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Trick is in knowing how to judge remaining usable life in a piece of equipment.

Tom Bechman 1, Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

June 17, 2016

2 Min Read

You won’t find junk lying around Dan Gwin’s farm near Linden. But you will find some valuable pieces of disassembled equipment neatly stacked, waiting for the right time to be used. That includes a grain leg Gwin purchased from a facility that was being dismantled.

“First, you need to know whether you will have a use for something in the future before deciding to buy it, even if it’s cheap,” he says. In this case, Gwin has plans to install another leg. Buying a used one in good structural condition cuts the cost dramatically.

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“The biggest thing you need to keep in mind, if you’re looking at buying used equipment for a grain center, is how much useful life is left,” he emphasizes. “Is there still a lot of life left in the steel components? Or is it so rusty and worn that it’s really about used up?”

If there isn’t enough useful life left in something, Gwin leaves it sit. That applies whether he is at an auction where things are being sold piecemeal, or he is working through private channels, looking at equipment being dismantled from an existing facility.

Sometimes the best thing is to walk away, even if the price is cheap, he says. Every bargain doesn’t turn out to be a bargain. If it doesn’t fit what you envision using it for, or if there is so much wear it would either need lots of repairs now or would have a short life span once installed, passing on it might be best, he adds.

The grain leg stacked by a building near his soybean storage facility has lots of useful life, and he was able to purchase it for a very reasonable price.

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“One thing I look at on legs is the grain leg boot section,” he says. “Often they are rusted because they sit below the ground. This one was in good shape with little rust. It has lots of usable life left in it.”

The major expense Gwin will have when he puts up this leg will be in installing a belt with conveyor buckets. He may be able to salvage some conveyor buckets from the original leg, but not the belt. “They had already cut the belt in 10-foot sections,” he says. “But the leg itself was still a good deal.”

About the Author(s)

Tom Bechman 1

Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

Tom Bechman is an important cog in the Farm Progress machinery. In addition to serving as editor of Indiana Prairie Farmer, Tom is nationally known for his coverage of Midwest agronomy, conservation, no-till farming, farm management, farm safety, high-tech farming and personal property tax relief. His byline appears monthly in many of the 18 state and regional farm magazines published by Farm Progress.

"I consider it my responsibility and opportunity as a farm magazine editor to supply useful information that will help today's farm families survive and thrive," the veteran editor says.

Tom graduated from Whiteland (Ind.) High School, earned his B.S. in animal science and agricultural education from Purdue University in 1975 and an M.S. in dairy nutrition two years later. He first joined the magazine as a field editor in 1981 after four years as a vocational agriculture teacher.

Tom enjoys interacting with farm families, university specialists and industry leaders, gathering and sifting through loads of information available in agriculture today. "Whenever I find a new idea or a new thought that could either improve someone's life or their income, I consider it a personal challenge to discover how to present it in the most useful form, " he says.

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