bought a year old auger that had very little run through it for about $800 less than new. It's been one of the best things I have bought.
The FArm King actually has two shear pins in the drive shaft but of course if one snaps it usually breaks the other one right away too. I wonder if some of these breaking shear pin problems might relate to misalignment or wrong dimensions on the power shaft. The manual gives the recommended distance between the end of the tractor pto shaft and the auger shaft, can't recall the figures for mine now but I know tractors can vary in drawbar length and height. If the pto shaft is running at too extreme angles it could cause shear pin breakage I think.The hitch lenth is adjustable on my Farm King. Haven't broken a shear pin lately.
I also asked if he has heard about Boogs auger. There was thought that maybe a flighting got bent before installation or got put in backwards.Sorry Aaron but your rep has no idea what he's talking about. No flighting was bent or put in backwards, as I stated previously the gear box mounting brakets in the swing auger were welded in wrong. Even my dealer damitted such after I finally convinced him there was a proble. I'm not the only one that had problems with augers purchased last year. Go back and read the other replies, there's a dealer that even said 'good augers they just had some problems last year.
But they didnt handle it right trust me.' Plus, if you recall, when I osted on the other forum there were several farmers that replied that they were having the same problems plus I had several e-mails from others saying they were having simiiliar problems.Even with the problems I had I might have considered another Westfield auger this year except for how the company handled things. Reaming out the other dealer for telling us what the problem was the icing on the cake. If that's how they operate I don't want anything to do with them.As for the special bolts, I bought 35-40 of them last year when we were having problems. I came across them last week when cleaning up the shop, have 2 left.
All were used in the auger I bought last year, never sheared a bolt in the other Westfield 10'x71 swingaway. I also asked if he has heard about Boogs auger. There was thought that maybe a flighting got bent before installation or got put in backwards.Sorry Aaron but your rep has no idea what he's talking about. No flighting was bent or put in backwards, as I stated previously the gear box mounting brakets in the swing auger were welded in wrong. Even my dealer damitted such after I finally convinced him there was a proble. I'm not the only one that had problems with augers purchased last year.
Go back and read the other replies, there's a dealer that even said 'good augers they just had some problems last year. But they didnt handle it right trust me.' Plus, if you recall, when I osted on the other forum there were several farmers that replied that they were having the same problems plus I had several e-mails from others saying they were having simiiliar problems.Even with the problems I had I might have considered another Westfield auger this year except for how the company handled things. Reaming out the other dealer for telling us what the problem was the icing on the cake. If that's how they operate I don't want anything to do with them.As for the special bolts, I bought 35-40 of them last year when we were having problems.
I came across them last week when cleaning up the shop, have 2 left. All were used in the auger I bought last year, never sheared a bolt in the other Westfield 10'x71 swingawayHe does not know what he is talking about since he didn't know about your auger.
Since they come out of Springfield, IL whether West/Wht. There might have been conversation about it. He did mention since we assemble our own augers that he has seen flighting bent because of handling and yes you can put it in backwards. He confirmed this.
I asked him because I wanted to avoid a situation like yours. I bend over backwards to anyone I sell something to and having the answers when something is wrong to me is invaluable. Didn't realize that you weren't the only one having a problem. To my satisfaction our rep has done everything to keep us happy and is very knowledgeable. I don't ever expect a similar situation. At least I wouldn't let it go that far. With our business we would have a new auger to the guy and worry about the old one later not 30 or 40 more shear bolts.that is BS.
We do business like that. That's just me.