billy goat truck loader (pics)

[getoverit]

I got an idea a while back to come up with some way of getting rid of sawdust. The thing I really wanted was some sort of industrial strength vacuum cleaner to suck it up and put it in a trailer.

well,

I found such an item. It is a "Billy Goat Debris truck Loader" and comes with an 11hp Briggs IC engine. This thing is actually designed to hang on the tailgate of a pickup truck and is really designed to pick up yard waste like leaves and small sticks.

I dont care what it is designed for, it works like a champ at loading sawdust and small wood chips and small pieces of wood and blowing them into my trailer.

I had an old flatbed trailer that back in the day was used to transport our tractor and hay baler between farms. It has a 16' diamond plate bed and a single axle with no springs. It is pretty useless to me for hauling anything else, so I added some channel iron to the sides to create stake pockets, then mounted some 5' 2x4's in the stake pockets and then some 1x6's to create a side. Across the top I nailed some 1x1's  and across the front I used a piece of 3/8" plywood that my Peterson Mill came crated in. Then topped it off with an old tarp I had laying around. Mounted the billy goat onto the back of the trailer by hanging it on some 2x6's and now I have my industrial strength vacuum cleaner for sawdust. I can blow it out of the trailer by spinning the exhaust to point outward or load it by pointing the exhaust inward. I loaded a couple of feet of sawdust this afternoon in about 30 mins. Would have gone quicker but it rained a couple of days ago and the sawdust was wet. It still picks up wet sawdust.









I am going to follow Kirk Allen's lead and see if I can sell the sawdust. Who knows, I may get more for the sawdust than I did for the lumber ;D

[getoverit]

By the way... I went to a local equipment dealer and priced one of these billy goats. They wanted around $3,000 for it (including taxes).

I bought mine on ebay and got it for $399. It cost me $218 to have it delivered to florida from Dallas Tx.

[Frank_Pender]

I can't get over it, You made a great deal. 

[JimBuis]

 :D :D :D

That's bad.

[dail_h]

   GOI,
   That's almost the same as mine only bigger. I think mine is a Hahn or something,mounted on bicycvle wheels. I use a smaller trailer,but the same general idea. SURE BEATS A SHOVEL

[getoverit]

I tried the shovel and pitch fork, and trust me, this beats the heck out of both of those. Now I gotta find a sale for the sawdust ;D

[IL Bull]

Who are your prospective customers? ???
Don't use Kirk for an example,  he can sell ice to Eskimos. :D :D

[bad_boards]

there is a horse farm near here and the fella comes and pickups up all my
sawdust.
its free for him and free cleanup for me
works

[sandman2234]

What size is the impeller on that unit? Can you get a rough estimate?
   David from jax

[Part_Timer]

Ken

You the man.  I remember a month or so ago you were wondering if you'd be able to find logs and now you have so much dust you need a super vac. :D

Looks like a fine setup.

Tom

[getoverit]

;D Thanks Tom  ! I'm diving into this head first, and solving problems as they occur. Never once did it cross my mind that I would be swimming in sawdust so soon

David,
I would estimate that the impeller is around 13 to 14 inches. It has 4 blades on it and chews up most anything that it can suck up, including bits of bark and small waste pieces of wood that fall off of logs while I'm milling them. It hardly makes a grunt when a pretty good sized peice of wood goes through it.

Bull,

My best guess is horse people for selling the sawdust. I have mentioned it to a couple of horse owners and they are interested in using it for bedding. I have had one question me about using it for stabilizing a dirt road also... does anyone know if sawdust will help firm up a dirt road?

By the way, the tires are almost flat on the trailer now. I did a calculation on the amount of sawdust in the trailer as 10.6 cubic yards ... 3 feet deep, 6 feet wide, and 16 feet long..

[stumpy]

About sawdust to firm up a road. When I first started sawing, I came here for advice on sawduct disposal. As usual, I got alot of good input.  One member warned me against spreading sawdust out in the dirt yard of my log yard. Boy, was he right!!!! That stuff is fine when it's dry, but when it gets wet, it turns to mush and never dries. It eventualy breaks down and when it does, it just makes the dirt kind of soft and mushy.

[getoverit]

Thanks for the Input Stumpy ! That is axactly what I was thinking, but wasnt totally sure of it.