Farm manager gets most out of sandwagon - Sioux City Journal, September 10, 2007
LE MARS, Iowa -- Breakdowns are never penciled in on Plymouth Dairy Farms' schedule. However, Alan Feuerhelm, the farm's agronomy manager, was frustrated with the sandwagon that frequently was out of commission. Without the equipment, getting sand bedding needed for 2,400 holsteins was a problem.
"One day the hitch broke off," Feuerhelm says. "It just wasn't heavy enough to handle the weight of the sand. When I called the manufacturer, he told me he'd have somebody out here within a few days to fix it. I told him that, by then, it would be fixed like a farmer fixes things. Whenever we communicated with them, they didn't seem to understand the importance of keeping that equipment in operation."
Feuerhelm's frustration led him to query a nearby mining equipment manufacturer about the possibility of allowing him to provide input in the design of a sandwagon. Masaba Manufacturing in Vermillion, S.D., has a reputation for producing durable products designed to fit specific customer needs. Feuerhelm thought they could produce a more suitable sandwagon.
"We sat down with their engineers and pointed out places on our existing wagon that kept breaking down," Feuerhelm says. "They were very open to suggestions and had good ideas about how to improve on the model we were using. They did some research to see what was already being manufactured, and came up with a design that's heavier and performs better."
The end result of the design process Feuerhelm took part in is a 12-yard sandwagon with a heavy duty frame and hopper box. It features a 7-foot by 15-foot hopper with an adjustable gate and a hydraulic slinger lift that can be adjusted for the height and length of the throw up to 15 feet in either direction. The sandwagon is available with either a truck or tractor mount.
In the design process, Masaba considered the need for dairy farmers to make tight turns and pivot the wagon as well as the corrosive action of the sand in the slinger mechanism. Their model features a heavy duty undercarriage that will stand up under the stress of a load of wet sand. It also includes a rubberized pulley system that eliminates the issue of rusting and vibration.
"We haven't specialized in dairy in the past but we believe we've developed a high quality product," Heath Johnson, Masaba's vice president of marketing and operations said. "We'll offer all the customization options that dairy operators want."
"The only thing I might change is to make ours a little narrower," Feuerhelm says. "It just fits in our alley. We use the truck mount because it frees up our tractor for other things. We never realized how often we were waiting for that tractor until we didn't have to."
Because Masaba's model is heavier, it does carry a higher price tag. Feuerhelm said it's well worth the cost.
"They helped us work through a couple minor breakdowns with the new sandwagon," he says, "but our downtime has been much less. That was costing us time, and time is money."
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