The transfer- This is easiest when you can just park and let the combine empty his tank into your wagon. One of the biggest challenges was learning how to drive along side the combine and let him empty-on-the-go. I have a whole new respect for pilots of refueling tankers! "Too close, no no no, too far, slow down, hurry up hurry up, now ya got it, easy, easy..."
This experience REALLY made me see why Iowa farmers played such a vital role in the armed forces in WWII, they're pilots, mechanics, machinists, and engineers all at once. They coordinate their movements and constantly judge spacial relationships. These guys are all about efficacy. Red necks deserve our respect.
Hauling grain for farmers is hard in the daylight with steep hills, terraces, and mazes through the corn- but in the dark, everything is harder to judge and difficult to find. I slipped out of gear a couple of times, had to pop it into gear a few times, popped a few wheelies, started rolling down a hill and had a near miss with the combine at least once. I have a whole new respect not just for farmers and haulers, but for guys that run tractor pulls too. But most of all, I have a lot more respect for my father-in-law and how he doesn't like to keep harvesting much past dark where lots of other farmers keep going all night. It's a bear, lemme tell ya.
This maneuver is called the "double-cross." It is rare and a bad sign. It's when two combines need to unload into the same wagon. This night it happened because it took me 4 passes to line up my wagon with the auger- it was a narrow bath between bins. Meanwhile, my nephew and his cousin were having trouble with the ignition on the other tractor and couldn't back out from the other bin/auger.
Mark empties the gravity-wagon into the auger. This wagon holds 440 bushels. That's 14,080 Quarts to we laymen. 42 lbs per bushel is about average according to ask.com, Mark said this was approximately 50 lb per bushel. Either way, each wagon load is around 10 TONS of corn.
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