Adding electric trap openers to our grain hopper trailers is one project that recently moved from the back burner to the front.
I planned on doing it this winter but pushed the project back again when our full-time hired man left in December. A couple of weeks ago one of our truck drivers was commenting – again – about cranking the doors by hand. Since both our drivers are retired and work part-time, I decided installing the openers beats losing a driver.
We researched the market and chose what we thought was the best and easiest to install. We ordered a kit for one trailer to see how it went.
Here’s the purchase review
- Installation. I do believe the system they provided was well thought out, but the execution was lacking. The instructions were not the best. Any photos were small and in black and white. The online installation video was a different brand of trailer. Though we could get the gist of what we were supposed to do, it wasn’t all that helpful as our parts package was different. They sent a universal hardware kit, which muddied the waters a bit more. We had to make some modifications to get everything fitted up correctly. Installation occupied the better part of a day. But we got it done – maybe not the way it was intended – but it’s in place and it works.
- Performance. The openers have quite a bit of power and can put some real torque on the rack and pinion of the door.
- Adjustments. We put some paint marks on the doors to indicate to the drivers when the door is fully open or fully closed, but we plan to add an indicator to make it easier to see.
We’ll give this system a whirl and probably add a second system before harvest. Will we use the same brand? Depends. Experience tells us all systems have good and bad.