Elevator...Story

[proessler]

All the elevator talk reminds me when...Summer 1966? HS or there about. Preparing to bale & mow oat straw, we had to open small mow door on end of barn to back upper end of Kelly-Ryan 40' bale & ear corn elevator into mow.I got the job to climb up to the end of the elevator & open mow door... all the while Mr. Grady (my employer) was operating the elevator crank (that had no locking dog to stop free wheelin' the crank). Whoever was on the tractor (a IH Farmall) rolled it ahead pulling the elevator away from the end of the barn, Mr Grady let go of the crank handle & elevator freewheeled all the way down to a crash on the ground. With Me still on upper end holding on for my life. I survived unharmed & don't remember the following conversation or words. But the Kelly-Ryan had a few extra wrinkles that fortunately didn't adversely affect its operation.

How's my etiquette Charlie ?

 

[kmcconaughey]

Paul, when I was younger I would help my cousins bale hay for fun. They lived on the farm next to my parent's 80 acre hobby farm. As soon as I heard the squeaking of the elevator I'd be headed out to help. One time back when I was about 13 or 14 I was helping my cousin Elmer unload a wagon of hay. We had just started on it and I was handing bales down to him and he would place them on the elevator. As I was handing down a bale my hands slipped to the end of the bale where they got pinched in the twine. Elmer grabbed the strings from the bottom side and flipped the bale onto the elevator with me following going head over heals. I landed on my back on the elevator. Thankfully I landed with my butt between the paddles and the small of my back just barely touched the paddle. It could have been very bad!

After setting aside for a few minutes I was back on the wagon helping out again. With nothing hurt except my pride.

Another time working for the neighboring farmer that had the Cub Cadet 72 that I mentioned on the main forum page, we were cranking the elevator up to the hay loft door. It was a long way up and the elevator had to be cranked at quite a steep angle to reach the door. Just as we were nearly there we heard a creaking sound. We were standing on the frame as the crank handle was to high to reach from the ground. We looked at each other instinctively knowing what was about to happen we bailed off and ran for safety as the upper portion of the elevator broke at the upper point of the running gear "scissor". We rebuilt it one section shorter. I believe the tin had worn thin from the paddles wearing on the surface of the elevator making it a bit weak. After that it was even steeper!

Sadly that old barn was damaged in a storm a few years back and later torn down.