We have a A&L 650T gravity cart; 650 stands for bushel capacity and T stands for dual axle. It is a heavy beast with a fixed auger that has to be folded manually and a bottom horizontal auger and an unloading auger. Once you start to unload it you can’t stop otherwise you will leave the unloading auger full and you can’t get it turning again. There is no hydraulic flow shutoff like on more modern grain carts.

But what do you get for $1800 – that is what I paid for it 5 or 6 years ago. I wanted it so we could load it and our 425 bu Brent cart and load a semi quickly. It works well in the field as a storage wagon but requires a big tractor to pull it around, up and down hills and we never had a tractor to pull it full in the field. But the cart has its fit and we now have a beast (Case 2470 with crab steer) to pull it.

But it needs some upgrades. A couple years ago we replaced the upright auger with and new tube liner. The other auger was worn out and the tube was worn thin.

Then back in October I decided to pull the horizontal auger to check if for wear. The auger flighting was fine and had been redone sometime before we bought the auger. But with the auger out we could see the trough was wearing thinning and rusting through. So we inserted a heavy plastic liner underneath and then put the auger back in with two new hanger bearings.

But we didn’t stop there. We are custom building a roll tarp. We cover a quarter of the top with a sheet of metal. Then I took an old truck tarp and had a tarp shop make a roll tarp for the cart and order me the right hardware from Shur-Lok tarp company. We now have all the parts and need to build it.

We also can’t easily fold the upright auger because it is heavy and cumbersome. So I took photos of other similar carts where farmers had installed a hydraulic fold so we knew it could be done. I then bought a hydraulic cylinder, hoses and fittings and had a machine shop make me bands to wrap around the two portions of augers that we could attached the two ends of the hydraulic cylinder to. Now we just have to take it down to our neighbors shop and work on it. It will be nice to fold this auger so that we can put in a shed or drive it down the road.

The cart didn’t have a jack and only stand so every time we hooked it up we had to use a jack. So we welded on a heavy duty 12,000 lb truck jack. The last item is adding a quick release knuckle on the 1000 rpm PTO. Right now we have to slide the knuckle over the PTO shaft and bolt it on. I am tired of that so I want a quick release sleeve instead and we have one put on. I also added a set of warning lights for road and night travel.

So my $1800 rig that has served us well the last half dozen years will now have another $3000 to $3500 in parts and labor but I doubt it is worth $5,000.

With the upgrades and tarping, we can use the grain cart this winter without water and snow freezing in the bottom around the horizontal auger. And we no longer have to worry about rusting out the insides.