Grain augers are used to carry grain and crop materials from near the ground to the top of a grain bin so that the grain or other crop material can be discharged from the end of the auger into the bin. Grain augers typically have an long tubular auger body with an intake end and a discharge end, the crop material enters the auger through the intake end where fighting inside the auger rotates and carries the crop material up the inside of the auger body to be discharged out of the auger at the discharge end of the auger. Typically, a pair of ground wheels are used to support and move the auger and the ground wheels are connected to the auger body by a framework.
Previously, when grain augers were relatively small because the bins to be loaded with the crop material were also relatively small, an operator would simply lift up the discharge end of the auger body, which would typically rest on the ground surface, and manually push the auger using the wheels to move the auger relatively small distances, such as from one grain bin that has been filled to an adjacent empty grain bin. However, as grain bins have gotten bigger, augers have too. Most augers these days are much larger than the first augers and they are too big and heavy for a person to simply lift the discharge end of the auger body off of the ground and push the auger around using its wheels.
To allow these newer, larger and heavier augers to be moved, these augers often have driven ground wheels to move the auger and also some sort of steering system to allow an operator to steer the moving auger in a desired direction. However, these present systems can be complicated to operate and may not be as maneuverable or easy to operate as an operator might want.
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